Populist Pope

R. R. Reno thinks that Francis is best described as a “populist .” In another in a series of carefully balanced essays on the Pope, Reno assesses the pluses and minuses of populist papalism.

Reno says that he finds Francis’s “generalizations” about capitalism and the free market “overheated,” but at the same time commends Francis’s “intuitions.” Reno writes,

“Before the collapse of the Soviet Union global realities were framed by the conflict between the two super-powers. Today, world politics is being shaped by global capitalism. Its Chinas rapidly rising GDP that is the game changer, not its ideology.

“The powerful forces of capitalism are transforming societies, including our own. (It is always destroying as it creates.) Some of these transformations bring great benefits. Life expectancies rise in the developing world. But its foolish to imagine they dont bring all sorts of evils.

“Because global capitalism often destroys traditional forms of social organization, it tends to make people more vulnerable, especially the poor, even when theyre less poor than they used to be. Its foolish to imagine that ready availability of TVs in the slums of Buenos Aires makes up for the loss of the finely woven social safety net of a traditional village, however impoverished. Yes, people move there because they rightly see the modern market economy as the source for greater material well-being. But they also rightly want to be an integral part of a larger society in which their voices are heard and needs addressed.”

Francis “intuits the ways in which globalization is dissolving old certainties, old social forms, old modes of being.” Reno acknowledges that populism has its dangers, but thinks it’s worth the risk, given that today “we have a global elitenot just financial, but also scientific, cultural, and politicalthat presents itself as the solution to problems created by globalization.”