Foreword

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12297
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Author: Clifford W. Cobb

Foreword

By Clifford W. Cobb, Editor-in-ChiEf

This is the first of several issues of this journal that will be devoted

to some aspect of Catholic social thought. Charles Clark, a profes-

sor of economics at St. John’s University in New York, is the guest

editor.

Introduction

The central theme in this issue is the problem of social exclusion and

the efforts by Catholic thinkers, particularly Pope Francis, to discover

remedies to it. Social exclusion refers to all of the formal and informal

rules and practices that deprive individuals and groups of power by

preventing them from fully participating in society. Social exclusion

can range from overt violence in the form of slavery, conquest, and

unjust imprisonment, to the denial of human rights based on race or

gender, to various limits on opportunity that cumulatively amount to

structural violence. The most important economic method of social

exclusion is the use of property rights to deny people the chance to

participate fully in society. The Catholic Church favors private prop-

erty but within limits imposed by prudence and justice.

Social inclusion, by contrast, consists of all the rules and practices

that strive to transform unilateral power into processes of exchange

that create a more balanced or equal power dynamic. The call for so-

cial inclusion is not based on egalitarianism or any similar claim that

everyone should share benefits evenly, without regard to contribution.

It does not propose to override social norms that demand reciproc-

ity. Its only claim is that every human being and every social group

deserves the opportunity to participate fully in society. Rules, norms,

and practices that restrict that capacity, through poverty or unjust dis-

crimination or stigma, violate human rights at the most fundamental

level. Some restrictions are indirect and invisible to the majority of the

members of a society, but those restrictions are just as damaging as

more overt forms of discrimination, hostility, or indifference.

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 78, No. 4 (September, 2019).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12297

© 2019 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.