Can 'Government' Ever Be Good? A Catholic Considers the Proper Role of Government

Some on the political "right" promote a version of libertarianism which is anti-government and places the individual at the foundation of an understanding of freedom. This is at odds with the insights summarized in the Catechism. Often they paraphrase the American founders to imply that the existence of government itself is the problem.

...If you listen to some on the political "left", they seem to want to federalize everything. They think that our obligation in solidarity always means establishing more federal government programs. They are wrong. They have forgotten the role of mediating institutions and their vital role in governing and the service of the common good. They are also wrong when they question the empathy of anyone who disagrees with them.

Those on the political left who end up supporting a collectivist and statist model of government also end up threatening human freedom, initiative, creativity and flourishing. They also undermine the role of mediating institutions, the first of which is the family, the smallest governing unit and first vital cell of society. An overly federalized form of government is a disaster waiting to happen morally, politically, socially and economically. The bad fruit is all around us as our own nation moves toward a form of collectivism...

The first society is the family. It is there where we learn socialization and are schooled in the virtues which make good citizenship even possible. Thus the family must always be the guide, polestar and measuring stick for any broader social and governing structure. The family is the first government, the first school, the first church and the first mediating institution. All other government must defer to this first cell of social government and move out - or up - from there, never usurping the primacy of the family...

Catholics should insist that we are not fully human unless we are in relationship with one another. Freedom and human flourishing are not found in a notion of the isolated individual as the ground of human freedom. We were made for communion. We are one another's neighbors and we truly are called to stand together in solidarity. We are also responsible for one another and must build societies which further humanize us and enable us to live in peace together.

Can 'Government' Ever Be Good?

If it adheres to these principles:

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness - That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

John Paul II seemed to agree when he said:

The Founding Fathers of the United States asserted their claim to freedom and independence on the basis of certain "self-evident" truths about the human person: truths which could be discerned in human nature, built into it by "nature’s God." Thus they meant to bring into being, not just an independent territory, but a great experiment in what George Washington called "ordered liberty": an experiment in which men and women would enjoy equality of rights and opportunities in the pursuit of happiness and in service to the common good. Reading the founding documents of the United States, one has to be impressed by the concept of freedom they enshrine: a freedom designed to enable people to fulfill their duties and responsibilities toward the family and toward the common good of the community. Their authors clearly understood that there could be no true freedom without moral responsibility and accountability, and no happiness without respect and support for the natural units or groupings through which people exist, develop, and seek the higher purposes of life in concert with others.

The American democratic experiment has been successful in many ways. Millions of people around the world look to the United States as a model in their search for freedom, dignity, and prosperity. But the continuing success of American democracy depends on the degree to which each new generation, native-born and immigrant, makes its own the moral truths on which the Founding Fathers staked the future of your Republic. Their commitment to build a free society with liberty and justice for all must be constantly renewed if the United States is to fulfill the destiny to which the Founders pledged their "lives . . . fortunes . . . and sacred honor."

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