Solidarity principle (Catholicism)

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The principle of solidarity is one addition to the principles of personality and subsidiarity to the socio-philosophical foundations of Catholic social teaching . It is initially understood as a statement of being about the social nature of man, who can only develop his talents in the orientation towards society. At the same time, the principle of solidarity is normatively interpreted as a moral obligation of people to behave according to their social nature.

Theoretical foundations

The principle of solidarity as a principle of structure and being

Oswald von Nell-Breuning (center) specified the solidarity principle in his work

The solidarity principle is understood in the Catholic tradition, exemplified in the work of Oswald von Nell-Breuning , as the “building law” of every human community. Basically in every social community there is an interaction between the individual and the community, which is called “community entanglement”. From this follows the ethical principle of "joint liability", according to which both the individual members are responsible for the whole and the whole for the individual members.

In this tradition of thought, the anthropological basis of the common entanglement is the assumption of a “body” and “spirit ” nature of man. According to this, according to his bodily nature, man can neither exist nor reproduce without cooperation with others. He also needs the stimulation of others in order to develop as a spiritual being and to be culturally active.

The solidarity principle as the law of development of human society

On the political level, Nell-Breuning derives the demand from the solidarity principle that those values ​​must be realized in the community that “can only be realized in it”. This only jointly realizable values are " common property called" and its organizational requirements, the " common good , defined". It is the duty of every individual to “meet the requirements of the common good” and “subordinate” the individual good to it.

The principle of solidarity is also understood by Nell-Breuning as an empirical law of development that can be established in history. For example, the struggle of the workers for co-determination in the coal and steel industry should be understood as a process of “integrating the workers into the community of the people as a whole”. Ultimately, the aim of this process was to let the workers take the place in the community “where they can best and most effectively make their contribution to the good of the whole community”.

Applications of the solidarity principle in the individual forms of community

humanity

On a global level, Nell-Breuning sees humanity as a “human family” which, due to its uniform, socially defined human nature, forms a unity. That is why the realization of the principle of solidarity is a worldwide task aimed at realizing the common "objective cultural values". The fundamental obligations of all individuals to the whole of humanity are the maintenance of world peace and the support of the weaker members, e.g. B. in the form of development aid . To enforce the principle of solidarity worldwide, binding legal provisions such as international law are required. In addition, with increasing international interdependence, there is an increasing need for overarching legal institutions that are equipped with the necessary means of power. The United Nations and the Security Council are first but insufficient attempts.

Family and state

The family is from the perspective of Nell-Breuning of the place where the greatest solidarity ties can be lived together. Each member of the family shares responsibility for the family as a whole and must place their interests in the good of this whole. Conversely, however, the family as a whole also bears responsibility for each of its members and must use all strength to lead it “to the full maturity of its human nature”. No family member should be sacrificed to any family policy goals.

While the family predominantly has the character of a community of love, the state is essentially a legal community. In it the citizen is bound to the common good, which consists primarily in the right order of coexistence. This legal order not only binds the individual to the state as a whole, but also, conversely, the rulers and organs of the state to the well-being of the citizens, which consists primarily in securing their freedom and independence. No citizen may be sacrificed to any state goals such as “national honor”.

economy

Nell-Breuning views the economy as an essential part of the human community involved in realizing the value of right needs satisfaction. In order to achieve this goal, “a meaningfully orderly interlocking” of the actions of the individual economic subjects is required. To a certain extent, this is ensured by the self-interest of the individual - propagated by classical economics - and competition with others; In addition, however, a legal order must be created that ensures the good behavior of the individual economic subjects and the balance between them. The principle of solidarity demands that the working person can develop from “economic subject” to “economic citizen” and be integrated “in the right way” into the economic process. The owners of capital have the duty to "create new and better equipped jobs".

property

The principle of solidarity results in the owner's responsibility to the community and vice versa. The community has the right not only to regulate the use that the owner may make of his property, but also to regulate the legal form of property in such a way that property also fulfills its social function. On the other hand, the principle of solidarity binds the community towards the owner and does not allow them to abolish or restrict it arbitrarily. In principle, the existing property system should not be viewed as rigid and immutable, but should be continuously developed.

Historical development

Heinrich Pesch's “Solidarism”

The Jesuit social ethicist and economist Heinrich Pesch (1854–1926) presented the first systematic presentation of the solidarity principle . He tied in with the first approaches of Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler and Georg von Hertling , which were based on the social ethics of Thomas Aquinas .

Pesch developed his system in the five-volume textbook on economics published from 1905 to 1923 under the name "Solidarism". His main concern was to avoid the mistakes of both individualism and socialism and to develop an independent concept "as the middle between individualism and socialism".

Pesch understood solidarism not as a theological system, but as a social-philosophical system, since Christian revelation did not reveal any national economic programs. He pointed out, however, that above all the Christian idea of brotherhood could offer valuable clues for economic behavior and that solidarism "only gains its full strength, its compelling validity through the Christian worldview".

