Understanding Subsidiarity, Common Good, and Participation

Understanding Key Social Principles

The principle of subsidiarity derives from the Christian notion of society. It also determines the State's obligation to take additional, exceptional, complementary, and supportive action in social sectors or functions when society is unable to achieve its goals independently. It aims to promote and assist society. Main characteristics include:

1. It is a principle of reason, not of faith, limiting the natural rights of individuals and social groups.
2. It comprehends both dimensions of social life: the relationship between vertical and horizontal dimensions based on respect for and promotion of social freedom.
3. It is a grave, immutable principle, universal in time and space.
4. It self-adapts to each country and circumstance with flexibility.
5. It is not a mixture of liberalism and interventionism but has its own definition and substance.

The Common Good

The Common Good focuses on the pursuit of social good. The horizontal dimension emphasizes that individuals and intermediate groups must make their specific contributions to the general welfare. The main characteristics are:

1. It comprehends all aspects of social life and involves all its elements.
2. It must lead collective dynamism.
3. It varies according to time and social group.
4. It is universally binding for all.
5. It must not be misunderstood as the satisfaction of a mere sum of individual utilities.
6. It considers both dimensions of man.

Principle of Participation and Justice

The Principle of Participation acknowledges the right and duty of everyone to participate in social life according to the circumstances of time and place. The Principle of Justice seeks to inspire the legal system to guarantee the common good at national and international levels. According to Plato, justice comprehends all virtues but has different meanings:

1. Justice as a moral action: the will of giving each one his own.
2. Justice as a quality.
3. Social justice: all that is required to guarantee human life in society and to improve it, functioning as a claim for due change, to reform what becomes obsolete.