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 their 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.
Subsidiarity is the principle that each level of governmental and civic life, including individuals and families, should be allowed to fulfill the responsibilities for which they have competence without interference from levels that exist above them. This is the basis for delegating as many matters as possible to local governments, which are closer, and thus presumably more responsive, than national political authorities to the needs of the people they are serving. Subsidiarity also means leaving matters that can be handled outside of government to civil society, the family, or individuals.
While subsidiarity is often invoked to protect the rights of civic and political entities that exist close to the local community, it also requires higher levels of government to be responsible and accountable for matters that cannot reasonably be handled by those that exist below them. A global pandemic is a crisis that requires strong action by the national government as well as coordination among sovereign nations. Every U.S. state has an interest in containing the spread of the virus in all states, which means national policy must direct all of them to take steps to slow the reproduction rate. In addition, only the federal government has the capacity to borrow large sums quickly to address a crisis of this magnitude.
Solidarity is the obligation, required of both citizens and political authorities, to act with genuine concern for all members of the community, especially those with limited resources and political power. In the international context, this means national leaders should be attentive to the needs of citizens in other countries even as their primary obligation is to safeguard the safety and good health of their own citizens.
The U.S., like most countries, is struggling with a shortage of needed personnel and supplies to handle the surge of patients suffering from COVID-19. Scarcity is leading to some decisions that reflect the principles outlined above, and others that do not.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has moved in recent days to establish what amounts to a unified, statewide approach to allocating needed personnel and supplies across all public and private hospitals. He recently signed an executive order allowing him to seize control of ventilators in upstate facilities with excess capacity so that they can be used to alleviate the crisis unfolding in the New York City metropolitan area. This is the right decision and is fully consistent with the principles of the common good and subsidiarity. It will allow resources to be optimized for all citizens in the state during a crisis, and no one besides the governor could have taken this step. If and when the situation gets reversed, with upstate hospitals suffering more after the surge in NYC has abated, then supplies and equipment can flow in the opposite direction. Sharing limited resources in a crisis is a concrete expression of solidarity with those in greatest need.
The federal government has been racing to help states address critical shortages, but it has not yet taken steps that would create a national version of the New York model. With time running short, what is needed is a mandatory program that will allow for greater sharing of pre-existing supplies among the states, outside of the national stockpile. Such a program might involve transporting patients to where there is less strain on hospital capacity, or transporting supplies and personnel to the areas under the most current stress.
In the coming weeks and months, almost all parts of the country are likely to experience a period during which their hospital capacity will be stretched to the limit. It is in the interests of all states -- the common good -- to develop a system for sharing resources that will make this difficult period as manageable as possible. Only the federal government is in a position to make this happen. It should.
The pandemic is exposing strains among nations. The Trump administration, consistent with its America First philosophy, is doing whatever it can to secure supplies from global companies, even if that means pushing aside, rather than working with, foreign governments. For instance, 3M announced that the administration had pressured it to halt shipments of medical supplies to Canada and Latin America -- supplies that these countries have a contractual right to expect will be delivered. Earlier, a German biotech claimed that the administration tried to entice it to move its coronavirus research to the U.S., presumably so that Americans would have first claim to the vaccines the company is working to develop and produce.
Such strong-armed tactics are likely to backfire. The U.S. needs the cooperation of other nations to get the supplies it needs, just as these countries need the cooperation of the U.S. to get the supplies they need. If the U.S. tries to unilaterally husband resources in ways that unjustly harm other nations, and violates their rights as sovereign countries, the trust that is essential to global cooperation, already substantially depleted in the Trump era, could vanish altogether.
The U.S. has an interest in other countries succeeding in their battles with the virus. The scientific and medical communities seem to understand this, which is why the race to produce a safe and effective vaccine involves substantial global cooperation. More death and suffering, wherever it occurs, will only add to global instability and slow economic growth. Instead of viewing the entire situation through a zero-sum lens, the U.S. should be working with allies, especially the world’s democracies, to create a plan that helps all nations, including those in the developing world, to minimize the damage the pandemic causes, measured in lives lost and diminished economic well-being.
The good news from the last month is that Americans seem to understand that combatting this pandemic requires self-sacrifice from them, for the good of their communities, the nation, and the world. It is time for the nation’s policymakers to follow their lead.
James C. Capretta is a Contributor at RealClearPolicy and holds the Milton Friedman chair at the American Enterprise Institute.
