Functions of the State

The end of the State, we have seen, is to promote the welfare of its citizens as a whole, as members
of families, and as members social classes. Anyone who is inclined to doubt the propriety of
including the second and third of these clauses, will dismiss the inclination as soon as he looks
beneath formulas and fixes his attention upon realities. State exists and functions for the sake of
human beings. It attains this end primarily by safeguarding those interests that are common to all
the persons under its jurisdiction; for example, by resisting foreign invasion and protecting life and
property. If it stops at this point it will leave unprotected not only many individual interests, but
many elements of the common good, many aspects of the general welfare. To neglect the integrity
of the family or the prosperity of any considerable social class, will sooner or later injure society as a
whole. To take care of these interests is, indirectly at least, to promote the common good. Nor is this
all. Since individual welfare is the ultimate, though not strictly the formal, object of the State, that
object ought to be deliberately promoted by the State, whenever it cannot be adequately furthered
by any other agency.

To deny this proposition is to assume that men have been unable to achieve a political organization
that is adequate to safeguard their temporal welfare. However, it is neither desirable nor practicable
for the State to provide for every individual as such. It can promote individual welfare best by
dealing with men as groups, through their most important group relationships; therefore, as
members of families, and as members of social classes. When it provides for the needs that are
common to members of these two fundamental forms of association, it benefits most effectively the
whole number of its component individuals. What are the specific policies and measures by which
the State can best attain the objects described in the foregoing paragraphs? To answer this question
will be to describe the proper functions of the State. Among political writer a fairly frequent
classification of State functions is into necessary and optional or essential and non-essential. The
former are "such as all governments must perform in order to justify their existence. They include
the maintenance of industrial peace, order, and safety, the protection of persons and property, and
the preservation of external security.

They are the original primary functions of the State, and all States, however rudimentary and
undeveloped, attempt to perform them." They may be enumerated somewhat more specifically as
military, financial, and civil. In the exercise of its military function, the State defends itself and its
people by force against foreign aggression, and prevents and represses domestic disorder. The
financial function of the State comprises the collection and expenditure of funds for the
maintenance and operation of government. Regulations concerning individual rights, contracts,
property, disputes, crime, and punishment, constitute the State's civil function.

The optional or unessential functions are calculated to increase the general welfare, but they could
conceivably be performed in some fashion by private agencies. They comprise public works; public
education; public charity; industrial regulations, and health and safety regulations. Under the head
of public works are comprised: Control of coinage and currency in the conduct of banks; the postal
service, telegraphs, telephone and railroads; the maintenance of lighthouses, harbors, rivers, and
roads; the conservation of natural resources, such as forests and water power, and the ownership
and operation of supply plants and municipal utilities. Public education may include not only a
system of schools, but museums, libraries, art galleries, and scientific bureaus, such as those
concerned with the weather and agriculture. In the exercise of the function of public charity, the
State establishes asylums, hospitals, almshouses, corrective institutions, provides insurance against
accidents, sickness, old age and unemployment, and makes various provisions of material relief for
persons in distress. In the field of regulation, as distinguished from that of ownership, operation, or
maintenance, the State supervises public safety and industry. Regulations of the former kind relate
to quarantine, vaccination, and medical inspection of school children and of certain businesses and
professions, and protection of public morals in the matter of pictures, publications, theatres and
dance halls. Industrial regulation extends to banks, commerce, business combinations, and the
relations between employer and employee. The classification of State functions as necessary and
optional has the merit of presenting a comprehensive view of political experience. It enables us to
see how States have interpreted their scope, and distinguished between functions that are essential
and functions that are non-essential. While all fully developed States have regarded as essential the
functions which are so designated in the foregoing paragraphs, not all have agreed in conceiving the
so-called optional functions as of that character. Some of the optional functions have been regarded
by some States as primary and essential. And the number of optional functions that have been
undertaken varies greatly among the various States. The factor determining the course of the States
in this matter has been mainly, if not exclusively, expediency. A somewhat analogous classification is
used by many Catholic writers. While conforming fully to political experience, it also based upon
fundamental principles of ethics, and it illustrates the principles of logic. It is thus stated in summary
form by CathreinThe functions of the State are First, to safeguard the juridical order, that is, to
protect all rights, of individuals, families, private associations, and the Church; second, to promote
the general welfare by positive means, with respect to all those goods that contribute to that end.
Substantially the same classification and principle is laid down by Meyer, Castelein, Croninand Lilly In
a general way the primary functions in this classification correspond to the necessary or essential
functions in the grouping made by the political writers. While the second group of functions denoted
by the Catholic writers resembles the second category of the political science manuals in a general
way as regards content, there is a considerable difference of principle. The secondary functions
described by the political writers are said to be optional, and their optional character is determined
mainly by the varying experience and practice of particular States; but the positive promotion of
general welfare is regarded by the Catholic writers as normal and necessary, because required by
the fundamental needs of human beings. According to the Catholic writers, the difference between
the primary and secondary functions of the State is not a difference of kind but only of degree. As
noted by Meyer, the primary functions are not sufficient. The State must not only safeguard rights,
but promote the general good by positive measures of helpfulness.{10} This is the general principle.
In carrying it out, the State may properly undertake some particular activities which are not
obligatory, but only more or less expedient.