The starting point of Pesch's considerations is the view that humans, as “a social being, capable and in need of addition, are dependent on social life”. For Pesch, the moral duty to act in solidarity follows from the principle of being of factual mutual dependence: "Classification and subordination to the social whole and its well-being, that is solidarity as a social duty".

The state, economy and society have to orient themselves in the legal and organizational structure to the principle of solidarity. According to Pesch, the demand for social justice can be derived from it, by which he understands both the duty of the state to establish and maintain general welfare and the right of the individual citizen and the various social groups to “participate in the enjoyment” of this general welfare.

Pesch paid special attention to the economic area. He called his economic system in the narrower sense a "solidaristic work system". According to this, the working person is the “subject and goal of the economy”. It must be given back its due position in production and distribution. Pesch criticized the fact that the rule of capital over man had replaced man's rule over the world. In the liberation of the worker from this unbound rule, Pesch saw the "key point for the solution of the social question in the narrowest sense". But Pesch did not reject the private sector as such, the pursuit of gainful employment and competition. Rather, the right to property is a natural human right and an economic and social difference that results from natural inequality is fundamentally justified. As a prerequisite for a new order of solidarity, he called for a “democratic-constitutional constitution” for the entire economy. A basic component of this is the participation of the employees in the business decisions.

Further development of the solidarity principle

Cardinal Schulte was one of the first representatives of the principle of solidarity from the church teaching office
The encyclical Quadragesimo anno by Pope Pius XI. was significantly influenced by the solidarity principle of the Königswinterer Kreis

It was not until the 1920s that the principle of solidarity gradually gained acceptance in the church teaching post. The contributions of the first episcopal statements aimed, on the one hand, at a distinction between a capitalist mode of production ("technical capitalism"), which was assessed positively, and a capitalist attitude, whose exclusive focus on the pursuit of profit was criticized. The second focus was the demand for a higher valuation of the factor “work” in a “solidaristic” economic order in which “capital” and “work” work together “in partnership”. In 1925, the Austrian bishops supported the workers' right of co-determination in a circular on the grounds that industrial workers had to be incorporated into modern society so that the partnership between employers and workers “in a real working community would lead to the realization of true Christian solidarism ".

In 1926, Cardinal Schulte criticized in the Cologne Guidelines that the “capitalist outlook” did not “take into account the fate of the people working in their service” and that the predominance of capital was faced with “economic dependency and insecurity” on the part of workers who were “always felt more oppressive ”and would bring“ serious threats to the most valuable life goods ”.

Solidarism then received further theoretical training and deepening from the late 1920s and early 1930s through younger social scientists such as Johannes Messner, Gustav Gundlach, Oswald von Nell-Breuning and Paul Jostock.

Johannes Messner (1891–1984), lecturer at the University of Vienna and co-editor of the weekly Das Neue Reich , basically affirmed the basic approach of classical economic theory based on the individual and the principle of free competition, but at the same time advocated “a true democracy of work and the workers ”,“ the right of co-determination and the right of co-responsibility of the worker in the economy ”. Messner's idea was that all economic policy corrections "remain within the framework of the legality of today's economic life", in that all "members of the economy" join together to form a "working cooperation", which inevitably leads to a "bond of all in work for one another and with one another" would lead.

Gustav Gundlach (1892–1963), professor at the religious college of the Jesuits in Frankfurt and advisor to Pope Pius XII. , underlined the importance of the solidarity principle as a legal and social organizational principle. The solidarity of the individuals within the world of work is not a mere “factual element” like “capital”, but rather forms “the center of the social economy”. However, Gundlach left it open as to how the priority of the “work” factor should actually be implemented.

The Jesuit Oswald von Nell-Breuning (1890–1991) tried already in his first major publication, Fundamentals of Stock Exchange Morality, for behavioral measures and reforms “within the existing capitalist economic order”. The capitalist economic system is "in and of itself not bad or evil". The pursuit of profit necessary for the functioning of the economy must be curbed by "state influence", but not replaced by " bureaucracy ". Where the capitalist economic order has been introduced, the church may also participate in the capitalist economy.

The social scientist Paul Jostock (1895–1965) emphasized the need for concrete social reforms. In order to achieve a solution in the sense of solidarity, it is important to "really bring the will to reform across the board into the economy and allow it to intervene practically".

