Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
France’s 200 roads to serfdom
France’s 200 roads to serfdom
Apr 2, 2025 3:30 AM

One of Europe’s most robust welfare states may be proving that government intervention and true social solidarity are inimical forces.

Many economic interventionists on both sides of the Atlantic cite the Catholic social teaching of “solidarity” – or, at least, their own conception of it – to justify far-reaching government policies of wealth confiscation and redistribution. The British philosopher Julian Baggini wrote in The Guardian that “Tax Freedom Day” should be celebrated as “Social Solidarity Day.”

But heavy-handed government policy appears to be weakening the bonds of social cohesion just across the English Channel, according to a French think tank writer.

Philippe François reports that France has more than 200 social benefit programs. And, he writes on the website of Fondation iFRAP, these are undermining rather than enhancing solidarity:

With “Equality” and “Fraternity” in our national motto, solidarity is a very sensitive theme for the French.Voluntarily helping their loved ones or funding charitable organizations seems natural to them, and very few oppose the obligations of solidarity vis-à-vis fellow citizens facing difficulties (e.g., illness) or assuming responsibilities deemed useful by society.

However, French society has developed less and less feelings of solidarity, while the mechanisms pulsory redistribution have e more numerous. It has e difficult to apprehend the real situation of the contributors and the beneficiaries of these transfers, which are transiting by multiple channels set up by the State, local authorities, and public and private social organizations.

This multiplicity of aid is also risky for democracy, since this distribution favors patronage relations …And this busted distribution system has carries very expensive administration costs.(My translation.)

His latter point echoes Pope John Paul II in Centesimus Annus:

[T]he Welfare State, dubbed …the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are panied by an enormous increase in spending. In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbours to those in need.

Solidarity exists under the most ideal situations when it springs freely and organically from the goodwill latent in society. Government cannot legislate love pel heartfelt charity.

As Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote in Caritas in Veritate:

Solidarity is first and foremost a sense of responsibility on the part of everyone with regard to everyone, and it cannot therefore be merely delegated to the State. …Unfortunately, too much confidence was placed in those institutions, as if they were able to deliver the desired objective automatically. In reality, institutions by themselves are not enough, because integral human development is primarily a vocation, and therefore it involves a free assumption of responsibility in solidarity on the part of everyone.

Solidarity, he goes on to note, must also include a relationship with God for each person to fully fulfill his or her vocation as a human being. France, the “eldest daughter of the Catholic Church,” essentially banished this prerequisite more than a century ago by legally codifying its adversarial policy toward religion into a doctrine known as laïcité.

In place of a religiously informed culture that spontaneously provides for the needy – and empowers the needy with greater opportunities to provide for themselves – France has produced ten scores of impersonal entitlements and transfer programs. This seems both a costly and inadequate replacement.

Yet to point out that solidarity begins in the parlor rather than in the Parliament can subject someone to having his very faith questioned. In 2012, America magazine criticized House Speaker Paul Ryan for raising the private foundations of solidarity. The author also accused Speaker Ryan of attempting “to enfeeble solidarity by flanking it with the principle of subsidiarity.”

Of course, it is not Ryan who conjoined the two principles but the Roman Catholic Church’s social teaching. As Pope Benedict wrote in the aforementioned encyclical, “The principle of subsidiarity must remain closely linked to the principle of solidarity and vice versa.” (Emphasis in original.) “Subsidiarity,” he wrote, ‘is the most effective antidote against any form of passing welfare state.”

And, as France appears to be learning, an passing welfare state is an effective antidote against true social solidarity.

homeless woman sleeps on the streets of Nice, France, as pedestrians walk by. ericd. This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 3.0.)

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Complete Concise   Chapter Contents   Exhortations to obedience and faith. 1-6 To piety, and to improve afflictions. 7-12 To gain wisdom. 13-20 Guidance of Wisdom. 21-26 The wicked and the upright. 27-35   Commentary on Proverbs 3:1-6   Read Proverbs 3:1-6   In the way of believing obedience to God#39s commandments health and peace may commonly be enjoyed and though...
Verse of the Day
  Hebrews 11:6 In-Context   4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.   5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: He could not be...
Verse of the Day
  Isaiah 61:7 In-Context   5 Strangers will shepherd your flocks foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.   6 And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.   7 Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion,...
Verse of the Day
  1 Corinthians 3:18-20 In-Context   16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?   17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.   18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Psalm 37:1-6   Read Psalm 37:1-6   When we look abroad we see the world full of evil-doers, that flourish and live in ease. So it was seen of old, therefore let us not marvel at the matter. We are tempted to fret at this, to think them the only happy people, and so we are...
Verse of the Day
  1 John 4:20 In-Context   18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.   19 We love because he first loved us.   20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Proverbs 15:4   Read Proverbs 15:4   A good tongue is healing to wounded consciences, by comforting them to sin-sick souls, by convincing them and it reconciles parties at variance.   Proverbs 15:4 In-Context   2 The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.   3 The eyes of the Lord are...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Proverbs 22:4   Read Proverbs 22:4   Where the fear of God is, there will be humility. And much is to be enjoyed by it spiritual riches, and eternal life at last.   Proverbs 22:4 In-Context   2 Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all.   3 The prudent see danger...
Verse of the Day
  Galatians 2:20 In-Context   18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.   19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.   20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Psalm 90:12-17   Read Psalm 90:12-17   Those who would learn true wisdom, must pray for Divine instruction, must beg to be taught by the Holy Spirit and for comfort and joy in the returns of God#39s favour. They pray for the mercy of God, for they pretend not to plead any merit of their own....
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved