Creating a more palatable form of capitalism is the new political battleground. David Cameron and Ed Miliband are locked in an arm wrestle to get there first. In the blue corner (well a sort of roseate) we have Dave's creative capitalism, popular capitalism, moral capitalism or just plain old responsible capitalism and in the red corner (or maybe a bit lilac) … well much the same actually not even a hint of a new Das Capital! Can they really create an alternative to free market capitalism? Of course not, we are too bound up with the capitalist system. What is more realistic is a Gok Wan makeover.
Could the social enterprise movement play Gok? It's possible. What we seem to want is a fairer economy? Could we help reshape the capitalism debate within our experience of the values based market economy? Our political and economic system has historically separated values from the market; in simple terms the left focusing more on social values, while conservatives making the management of the economy and the market more their field. Governments tend to tinker around the edges of issues, reluctant to step up to lead change and the debate gets stuck inside the old ideological boundaries. There is no longer room for this. Can we help weave the two together and be successful?
We all agree that we need a system that meets the fast widening divide between the rich and poor head on. The St Paul's Camp although no longer newsworthy remains a quiet reminder that no one is happy with the politicians, bankers, businesses and press which failed to stop us falling into the dire economic failure of deficit and debt, a stagnant Europe, a failing Eurozone and high unemployment. Gillian Tett from the Financial Times was asked on the Politics Show if she thought the public dissatisfaction was getting through to the Davos audience and she replied that they were finally beginning to pick up the fury about inequality. Well about time, I guess everyone has to emerge from their ivory tower eventually.
Cameron in his recent speech on popular capitalism said it was a Conservative mission to support enterprise, allow innovative leadership and create an environment to allow business to flourish. As a social entrepreneur, I would agree that this is a good way to go, but it's not going to happen in the way we want if we don't frame it within a shared philosophy. Otherwise we will get more of the same.
As social entrepreneurs we have to resist allowing our natural inclination to solve problems but instead we need to step up to the plate, come into the light and help formulate the idea of a values based market economy in a coherent argument. We need to define value and make that value central to government policy, business practice and the choices we make about our current system.
So while the race to a nicer capitalism is being fought out by our leaders and their communications teams through their speeches, we might give a thought as to whether social enterprises can weave sufficient moral and responsible threads into a form of capitalism which has genuine opportunities for everyone to participate and benefit.
According to a recent report from SEUK, the public is still baffled by social enterprise concept. Well surely this is a good time to engage them and provide a basis for a debate about a values based market economy? Maybe it would have more credibility if it was led by real life social entrepreneurs who do business with a social value. Like Gok Wan we need to show that it's possible to break fashion rules and marry stripes with dots in a way that brings co-ordination and coherence rather than discord and discontent.
June O'Sullivan is the founder The London Early Years Foundation (LEYF)
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