Subsidiarity and the Proper Role of Government
On the autonomy of associations – a preface to the concept of subsidiarity
“Let the State watch over these societies of citizens united together in the exercise of their right; but let it not thrust itself into their peculiar concerns and their organization, for things move and live by the soul within them, and they may be killed by the grasp of a hand from without.” (RN 41, O’Brien 35)
Developing the principle of subsidiarity
“79. It is indeed true, as history clearly shows, that owing to the change in social conditions, much that was formerly done by small bodies can nowadays be accomplished only by large organizations. Nevertheless, it is a fundamental principle of social philosophy, fixed and unchangeable, that one should not withdraw from indivi-duals and commit to the community what they can accomplish by their own enterprise and industry. So, too, it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and a disturbance of right order to transfer to the larger and higher collectivity functions which can be performed and provided for by lesser and subordinate bodies. Inasmuch as every social activity should, by its very nature, prove a help to members of the body social, it should never destroy or absorb them.
“80. The State authorities should leave to other bodies the care and expediting of business and activities of lesser moment, which otherwise become for it a source of great distraction. It then will perform with greater freedom, vigor and effectiveness, the tasks belonging properly to it, and which it alone can accomplish, directing, supervising, encouraging, restraining, as circumstances suggest or necessity demands. Let those in power, therefore, be convinced that the more faithfully this principle of “subsidiarity” is followed and a hierarchical order prevails among the various organizations, the more excellent will be the authority and efficiency of society, and the happier and more prosperous the condition of the commonwealth.” (QA 79-80, O’Brien 60)
Determining scope and limits of government intervention
“124. The primary norm for determining the scope and limits of governmental intervention is the ‘principle of subsidiarity’ cited above. The principle states that, in order to protect basic justice, government should undertake only those initiatives which exceed the capacity of individuals or private groups acting independently. Government should not replace or destroy smaller communities and individual iniative. Rather it should help them to contribute more effectively to social well-being and supplement their activity when the demands of justice exceed their capacities. This does not mean, however, that the government that governs least governs best. Rather it defines good government intervention as that which truly ‘helps’ other social groups contribute to the common good by directing, urging, restraining, and regulating economic activity as ‘the occasion requires and necessity demands.’ This calls for cooperation and consensus-building among the diverse agents in our economic life, including government. The precise form of government involvement in this process cannot be determined in the abstract. It will depend on an assessment of specific needs and the most effective ways to address them.” (EJ 124, O’Brien 608)
Threats to subsidiarity in an increasingly complex social reality
“61. [A]n advance in social relationships definitely brings numerous services and advantages. It makes possible, in fact, the satisfaction of many personal rights, especially those of economic and social life; these relate, for example, to the minimum necessities of human life, to health services, to the broadening and deepening of elementary education, to a more fitting training in skills, to housing, to labor, to suitable leisure and recreation. In addition, through the ever more perfect organization of modern means for the diffusion of thought – press, cinema, radio, television – individuals are enabled to take part in human events on a worldwide scale.
“62. But as these various forms of association are multiplied and daily extended, it also happens that in many areas of activity, rules and laws controlling and determining relationships of citizens are multiplied. As a consequence, opportunity for free action by individuals is restricted within narrower limits. Methods are often used, procedures are adopted, and such an atmosphere develops wherein it becomes difficult for one to make decisions independently of outside influences, to do anything on his own initiative, to carry out in a fitting way his rights and duties, and to fully develop and perfect his personality. Will men perhaps then become automatons, and cease to be personally responsible, as these social relationships multiply more and more? It is a question which must be answered negatively.” (MM 61-62, O’Brien 94)
On the right of association
“23. From the fact that human beings are by nature social, there arises the right of assembly and association. They also have the right to give the societies of which they are members the form they consi-der most suitable for the aim they have in view and to act within such societies on their own initiative and on their own responsibility in order to achieve their desired objectives.20” (PT 23, O’Brien 134)
Public authority should enable private citizens to help community
“[T]hose also who rely on their own resources and initiative should contribute as best they can to the equitable adjustment of economic life in their own community. Nay, more, those in authority should favor and help private enterprise in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, in order to allow private citizens themselves to accomplish as much as is feasible.” (MM 152, O’Brien 109)
Criteria for government intervention in economic relations
“If by a strike, or other combination of workmen, there should be imminent danger of disturbance to the public peace; or if circumstances were such that among the laboring population the ties of family life were relaxed; if religion were found to suffer through the workmen not having time and opportunity to practice it; if in workshops and factories there were danger to morals through the mixing of the sexes or from any occasion of evil; or if employers laid burdens upon the workmen which were unjust, or degraded them with conditions that were repugnant to their dignity as human beings; finally, if health were endangered by excessive labor, or by work unsuited to sex or age – in these cases there can be no question that, within certain limits, it would be right to call in the help and authority of the law. The limits must be determined by the nature of the occasion which calls for the law’s interference – the principle being this, that the law must not undertake more, nor go further, than is required for the remedy of the evil or the removal of the danger.” (RN 29, O’Brien 28)
