European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

332 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYConstitution, which is in force in all European Union countries. To ourunderstanding, it is a consequence of the idea of “open society” whichKarl Popper referred to in answer to the disastrous trend towardstotalitarianism. We do not want to make any value judgements hereand now, but it seems unquestionable that the system as such is theone that best respects human rights and freedoms. It could be said, asof democracy, that it might not be the best system, but it is the leastbad.In this context, the business is a reality that is hard to define due tothe complexity of the functions it performs and the multiplicity ofrelationships that are established both at its heart and within theeconomic environment where it interacts. Businesses, thus, respond tothe concept of “organization” seen as a voluntary union of individualsassociated through multiple contractual bonds, their basic functionbeing the efficient allocation of resources under the management andsupervision of an authority: the business person.We find ourselves, then, before an entity of vital importance insocial organization. In businesses, jobs are created and economicresources are allocated and, though businesses have a fundamentalprofit or economic surplus motive, the truth is the same definition canbe applied to public organizations or to the so-called non-profitorganizations, such as NGOs.Businesses, as organizational units within our society, are subject tolaws and regulations emanating from Parliaments chosen by citizens,who can and must make themselves heard not only through ballot butalso through their active participation in the countless professional andcorporate associations in civil society.Today, we cannot conceive businesses or business people withoutreferring to ethics and moral values which, while responding to theirsocial responsibility, in turn improve economic efficiency. One of theaspects which should be considered more closely in the developmentof businesses is what we nowadays call “sustainable development”,that is, making economic growth compatible with respect towardsnature and the environment.This concern was brought up in the early seventies by the publicationof the work by the Club of Rome “The Limits to Growth”.It meant the beginning of a line of thought which has fortunatelyrooted in society and that is nowadays present in all human organizationsand in great manifestations promoted by the United Nations,such as the recent Johannesburg World Summit, the results of whichhave fallen short, but which nevertheless invariably represent a stepforward.