ETHICS AND THE MARKET IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION: A FRAMEWORK

The encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI takes about specific positions, namely that the market, which is shaped by the cultural configurations that guide and define it, must not become the locus of the oppression of the strong over the weak but it is useful and effective if used by the man, through the tools of economics and finance, with a social conscience and responsibility. It proposes the question of whether an explanatory model of the ways of functioning of the economy based on the assumption of altruism offers better conditions for development than to a model based on the assumption of selfishness. On these bases was carried out synthetic analysis in key economic history, including new tools, such as microcredit, and new economic actors, such as women.