Cooperation and Tolerance: Restoring Our Economic System. CRLRA Discussion Paper Series.

This paper argues that present institutional settings in rural Australia are inadequate for bringing about a culture that is fair and inclusive. A vision for rural Australia based predominantly on a market economy and its attendant policies and institutions allows the "means" (the market) to determine the ends and may lead to an undesirable type of society. An institutional framework directed solely to market solutions has the potential to contradict important social, cultural, and spiritual values and may lead to overemphasis on materialism, competition, and selfish individualism. These characteristics may undermine "community" and the very fundamentals that make markets work--trust and the security of reliable, honorable transactions. A solution lies in rural policies that support infusion of new values into institutions--values of empowerment, cooperation, spiritual growth, caring, and tolerance. Concepts of "community" must be revived in the context of a lifelong learning culture supported by social capital. This context would include enabling programs and activities that involve information generation and use, facilitation of change, capacity building, leadership development, and action research. Other related issues include the relevance of money and appropriate economic relationships, positive and negative aspects of competitiveness, work as enrichment, the influence of property rights, the role of women, contributions of the arts to a new culture, and policy guaranteeing minimum income. (Contains 64 references.) (Author/SV)