At the same time, there is much talk of creating a new institutional setting at the international level, a new context for stimulating broadly based growth and reducing unacceptably high degrees of volatility and risk in the global economy. Useful as it may be, this discussion is concerned above all with ensuring the stability of the system. Moreover, there is complete silence on how to go about creating the social development architecture that would have to underpin the central vision of he Social Summit, the report contends. Yet social policy today remains largely detached from economics, or is seen as an add-on intended to remedy the ill effects of misconceived economic development. Until this changes, it is unlikely that the 'society for all' envisioned by signatories of the Copenhagen Declaration will be within our grasp.
Efficient markets require the contributions of a well-run public sector.
And they require the social stability that grows out of democratic governance and an acceptable level of public provision. Markets in themselves have no capacity to imagine a decent society for all people, or to work in a consistent fashion to attain it. Only the 'visible hands' of governments and public-spirited people can do that. Looking at the travails of the public sector, the report notes that between 1945 and 1980, the public sector enjoyed unprecedented expansion. Most people wanted their governments to play a central part in national development.