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS of State:

The concrete activities which fall under the primary functions of the State may be summarized as
follows. All natural rights must receive adequate protection. The State is obliged to safeguard the
individual's rights to life, liberty, property, livelihood, good name, and spiritual and moral security.
Whence it follows that laws must be enacted and enforced against all forms of physical assault and
arbitrary restraint; against theft, robbery, and every species of fraud and extortion; against all
apparently free contracts which deny the opportunity of pursuing a livelihood on reasonable terms;
against calumny and detraction; and against the spiritual and moral scandal produced by false and
immoral preaching, teaching, and publication. In the individualistic theory, the first two classes of
enactments are held to exhaust the functions of the State, apparently on the assumption that they
cover all the individual's rights. This is a grossly inadequate conception. Reasonable opportunities of
livelihood, reputation, spiritual and moral security, are all among man's primary needs. Without
them he cannot develop his personality to a reasonable degree, nor live an adequate life. Therefore,
they fall within the scope of his natural rights. For natural rights include all these moral powers,
opportunities and immunities which the individual requires in order to attain the end of his nature,
to live a reasonable life. Any arbitrary or unreasonable interference with these is a violation of the
rights of the individual. Hence the unfair competition carried on by a monopoly, unreasonable
boycotts, wage contracts for less than the equivalent of a decent livelihood, untrue or otherwise
unjustifiable statements derogatory to a man's reputation, utterances and publications calculated to
corrupt his religion or morals, -- are all injurious to the individual, and are unreasonable
interferences with the security and development of his personality. All the foregoing rights should be
safeguarded by the State, not only as exercised by the individual, but also as involved in the
reasonable scope of associations. Hence the family, the Church and all legitimate private societies
have a just claim to protection by the State in the pursuit of all their proper ends. Men have a right
to pursue their welfare not only by individual effort but through mutual association. A corollary of
State protection of rights is State determination of rights. To a very great extent the reciprocal limits
of individual rights cannot be satisfactorily adjusted by the individuals themselves. This fact is most
conspicuously illustrated in connection with property rights, but it receives frequent exemplification
in other sections of the juridical province. While all the rights above described have a general claim
upon the State for protection, not all of them have an actual claim to adequate protection at any
given time. This is a question of prudence and expediency. What the State may normally be
expected to do, is one thing; what it is here and now able to do, is quite another thing; for example,
with regard to false religious teaching and scandalous moral teaching. Perhaps the most
comprehensive and practical principle that can be laid down is this: The State should not attempt to
protect any right beyond the point at which further efforts threaten to do more harm than good.

SECONDARY FUNCTIONS of State:

These can be conveniently described by following the order outlined in the paragraph which
enumerated the so-called optional functions. In general, the secondary functions cover all activities
that cannot be adequately carried on by private effort, whether individual or corporate. Public
Works. Under this head are included all those industries and institutions which the State not merely
regulates, but owns and manages. The control of coinage and currency are undoubtedly among the
necessary functions of government. Almost equally necessary is the government postal service.
Telegraphs, telephones, railways, water supply and lighting may in a sense are called optional
functions, since the general welfare does not always require them to be operated by the State.
When public operation is clearly superior to private operation, all things considered, the State
undoubtedly neglects its duty of promoting the common welfare if it fails to manage these utilities.
It is a necessary part of the State's functions to provide such public safeguards as fire departments,
lighthouses, buoys, and beacons; to maintain such instrumentalities of communication as roads,
canals, bridges, and wharves; and to conserve such natural resources as forests, water powers, and
watersheds. None of these activities can be satisfactorily performed by private enterprise. Public
Education. As the child belongs primarily to the parents, so the function of education is primarily
theirs. Both these propositions are demonstrated by the facts and requirements of human welfare.
In very exceptional cases only can the education and upbringing of the child be controlled and
carried on as well by the State as by the parents. Nevertheless, the common welfare does require
the State to take a rather important part in the work of education. It is summarized in the following
excerpts from the Pastoral Letter of the American Hierarchy, issued in 1920. As the public welfare is
largely dependent upon the intelligence of the citizen, the State has a vital concern in education.
This is implied in the original purpose of our government which, as set forth in the preamble to the
Constitution, is "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide
for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity." In accordance with these purposes, the State has a right to insist that
its citizens shall he educated. It should encourage among the people such a love of learning that they
will take the initiative and, without constraint, provide for the education of their children. Should
they, through negligence or lack of means fail to do so, the State has the right to establish schools
and take every other legitimate means to safeguard its vital interests against the dangers that result
from ignorance. In particular, it has both the right and the duty to exclude the teaching of doctrines
which aim at the subversion of law and order and therefore at the destruction of the State itself.