The Social Principles and Economic Life

Abstract

The paper deals with the reference of the social principles, as they are formulated in the Church’s documents, to the economic reality; it presents them as the basis of forming personalistic oriented economic order. Among these principles we have the principle of (commutative, distributive and social) justice, which has been emphasized in the teaching of the Church since Leo XIII. It regulates the ways of the redistribution of goods, the participation in the life of enterprises, the processes of exchange, the system of insurance, mutual relations between capital and labour; it secures private property and institutions of the common good. This principle may be supplemented by the principle of righteousness, which is the voice of conscience’s sensitivity, conscience which in each situation confirms the dignity of the human person. The principle of solidarity is a way to humanize the rigid market mechanisms, the principle which the Church shows as a chance to overcome the limitations of individualistic and collectivistic economy. Both solidarity and justice gain their most profound sense by their reference to the common good which in the sphere of economy should be interpreted as economic legislature, policy of employment, tax and credit system, the constitutions of enterprises etc. To the most exposed social principles belongs the principle of auxiliarity formulated by Pius XI. This principle when referred to the economic life imposes the priority of private initiative and entrepreneurship before the state’s intervention, and induces to supporting a fuller participation of employees in the life of enterprises.