Last week we looked at the role of the State in relation to the principles of Subsidiarity and Solidarity. This week we look at the role of the State in relation to the principle of the Common Good.

The common good encourages individuals and communities to act on behalf of the good of all. The good of all includes:

• vital goods of human sustenance – food, water, the air we breathe, the right to life.
• social well being - which means that each of us finds comfort and happiness when we belong to community and when we are accepted for who we are.
• Culture - which gives meaning to our lives by allowing us to act in concert with others and leading each of us to live, work, play and believe together.

Finally, we say as Catholics that the common good is religious, which deepens us as individuals and as a people in harmony with the universe. The common good is at once a basic need and an ultimate end, the sharing of life’s necessities and the love of one another and creation which flows from our love of God and God’s love for us. Where the common good is ignored or disdained, then disharmonies in our social, economic, personal and ecological lives will grow and stifle us.

The Church believes that a key role for the State is to “encourage citizens and businesses to promote the common good by enacting an economic policy that fosters the participation of all citizens in the activities of production. Respect of the principle of subsidiarity (finding the most efficient way to have something done) must prompt public authorities to seek conditions that encourage the development of individual capacities of initiative, autonomy and personal responsibility in citizens, avoiding any interference which would unduly condition business forces.”

“With a view to the common good, it is necessary to pursue always and with untiring determination the goal of a proper equilibrium between private freedom and public action, understood both as direct intervention in economic matters and as activity supportive of economic development.

 In any case, public intervention must be carried out with equity, rationality and effectiveness, and without replacing the action of individuals, which would be contrary to their right to the free exercise of economic initiative.

In such cases, the State becomes detrimental to society: a direct intervention that is too extensive ends up depriving citizens of responsibility and creates excessive growth in public agencies guided more by bureaucratic logic than by the goal of satisfying the needs of the person.”

“Taxes revenues and public spending take on crucial economic importance for every civil and political community. The goal to be sought is public financing that is itself capable of becoming an instrument of development and solidarity. Just, efficient and effective public financing will have very positive effects on the economy, because it will encourage employment growth and sustain business and non-profit activities and help to increase the credibility of the State as the guarantor of systems of social insurance and protection that are designed above all to protect the weakest members of society.”

“Public spending is directed to the common good when certain fundamental principles are observed: the payment of taxes as part of the duty of solidarity; a reasonable and fair application of taxes; precision and integrity in administering and distributing public resources. In the redistribution of resources, public spending must observe the principles of solidarity, equality and making use of talents. It must also pay greater attention to families, designating an adequate amount of resources for this purpose.”

The Catholic community in Trinidad and Tobago should actively enter debates that centre on State intervention in various areas of the economy, using as their basis for analysis the three principles of Solidarity, Subsidiarity and Common Good. The key questions to ask ourselves on various State activities are:

1. Can someone else perform the particular function the State wants to perform more efficiently or better?
2. Does the particular action of the State encourage individuals and communities to move beyond blind self-interest and private advantage and recognises that the persons involved are social beings?
3. Does the particular activity encourage individuals and communities to act on behalf of the good of all? 

Next week we look at Role of intermediate bodies. 

Interested in purchasing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church? Please contact the Catholic Commission for Social Justice, Archbishop’s House – 622-6680.