is the title of an insightful article by Fr. James Schall over at the Ignatius site. An analysis of the political contribution of Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, he comments:
The Second half of the encyclical is a brilliant treatise on the nature and limits of the State and what lies beyond it. "We do not need a state which regulates and controls everything," Benedict writes, "but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need" (par 28b).
There will always be a sphere of human life which requires love, and which is therefore, beyond the reach and competence of the State. It is not possible to create a State which can literally provide everything the human person needs, because it can never provide genuine love, which is a property of individuals.
The strength of the American Revolution, as opposed to the French Revolution, is that our experiment in ordered liberty respected the sphere of Society and Market, which were beyond the scope of the State. Unlike the French Revolution and its progency, our revolution did not require the State to subsume everything, including the whole social order, into itself.
There is no longer a minimum government party in American politics. The Democrats have not been minimum govt party since about the time of Grover Cleveland. The Republican commitment to miminimum govt has been fragile, because it over-emphasized economics and utilitarianism. Yet even in this area, the Republicans are not reliable: witness their overspending and earmarking of pork barrel projects.
It is time, long past time actually, for us to do for Society what Milton Friedman and the Chicago School did for the Market: Establish Society as an entity independent of the State, which deserves autonomy and respect.
