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Democracy and Tyranny The Catholic understanding of the State and Politics by Thomas R. Rourke Professor of Politics Clarion University of Pennsylvania
All booklets are published thanks to the generous support of the members of the Catholic Truth Society
CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE
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Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Beginning with the Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Foundations of the Democratic State I: Popular Sovereignty, Natural Law and Natural Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Foundations of the Democratic State II: The Sacred/Secular Distinction/ Culture, Family and the State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Authority and Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 New Forms of Tyranny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
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Introduction Throughout history and down into our own time, the scourge of tyranny has ravaged human existence. In the twentieth century we have witnessed baleful and tragic genocides against the Armenians, Jews, and the Tutsi tribe in Rwanda, as well as “ethnic cleansing” in places such as Bosnia and Sudan. These extreme cases underline the depth of evil that tyranny can unleash, and the moral imperative to prevent it. Although it is not the role of the Church to impose or demand any one particular political regime, the Church does teach “that there should be juridico-political structures providing all citizens. ... the practical possibility of freely and actively taking part in the establishment of the juridical foundations of the political community and in the direction of public affairs.” 1 Insofar as democratic governments make such provisions, the Church values them, as John Paul II makes clear: “The Church values the democratic system inasmuch as it ensures the participation of citizens in making political choices, guarantees to the governed the possibility both of electing and holding accountable those who govern them, and of replacing them through peaceful means when appropriate.”2
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But how exactly do we distinguish democracy from tyranny? It isn’t always easy. In our time, problems have arisen that frequently obscure the difference. For example, some people question the relationship between democracy and any fixed, abiding sense of moral values, claiming that any external imposition of values on people who happen to reject them would be a form of tyranny. Yet, many of these same people see an ever-expanding state power over families, communities, education, and even life itself, as completely compatible with democracy. Others again emphasise that democracy is merely a set of procedures, any outcome whatsoever of which is legitimate; others associate democracy with a substantive sense of what is just and true, which must place definitive moral limits on the legitimate outcomes of the political process. And although there is practically unanimous consent to the contention that democracy is a regime that preserves individual rights, there is widespread argument as to which rights should be recognised. In many cases, most notably in that of abortion, different groups claim completely incompatible rights. In the midst of this growing confusion, the teaching authority of the Church has long proclaimed its “social doctrine�. As the Bride of Jesus Christ, the repository of the sacred deposit of Revelation, and the witness of 2,000 years of human history, the Church has an expertise in human affairs, particularly when it comes to grasping
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fundamental principles of moral and social order. Always willing to serve the larger human community, the Church’s teaching authority has long addressed the questions of the better ordering of human societies, of which the issues of tyranny and democracy are a crucial part. Grounded in the Church’s social doctrine, this small book intends to clarify the central and defining features of democratic government and its opposite, tyranny.
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Beginning with the Person The Church’s entire social teaching, including its doctrine concerning the political community, is grounded in Christian “anthropology”, that is, on the conception of the human person. Ultimately, what is acceptable or unacceptable for a government to do is reducible to what is good or bad for the human person the state is bound to serve. The Church’s social teaching explains this centrality of the person as follows: The human person, in himself and in his vocation, transcends the limits of the created universe, of society and of history: his ultimate end is God himself, who has revealed himself to men in order to invite them into communion with himself ... The human person cannot and must not be manipulated by social, economic or political structures, because every person has the freedom to direct himself towards his ultimate end. ...Any totalitarian vision of society and the State, and any purely intra-worldly ideology of progress is contrary to the integral truth of the human person and to God’s plan in history. [Moreover, the Church is] the sign and safeguard of the transcendent dimension of the human person.3
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Therefore, it is fair to say that we should approach the doctrine of the state through the doctrine of the person. One of the defining characteristics of the human person is his relatedness to others and to God. Christian Revelation made a noteworthy and permanent contribution when, in the context of formulating the doctrine of the Trinity, it came to understand that the distinctive feature of the Persons in God was their relationship with the other Persons. As then Cardinal Ratzinger put it, “In its nature, the person exists only as relation.”4 Created in the image and likeness of God, the human person is a reflection, however pale, of the Divine Persons. Therefore, to be a person is to be in relation with all others, responding to the same call to love. It is this call to love and to solidarity with others that is at the heart of the mystery of the Trinity and is the core of what is revealed by Jesus Christ. As the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church summarises, “Being a person in the image and likeness of God... involves existence in a relationship, in relation to the other ‘I’, because God Himself... is the communion of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”5 Solidarity Flowing directly from this understanding of the social nature of the person comes one of the most important concepts for the understanding of the political and social
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order: the principle of solidarity. This principle underscores the social nature of the person, as well as the fundamental equality and dignity of all people. It is of special concern in our time that the international and cross-cultural dimensions of solidarity be emphasised, with the increasing realisation of the interdependence of people and the need for all of humanity to stand united against threats to the human person. In fact, the development of this principle has always been expressed in terms of the need to create ever more effective “structures of solidarity” so as to combat corresponding “structures of sin”, which include all laws and institutional arrangements that deny people the right to participate in decisions affecting their lives, or that promote grave inequalities, exploitation, oppression and corruption. In addition, the principle of solidarity requires people to realise and act on the conviction that they are in debt to the society of which they are part, both for providing conditions in which they can live, and for the preservation of the cultural, intellectual, and material patrimony of which they are heirs. The principle must therefore be seen under a double aspect, as both a social principle and a moral virtue. Concerning the former, solidarity guides the ordering of the state and all social institutions, promoting the participation and collaboration of all citizens in the pursuit of the common good, and removing all
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corresponding obstacles. Moreover, at the personal level, solidarity is manifest as a moral virtue, a firm and persevering determination to work with others to promote the common good under its various dimensions, seeking to leave no potential good unrealised; it is a willingness to sacrifice oneself by giving to others for the promotion of the common welfare. 6 For its part, the state must do everything it can to preserve the roots of this vital personal and social motivation, directly through just laws and a just arrangement of institutions, and indirectly by encouraging people to participate, and by leaving open space for personal and collective initiatives. Individuality In addition to the social nature of the person and the requirement of solidarity, there is a corresponding pole of autonomy and dignity that is equally important to the constitution of the human person. Without compromising the intrinsic character of man’s fundamental relatedness, the Church’s social teaching recognises a dimension of personal autonomy and individual dignity. Man is a being whose identity is never simply defined by his relationships with others, for the depths of his being plunge into the being of God himself. As a child of God, he is absolutely unique and precious in the eyes of the Creator, and this opens up regions of entirely legitimate autonomy and personal responsibility.
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To understand personal autonomy, dignity and responsibility correctly, they must be seen in unison, as components of what we might call the pole of individuality (equal in importance to the pole of solidarity). As a being created in the image and likeness of God, the human person in a sense transcends the entire social order, which is there to promote his good. As the Compendium states: “The human person must always be understood in his unrepeatable and inviolable uniqueness. In fact, man exists above all as a subjective entity, as a center of consciousness” – a centre also of freedom, autonomy and responsibility. All attempts to reduce the status and dignity of man by conceiving him as a mere cog in the social wheel, purely as a part of the larger social whole, are gravely wrong, as are all attempts to capture his essence under ideological or social categories, for man in God always transcends every social and intellectual context. Whatever social role a person plays, “the social order and its development must invariably work to [his] benefit ... since the order of things is to be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around.” Therefore, every political and social program must be grounded in the principle of the primacy of the person over society.7 Hence, the state must respect, in addition to the principle of solidarity, the equally important dimension of man’s individual dignity and autonomy.