Building the Free Society: Deomocrazy, Capitalism, and Catholic Social Teaching
or
Book Summary Information
Editor: Mr. George WeigelEditor: Mr. Robert Royal
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1993-10-19
ISBN: 080280120X
Number of pages: 268
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Book Reviews of Building the Free Society: Deomocrazy, Capitalism, and Catholic Social Teaching
Book Review: In praise of subsidiarity
Summary: 4 Stars
~Building the Free Society: Democracy; Capitalism, and Catholic Social Teaching~ is an erudite exposition upon Catholic Social Thinking. I got this book a few years ago, because it echoed a theme analogous to agrarian literature which esteemed the principle of subsidiarity, or as Protestants such as Abraham Kuyper dub it, sphere sovereignty. Subsidiarity is the principle which states that matters ought to be handled by the smallest (or, the lowest) competent authority. This principle applied to a body politic, precludes a managerial regime or welfare state, and centralized schemes of wealth redistribution. At its core, Catholic Social Thought recognizes the family as the basic inviolable unit of society and gives deference to those intermediary institutions between the individual and the state.
Pope Pius XI's most definitive encyclical was Quadragesimo Anno issued 15 May 1931, 40 years after Rerum Novarum (thus the name, Latin for 'in the fortieth year'). Written as a reactionary response to the cultural and economic wasteland that befell Europe and America amidst the Great Depression, it calls for the establishment of a social order based on the principle of subsidiarity. The encylical observes, "We once had a prosperous social system which owed its development to the wide variety of associations, organically linked together. That structure has been overturned and all but demolished. Individuals are left alone with the state."
I personally detest the contemporary American political culture and its inflationary entitlement state. Collectively the middle class takes the biggest hit. The super-wealthy benefit by the inflationary state, and multiple their wealth by illicit gain and monetary manipulation to the detriment of the working middle class. The downtrodden urban masses are placated by the state that plunders the rest to appease them. Collectively, the middle class takes the biggest pinch. Ironically, the social conditions for a nation to achieve a humane economy requires a broad-based distribution of private property, and these social conditions are best realized in societies that embrace subsidiarity and structural decentralization in its political edifices and organizations. Coerced redistribution is not the desirable means of achieving this end; but rather a slow natural development over the course of time within a decentralized polity.
Contemporaneously, all of the useless politicians that pander to the base instincts of human nature, promising the spoils of legal plunder to be given to the downtrodden are part of the problem. The Robin Hood state destroys character, inculcates idleness, stifles individual initiative, saps the nation of its economic and social vitality, and ultimately makes slaves of its dependents. The potential for a more prosperous social order is realized by a society that embraces subsidiarity, not socialism. Welfare-statism is utterly incompatible with human condition. That housing projects have a revolving door with penitentiaries should be no real surprise. In the years ahead, when the managerial regimes of America and Europe inevitably implode in a miserable morass of stagflation, public sector indebtedness, there will be a need for order to fill the vacuum left by the managerial regime's collapse. Sober-minded socially conservative thinkers might suggest letting the intermediary institutions between the individual and the state return to their former prominence: these are the voluntary civil associations, the benevolent societies, private charities, and especially the church. "To love the little platoon," declared Edmund Burke, "we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of publick affections." The little platoons are animated by the spirit of voluntarism and charity. We need a humane economy, and social order like that advocated by Wilhelm Roepke in his book The Humane Economy. Understanding the social conditions ideal for this humane economy can be discerned by the study of Catholic social thinking, so reading this book might prove helpful. There is an old saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
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