Human Rights and the Dignity and Sacredness of Each Human Person
Every human being is a person
“9. Any human society, if it is to be well-ordered and productive, must lay down as a foundation this principle, namely, that every human being is a person; that is, his nature is endowed with intelli-gence and free will. Indeed, precisely because he is a person he has rights and obligations flowing directly and simultaneously from his very nature.7And as these rights and obligations are universal and inviolable, so they cannot in any way be surrendered.” (PT 9, O’Brien 132)
Rights of humans
“11. Beginning our discussion of the rights of man, we see that every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means which are suitable for the proper development of life; these are pri-marily food, clothing, shelter, rest, medical care, and finally the nec-essary social services. Therefore a human being also has the right to security in cases of sickness, inability to work, widowhood, old age, unemployment, or in any other case in which he is deprived of the means of subsistence through no fault of his own.8” (PT 11, O’Brien 132-133)
Human rights based in natural law
“12. By the natural law every human being has the right to respect for his person, to his good reputation; the right to freedom in searching for truth and in expressing and communicating his opinions, and in pursuit of art, within the limits laid down by the moral order and the common good; and he has the right to be informed truthfully about public events.
“13. The natural law also gives man the right to share in the benefits of culture, and therefore the right to a basic education and to technical and professional training in keeping with the stage of educational development in the country to which he belongs. Every effort should be made to ensure that persons be enabled, on the basis of merit, to go on to higher studies, so that, as far as possible, they may occupy posts and take on responsibilities in human society in accordance with their natural gifts and the skills they have acquired.9” (PT 12-13, O’Brien 133)
Freedom of choice with regard to establishing a family
“15. Human beings have the right to choose freely the state of life which they prefer, and therefore the right to set up a family, with equal rights and duties for man and woman,” (PT 15, O’Brien 133)
Right to provide for oneself and one’s family
“20. From the dignity of the human person, there also arises the right to carry on economic activities according to the degree of responsibility of which one is capable.16Furthermore – and this must be specially emphasized – the worker has a right to a wage determined according to criterions of justice, and sufficient, therefore, in proportion to the available resources, to give the worker and his family a standard of living in keeping with the dignity of the human person. In this regard, our predecessor Pius XII said: “To the personal duty to work imposed by nature, there corresponds and follows the natural right of each individual to make of his work the means to provide for his own life and the lives of his children; so fundamental is the law of nature which commands man to preserve his life.”17” (PT 20, O’Brien 134)
Right to contribute to public life and the common good
“26. The dignity of the human person involves the right to take an active part in public affairs and to contribute one’s part to the common good of the citizens.” (PT 26, O’Brien 135)
Human person’s right to justice before the law
“27. The human person is also entitled to a juridical protection of his rights, a protection that should be efficacious, impartial, and inspired by the true norms of justice.” (PT 27, O’Brien 135)
Rights come with duties
“[T]he right of every man to life is correlative with the duty to preserve it; his right to a decent standard of living with the duty of living it becomingly; and his right to investigate the truth freely, with the duty of seeking it ever more completely and profoundly.” (PT 28, O’Brien 135)
Obligation for all humanity to work toward universal human rights
“[T]he issue of war and peace confronts everyone with a basic question: what contributes to, and what impedes, the construction of a more genuinely human world? If we are to evaluate war with an entirely new attitude, we must be serious about approaching the human person with an entirely new attitude. The obligation for all of humanity to work toward universal respect for human rights and human dignity is a fundamental imperative of the social, economic, and political order.” (CP 66, O’Brien 506)
On women
“[I]t is obvious to everyone that women are now taking part in public life. […] Since women are becoming ever more conscious of their human dignity, they will not tolerate being treated as mere material instruments, but demand rights befitting a human person both in domestic and in public life.” (PT 41, O’Brien 137)
All races of people have the duty to claim their human rights
“[T]he conviction that all men are equal by reason of their natural dignity has been generally accepted. Hence racial discrimination can in no way be justified. [… T]his is of fundamental importance and significance for the formation of human society according to those principles which we have outlined above For, if a man becomes conscious of his rights, he must become equally aware of his duties. Thus he who possesses certain rights has likewise the duty to claim those rights as marks of his dignity, while all others have the obliga-tion to acknowledge those right and respect them.” (PT 44, O’Brien 137-138)
Human race uncertain how to subject its power to its own welfare
“Today, the human race is passing through a new stage of its history. […]
“As happens in any crisis of growth, this transformation has brought serious difficulties in its wake. Thus while man extends his power in every direction, he does not always succeed in subjecting it to his own welfare. Striving to penetrate farther into the deeper re-cesses of his own mind, he frequently appears more unsure of him-self. Gradually and more precisely he lays bare the laws of society, only to be paralyzed by uncertainty about the direction to give it.
