The loss of centrality on the part of States must coincide with a greater commitment on the part of the international community to exercise a strong guiding role. In fact, an important consequence of the process of globalization consists in the gradual loss of effectiveness of nation-states in directing the dynamics of national economic-financial systems. The governments of individual countries find their actions in the economic and social spheres ever more strongly conditioned by the expectations of international capital markets and by the ever more pressing requests for credibility coming from the financial world. Because of the new bonds of interdependence among global operators, the traditional defensive measures of States appear to be destined to failure and, in the presence of new areas of competition, the very notion of a national market recedes into the background.
The more the worldwide economic-financial system reaches high levels of organizational and functional complexity, all the more priority must be given to the task of regulating these processes, directing them towards the goal of attaining the common good of the human family. There is the clear need not just for States but for the international community to take on this delicate chore with adequate and effective political and juridical instruments. It is therefore indispensable that international economic and financial institutions should be able to identify the most appropriate institutional solutions and formulate the most suitable plans of action aimed at bringing about a change that, if it were to be passively accepted and simply left to itself, would otherwise produce a dramatic situation detrimental above all to the weakest and defenceless classes of the world's population. In international agencies it is necessary that the interests of the whole human family be equally represented. It is necessary moreover that “in evaluating the consequences of their decisions, these agencies always give sufficient consideration to peoples and countries which have little weight in the international market, but which are burdened by the most acute and desperate needs, and are thus more dependent on support for their development”.761John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 58: AAS 83 (1991), 864.
The sphere of politics too, just like that of the economy, must be in a position to extend its range of action beyond national boundaries, quickly taking on an operative worldwide dimension which alone will permit it to direct the processes now underway not only according to economic parameters but also according to moral criteria. The basic goal is to guide economic processes by ensuring that the dignity of man and his complete development as a person are respected, in the context of the common good.762Cf. Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 43-44: AAS 63 (1971), 431-433. Taking on this task entails the responsibility of accelerating the consolidation of existing institutions and the creation of new entities responsible for this.763Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2440; Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, 78: AAS 59 (1967), 295; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 43: AAS 80 (1988), 574-575. Economic development, in fact, will be lasting only to the extent that it takes place within a clear and defined normative context and within a broad plan for the moral, civil and cultural growth of the entire human family.