Beyond Left and Right, Liberal and Conservative: Time for Good Governance

By Deacon Keith A Fournier
7/18/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The principle of subsidiarity, a social ordering principle, lies at the heart of Catholic Social teaching

There is little discussion about the principle of subsidiarity in Catholic circles and virtually none in the national political debate. Many Catholics do not even know that there is such a principle within the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church. Instead they have borrowed charged rhetoric from both the political left and the political right for far too long and failed to offer their unique contribution to the common good. We need an intelligent discussion of the underlying issue - what constitutes "good" governance - and Catholics can and should take the lead.

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CHESAPEAKE, VA (Catholic Online) - In the aftermath of the US Supreme Court's decision to uphold the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act it is time for a discussion about good government. After being told by the current Administration that the penalty for non-compliance with the "individual mandate" to purchase insurance was not a "tax", the Court found it to be a tax, in a dense majority opinion. Based upon that - and not based upon the Commerce Clause - the lawsuits failed to meet their intended goal of having the Act declared unconstitutional.

So, even though the Act does indeed require citizens to purchase a product or face a penalty (the individual mandate), since the penalties are a now called a "tax" by the Supreme Court; they fall under Congress' tax and spend power. The arguments over this dense opinion, its suspect evolution into the majority opinion, its convoluted rationale and its implications for the future of public policy are now academic. They will become fodder for law students and law review editors for years to come.

The importance of the other lawsuits heading for the US Supreme Court becomes even more evident. They allege the Act is unconstitutional in its implementation. The HHS mandate requiring Church owned or related employers to purchase insurance which provides abortion inducing drugs, contraception and sterilizations, violates the Free Exercise Clause of First Amendment to the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution.

These lawsuits are correct in their analysis of this onerous mandate. It would compel Catholics, other Christians, other people of faith and people of good will to violate their conscience and violate deeply held religious beliefs, or face an onerous "tax" (government penalty) and persecution. This mandate must be opposed by every Catholic and other concerned Christians, other people of faith and all people of good will who respect the fundamental right to religious freedom.

However, if this mandate were not at issue, the idea of federalizing the provision of health care cries out for discussion. It represents a massive increase in the role of the Federal Government. We have witnessed the dangers which accompany such an expansion when the administration in power has no respect for fundamental human rights such as the Right to Religious Freedom and the Right to Life.

Yes, we should all agree that there is a need for a better vehicle for the delivery of health care services to all of our citizens. The current approach truly does need reform and repair. However, I maintain that there should be a serious caution over "federalizing" the delivery of health care in the United States, for many reasons.

Here is the policy question which needs to be asked; does centralizing the delivery of health care services through an increasingly bloated federalized bureaucracy violate the principle of subsidiarity, a social ordering principle which lies at the heart of Catholic Social teaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes these astute observations:

"All men are called to the same end: God himself. There is a certain resemblance between the union of the divine persons and the fraternity that men are to establish among themselves in truth and love. Love of neighbor is inseparable from love for God. The human person needs to live in society. Society is not for him an extraneous addition but a requirement of his nature. Through the exchange with others, mutual service and dialogue with his brethren, man develops his potential; he thus responds to his vocation."

"A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them. As an assembly that is at once visible and spiritual, a society endures through time: it gathers up the past and prepares for the future. By means of society, each man is established as an "heir" and receives certain "talents" that enrich his identity and whose fruits he must develop. He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of which he is part and respect to those in authority who have charge of the common good."

"Each community is defined by its purpose and consequently obeys specific rules; but "the human person . . . is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of all social institutions. Certain societies, such as the family and the state, correspond more directly to the nature of man; they are necessary to him."

"To promote the participation of the greatest number in the life of a society, the creation of voluntary associations and institutions must be encouraged "on both national and international levels, which relate to economic and social goals, to cultural and recreational activities, to sport, to various professions, and to political affairs."

"This "socialization" also expresses the natural ...