“Never before has the human race enjoyed such an abundance of wealth, resources, and economic power. Yet, a huge proportion of the world’s citizens is still tormented by hunger and poverty, while countless numbers suffer from total illiteracy. Never before today has man been so keenly aware of freedom, yet at the same time, new forms of social and psychological slavery make their appearance.” (GS 4, O’Brien 167-168)
On the voice of conscience
“16. In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience can when necessary speak to his heart more specifically: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God. To obey it is the very dignity of man” (GS 16, O’Brien 174)
Even those who disagree deserve respect due to their personhood
“28. Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political, and religious matters, too. In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of thinking through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able to enter into dialogue with them.
“This love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us indifferent to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all men. But it is necessary to distinguish between error, which always merits repudiation, and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being a person” (GS 28, O’Brien 182)
All persons of equal dignity despite existence of rightful differences
“[A]ll men are not alike from the point of view of varying physical power and the diversity of intellectual and moral resources. Nevertheless, with respect to the fundamental rights of the person, every type of discrimination, whether social or cultural, whether based on sex, race, color, social condition, language, or religion, is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God’s intent. […]
“Moreover, although rightful differences exist between men, the equal dignity of persons demands that a more humane and just condition of life be brought about. For excessive economic and social differences between the members of the one human family or population groups cause scandal, and militate against social justice, equity, the dignity of the human person, as well as social and international peace.” (GS 29, O’Brien 183)
Man achieves full humanity through culture
“53. It is a fact bearing on the very person of man that he can come to an authentic and full humanity only through culture, that is, through the cultivation of natural goods and values. Wherever human life is involved, therefore, nature and culture are quite intimately connected.” (GS 53, O’Brien 201)
Birth of a new humanism
“55. In every group or nation, there is an ever-increasing number of men and women who are conscious that they themselves are the aritsans and the authors of the culture of their community. Throughout the world there is a similar growth in the combined sense of independence and responsibility. Such a development is of paramount importance for the spiritual and moral maturity of the human race. This truth grows clearer if we consider how the world is becoming unified and how we have the duty to build a better world based upon truth and justice. Thus we are witnesses of the birth of a new humanism, one in which man is defined first of all by his res-ponsibility toward his brothers and toward history.” (GS 55, O’Brien 202)
Material want not the only form of poverty
“We should add here that in today’s world there are many other forms of poverty. For are there not certain privations or deprivations which deserve this name? The denial or the limitation of human rights – as for example the right to religious freedom, the right to share in the building of society, the freedom to organize and to form unions, or to take initiatives in economic matters – do these not impoverish the human person as much as, if not more than, the deprivation of material goods? And is development which does not take into account the full affirmation of these rights really development on the human level?” (SS 15, O’Brien 403)
Believers and unbelievers must work together
“While rejecting atheism, root and branch, the Church sincerely professes that all men, believers and unbelievers alike, ought to work for the rightful betterment of this world in which all alike live. Such an ideal cannot be realized, however, apart from sincere and prudent dialogue.” (GS 21, O’Brien 178)
New modes of understanding human dignity are arising
“The strong drive toward global unity, the unequal distribution which places decisions concerning three quarters of income, investment and trade in the hands of one third of the human race, namely the more highly developed part, the insufficiency of a merely economic progress, and the new recognition of the material limits of the biosphere – all this makes us aware of the fact that in today’s world new modes of understanding human dignity are arising.” (JM, O’Brien 290)
