The COVID-19 pandemic is creating tremendous governance challenges in every country of the world. Who should be responsible for allocating scare resources needed to care for patients? What is the responsibility of political leaders to cooperate with their counterparts from other subdivisions within their countries, or with leaders from other nations? What obligations do citizens have in this crisis, towards civil authority and towards each other? Three principles from Catholic social teaching -- the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity -- can help policymakers and those they represent think more clearly about these difficult questions.
Promotion of the common good refers to the orientation that should guide decision-making on matters of civic life. The goal of government should be to create the conditions that allow all of society, not just favored factions or the politically-connected, to develop and flourish. Citizens within a political jurisdiction should be willing to set aside their narrower concerns and accept compromise policies that are in the best interests of the community as a whole. A primary responsibility of nation-states is to provide security and protection to all of its citizens, through national defense. Public health measures to combat a global pandemic clearly fall within the mandate of nation-states and constitute a solemn obligation.
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