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1 - 8 of 8 Comments

Rick Grugno
9 months ago
Outstanding article Mr. Fournier. There's an identity that is Catholic and only Catholic, which is expressed in the concept of subsidiarity, that gives flavor to our presence in society. And gives flavor to the whole society. We need to grow in this consciousness. Thanks a lot.
Rob
10 months ago
ahem, I think it's more accurate to say that the republicans have the speech right on this one. Because their actions bare virtually no resemblance to catholic social teachings. Fake votes do not substitute for what is actually done when one has the ability to effect change.
Kasoy
10 months ago
On ways to lower healthcare cost: We need to study the experience of other countries (even 3rd world nations) where there is open competition in healthcare service and healthcare insurance. Open competition happens in a setting of less govt regulation. Regulations that often protect the existing healthcare service providers and healthcare insurance companies by restricting the entry of new providers is not conducive to open competition which is the main factor that raises cost of healthcare due to the resulting oligopoly. In an open competition setting, there will be hospitals catering to the rich and foreigners (expensive, but very high quality); other hospitals will cater to the middle class (reasonable quality at affordable cost); the poor will go to very low cost hospitals or hospitals run by charitable groups where quality may not necessarily be acceptable except to the poor. This 3rd class hospitals are often staffed by medical students and interns supervised by a few experienced doctors. The 1st class hospitals gave rise to a new business in 3rd world nations called "medical tourism" offering foreign patients resort-like or hotel-quality facilities [hospitals in a beach resort!]. Some 1st class hospitals as part of their CSR (corp social responsibility) offer "out-patient" departments catering to the poor. A few of these out-patient departments for the poor are subsidized by the local govt or cities - good example of private-public partnership. We need to demand from our state govt to reduce regulations and open up the industry to other players to dismantle healthcare service and insurance oligopoly.
John Mainhart
10 months ago
What we have in this country has been well examined by many including G.K. Chesterton. What makes the present era so intense is the fact that the political parties have chosen opposite sides, especially in leadership positions, and their positions have hardened.
Our two systems are socialism and ,capitalism. Both of these systems as we have used them have become intensely interested in power and money, with our help I might add. In addition each of our major parties have coopted one of these ways of obtaining power. The Democrats want to control us in order to make us into the country they want. Right now they seem mostly to be preoccupied with environmentalism which in their minds includes how many humans there are, what affect ,they have on the environment,how they act in terms of eating, transportation, and energy etc. and the effect that has on the money available to run the country as they see fit. In additionj they see family life as a unit that undermines what a large government can control.
As to the other system, capitalism, the Republicans have preempted that way of control In the leaders of the present Republican Party I see no values that used to underpin decisions made to further capitalistic interests. They are only interested in efficiency, trade, and bigness to maximize their profits. They want to control all ,of us so they can decide the service we will ,get, the jobs alloted to us, the amount of money we will earn, and how much of the property that is ,left after they get their slice, we can have and what we can do with it.
That system will also leave us with little freedom the longer it is in charge.
Since we have no recourse for relief from any party, in my mind we have only one long term solution left to us. We should abandon the political and economic systems ,as they are now constructed and make ,individual decisions that make sense to us as souls of the Kingdom of God. When either system meets our actions and takes offense at what we are doing we must be willing to make the necessary sacrifice that our action entails. If you want to be free as God defines freedom then you must live life the way the first Christians did and take care of each other in our families and our communities. We can sacrifice alot by doing His will or we can sacrifice by cooperating with the present situation, but we will suffer. God love you.
ahem
10 months ago
In a battle between democracy and socialism, the choice should be clear: socialism is inimical to Chrisitanity. There is no mythical "central ground" upon which to stand. The Republicans are correct on this one.
Andrew
10 months ago
We have to ignore the cannons to our left and the cannons to our right and charge into the battle with the ensign of Catholic Social Doctrine!
Rob
10 months ago
Deacon, I don't disagree with you at all. And I have grown so tired of all the rhetoric and flat out animosity one side has for the other. But I think something is left out of your analysis in regards to the federal healthcare debate. I think we can all agree that the government increasing it's already large role in healthcare is problematic. But so too is a structure that is mostly geared to making money with actual healthcare delivery as a secondary goal. Had that system not gone so far off the reservation, I'm not sure we'd be where we are right now. But this problem has been in the making for years. The ship has sailed for communities to come together and demand some sort of mom and pop healthcare system. The family has about as much success fighting the government as it does fighting the big business of healthcare.

At some point the Church in the US needs to become really serious about the family. Until we heal the state of the family in this country, principles like subsidiarity just won't work and probably can't work. Until then we will continue to swing between the extremes of right and left, both of which do nothing to honor the family.
Kasoy
10 months ago
I couldn't agree more, Keith! Obama and his political friends are turning America into a European-style welfare state. They probably haven't read about the welfare mess in France and Spain. (see Bloomberg "France's Fraying Social Safety Net", Mar 1, 2012. It talked about France's current welfare system. Welfare consumes 31% of France's GDP and for 2012, it is expected to incur a 19.9B euro deficit in 2012. People are flocking private/religious charities to survive. Pawn shop business is booming, and Spain's public healthcare dismal state: "Spain Rescue seen worse than cure as Hospitals make cuts", July 6, 2012.) This welfare system is a stark contrast to future-proof Singapore's privatized welfare system. Singapore's system is based on the basic principle that "nothing is free" and retirement and healthcare are primary responsibilities of the individual and his family. The basic scheme is: workers are required by law to save for their retirement and healthcare needs in individual accounts. The money that you save is NOT used to pay benefits to current retirees. The money you put in this scheme is wholly yours (with interest) when you retire. It's like setting up an individual retirement plan with your insurance company where your money is invested by the insurance company and given back to you when you reach retirement age or given to your heirs in case you die before retirement age. (see: "http://oregoncatalyst.com/1990-Why-Singapore-Retires-Securely.html") This is the economic side of the issue. ---- The BIGGER issue is exactly what you're discussing in your article (and past articles) centering on the basic Catholic principles of subsidiarity and solidarity (and what you implied, the principle of universal destination of goods which reminds me of paragraph 2446 of the CCC quoted from St John Chrysostom). God has a reason for giving light to our Church about these basic principles - the reason is LOVE, and love begets good governance. Subsidiarity encourages people to take responsibility for what they can do for themselves and for others. A welfare system gives people an easy way to OPT OUT of their responsibilities and let govt take over, rationalizing this way: I pay my just share of taxes, so let govt take care of those in need (including my own family like my elderly parents or unemployed siblings). I am no longer my brother's keeper, govt is. Govt also "crowds out" religious charities and other philanthropic institutions from setting up viable facilities to offer humanitarian services to people in need. [Note: These private charities can provide the same govt social services like orphanages, home for the homeless and aged, and healthcare much more efficiently at much lower cost.] It also "crowds out" God from our lives as govt becomes our sole provider in times of great need. This is one of the basic aims of socialism, to convince people that God has no role in our lives, that govt can and will provide everything for you from cradle to grave. A govt-run welfare system is economically unsustainable based on involuntary donations (taxation) which promotes the culture of dependency [a road to mendicancy]. A welfare system is viable as long as working population is increasing proportionately to the increasing population of retirees and other dependents. When demographic winter hits a nation, welfare system will find itself in danger of bankruptcy unless workers are willing to have higher taxes imposed on them. Governance based on subsidiarity encourages responsible, frugal/simple, healthy lifestyle and draws out genuine concern for others through voluntary donations to charity. [God loves a cheerful giver.] It will incite closer relations among members of the family, local communities and churches to help one another in times of need. Multi-generation households will once again blossom. Working age young people living with their parents, rather than being looked down upon, will gain respect and dignity. Such households will no longer be looked upon as bad examples of dependency but models of filial solidarity.

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