And we know what it costs to raze the history

And Edmund Phelps, recent Nobel Laureate, stated last month in the columns of the "Handelsblatt", it is legitimate to consider that culture plays a key role in economic development. Edmund Phelps recalled also that Adam Smith as David Hume, Alexis de Tocqueville as Immanuel Kant, have never disputed the existence of this link. It also relies on Max Weber and his work on the Protestant ethic, also Josef Schumpeter and his references to the "entrepreneurial spirit". Neoclassical theory would have sounded the death knell of this vision of the world, the model of Arrow-Debreu giving him the blow. This "back to culture" led Edmund Phelps to undertake research finding that cultural factor explains the low economic development of the Europe of today. Note that this is more particularly in his spirit of continental Europe, compared with the Anglo-Saxon countries (USA, Canada, Great Britain).

Edmund Phelps relies on the results of a major investigation political and socio-cultural ("World Values Survey") from which it is developing four "cultural criteria": the commitment in the work, the sense of responsibility, instead left to the individual, the spirit of initiative. These criteria are measured according to the country, and is considered the correlated with economic performance. Note that other leading American economists also now attach to estimate the weight of the cultural factor in the growth, such as Robert Barro, for its part to isolate the religious factor.

These works are added in a another record of the facts seem to make a resounding denied theses weberiennes, according to which Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism would be irremediable obstacles to the fulfilment of the development of Asia. The reason is that the countries concerned are newly matched values, within the meaning given to them in by Edmund Phelps, allowing them to escape from the straitjacket that once locked

If it refers to the cultural roots of a country, it is difficult to decide, and appropriate to find another angle of analysis. Consider the example of Confucianism, which differs from Western thought systems, especially what he calls a membership without collective values. It is thus part of established mores, in environments that it permeates to blend in a group. Point value of the individual in the Confucian humanism. Does this mean that Confucianism is an economic strength or a weakness Associated with the immobility of the restrictiveness power, he long was seen as a brake. But this is still topical As indeed that of the Korea this is a few decades, should the rise of China, be understood as a postage of Confucianism, or rather as a way of living appropriate to the contemporary world

In a near record, the philosophy of the duty to Hinduism, where it is appropriate to submit to the societal order to get rid of his ego, bride by nature commitment essential to economic innovation And should therefore be inferred that the explosion of growth in India is reflects the fact that Hinduism is better one than by those who wrote the score

Or, inherent to the Koranic law social gravity is an impassable obstacle to the spirit of initiative, explaining the difficulty of Muslim countries to economic adjusting to now Asian and Western countries Can you imagine that individual fear of hazard may be exceeded by the risk taking, more in keeping with the Muslim "umma" membership

Dynamic link

Can discuss à l' envi de the right way to take advantage of this game in the world today. If Phelps criteria seem reasonable, they do cover only a part of the reality of the markets, in particular from the report in time and space, as the strength of the collective when he exercises vigorously. Also, they mésestiment the ability to give to the creativity and the imagination a face adapted to the aspirations of consumers, including in post-modern societies. But if marked minefield, the path of growth and development is so unique Should all emerging countries rush make their place by getting rid of the obstacles that prevent their mutation And Europe, which was used to occupy an enviable status in receded at the risk of its future

The challenge for every country and every culture, is to connect to the world, while information and communication technologies have strongly accelerated economic time, that globalization represents both a formidable catalyst for opportunities

and a centrifugal force dreadful, a field of convergence behaviour but diversity and complexity. Find or stay the course to keep is a condition for growth and economic vitality. Say what is required to do so a considerable dose of work, energy, creativity and organization is a truism. The question is to know how successful this task without marginalizing and also without losing its soul.

All lies in the dynamic link established between, on the one hand, the tradition and history, on the other hand, modernity and competitiveness. Once mastered the rules of the game and the language of globalization, development and growth patterns can have their specificity, taking into account traditions carved in marble, trauma history, and the will and the power of men, culture, living structure by excellence, which continues to shape over time and success.

Illustrate our point. Following the sinologist François Jullien, can be identified in China a way of driving the economy and business movement and continual adaptation. This world where nothing is frozen appears as a contemporary incarnation of tradition Chinese. And to return to Confucianism, the report marks consumer, beyond a membership to capitalist values, must be analyzed to identify collective and statutory in the new environment, because it is not to lose face.

In India, the tradition of the duty may be understood in a very different way than that associated with the resignation. Is to refer to the "Bhagavad Gita", so important in Indian consciousness, and the words of Krishna addressing Arjuna to fight, what is not interpreted as an exhortation to violence but the determination before difficult choices and in the game of life in General. Add the quest for the "artha", one of the four goals of life, which relates particularly to the success and material wealth, perfectly déculpabilisés, and regard all castes.

The examples can agree. How to understand the place of large Japanese companies and the relations with their employees without making reference to the notion of extended family of Shinto How to seize the Danish social model without having in mind the tradition of solidarity by the Scandinavian culture and ambient Lutheranism, the powerful influence was embodied by Grundtvig The organic relationship between creation and industry in Italy is not the result of the Renaissance and the baroque, while updating over time How to understand the French industrial tradition shadowing his saint-simonien heritage How apprehend Thatcherism as the aspiration to a return to the sources of British prosperity, which added a constant reference, almost explicitly, of Margaret Thatcher to Winston Churchill And the American culture of self-made-man and the initiative apparently break with the past did they exude not reminiscence of the founding fathers

There are circumstances where the duty of memory is of itself. Sought to make body with the past or to free himself, he in vain to obscure the presence. In any event, he recalls to our recollection of even more strongly that it has been long neglected. And we know what it costs to raze the history. In a world where economic dictates its Statute, the art of growth assumes to build on the past expressed in its long term for the future, avoiding in narcissistic introspection, with fatal consequences.

What should therefore think of Europe and of its construction in perpetual becoming Stick to the political and economic achievements is too limiting. His Promethean culture, within the meaning of Goethe, partially returns against it, because the desire to dominate nature is an obstacle to sustainable development awareness, for example, the Japan has with Shinto to an invitation to the humility of the man with the nature. But Europe is also the land of election of the humanism and Renaissance, and focuses her creativity and innovation scientific and artistic, mixing by nature the rational and the emotional, which, after allowing the outbreak of so many talents, the predisposes success in cultural capitalism which is the daily life of the contemporary world. The culture is not the handicap of Europe, it is its main asset, but it still find the subtle combination of economic parameters, political, societal and cultural constituent of the art of growth for the next decades