The social circular Quadragesimo anno

On May 15, 1931 under Pope Pius XI. The encyclical Quadragesimo anno , which was published and which was significantly influenced by Oswald von Nell-Breuning and the so-called Königswinterer Kreis , a group of younger social ethicists and economists, adopted essential social-philosophical basic ideas of solidarism. This was most evident in the sections on the individual and social nature of property and work. The denial of the social function of property leads to individualism, the misunderstanding of its individual function leads to collectivism, by which socialism was understood. The same applies to work and business in general. The encyclical basically affirmed capitalism as a technical-organizational economic system and recognized the wage contract as a morally permissible form of cooperation between capital and labor. At the same time, however, it rejected a currently exploitative capitalism, the concentration of power in the hands of individual managers, the self-abolition of competition and the “imperialism of international finance capital” (QA 109). These grievances in capitalism made it difficult for many people to “work their eternal salvation” (QA 130), which is why the encyclical demanded an increased co-determination of the wage workers based on co-ownership.

Like capitalism, the circular also criticized socialism, since “the sharpest class struggle and extreme hostility to property” (QA 112) were among its main goals. Even more serious is the fact that he does not know anything about the goal of human beings that goes beyond earthly society, sees in society only a "useful event" (QA 118) and sees the good of freedom "in complete subordination to the material necessities of the absolutely most rational production of goods" ( QA 119) sacrifice.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ See Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building Laws of the Society. Solidarity and subsidiarity . Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968
  2. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, p. 15 ff.
  3. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, p. 48
  4. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, pp. 30–33
  5. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, p. 48
  6. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, p. 56
  7. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, p. 59 f. See also the encyclicals Pacem in Terris by Pope John XXIII. and Populorum progressio of Pope Paul VI.
  8. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, p. 61
  9. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, p. 73
  10. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, p. 73
  11. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, pp. 64–66
  12. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Building laws of the society. Solidarity and subsidiarity. Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1968, p. 76
  13. ^ Heinrich Pesch: Textbook of economics. Vol. 1, Freiburg 4th edition 1924, p. 191
  14. ^ Heinrich Pesch: Textbook of economics. Vol. 2, Freiburg 5th edition 1925, p. VI
  15. ^ Heinrich Pesch: Textbook of economics. Vol. 4, Freiburg 4th edition 1924, p. 33
  16. ^ Heinrich Pesch: Textbook of economics. Vol. 4, Freiburg 4th edition 1924, p. 3
  17. ^ Heinrich Pesch: Textbook of economics. Vol. 2, Freiburg 2nd edition 1920, p. 275
  18. ^ Heinrich Pesch: Textbook of economics. Vol. 1, Freiburg 4th edition 1924, p. V
  19. ^ Franz-Josef Stegmann, Peter Langhorst: History of social ideas in German Catholicism. In: Helga Grebing (Hrsg.): History of social ideas in Germany. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Essen 2nd edition 2005 [2004], p. 728 f.
  20. ↑ Cf. Franz Josef Stegmann, Peter Langhorst: History of social ideas in German Catholicism. In: Helga Grebing (Hrsg.): History of social ideas in Germany. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Essen 2nd edition 2005 [2004], p. 730
  21. ↑ Teachings and instructions of the Austrian bishops on social issues of the present, in: August Maria Knoll : Cardinal Fr. G. Piffl and the Austrian episcopate on social and cultural issues 1913-1932. Vienna 1932, pp. 77–126 (here quote 97, p. 112)
  22. ↑ Cf. Cardinal Schulte: Cologne guidelines. In: Nell-Breuning: Church and Capitalism. P. 10, 12.
  23. ↑ For the following cf. Franz Josef Stegmann, Peter Langhorst: History of the social ideas in German Catholicism. In: Helga Grebing (Hrsg.): History of social ideas in Germany. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Essen 2nd edition 2005 [2004], p. 730 f.
  24. ↑ See Johannes Messner: Sozialökonomik und Sozialethik. Study on the foundation of a systematic business ethics. Paderborn 2nd edition 1929, pp. 11, 36f., 48, 51, 57, 61, 69
  25. ↑ Cf. Gustav Gundlach: The order of human society. Vol. 1, Cologne 1964, pp. 172-178
  26. ^ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Basics of the stock market morality. Freiburg 1928, p. 4
  27. ↑ Cf. Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Church and Capitalism. Mönchengladbach 1929, p. 7
  28. ↑ Paul Jostock: German Catholicism and the Overcoming of Capitalism. Regensburg 1932, p. 208
  29. ↑ To follow cf. Franz-Josef Stegmann, Peter Langhorst: History of social ideas in German Catholicism. In: Helga Grebing (Hrsg.): History of social ideas in Germany. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Essen 2nd edition 2005 [2004], pp. 734–736
  30. ↑ The individual articles of Quadragesimo anno are cited below with “QA”. It is based on the German translation according to: Federal Association of the Catholic Workers' Movement in Germany (Ed.): Texts on Catholic social teaching - The social circulars of the popes and other church documents. With introductions by Oswald von Nell-Breuning SJ and Johannes Schasching SJ. Ketteler-Verlag, Cologne 1992 ISBN 3-927494-01-1 / Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 1992, ISBN 3-7666-9789-7