Free Enterprise and the Common Good: Economic Science and Political–Economic Art as Complements

This essay explores tensions between classical-liberal and national-conservative visions of markets and the common good. Drawing on Catholic social teaching and Wilhelm Röpke’s political economy, Salter argues that free enterprise and moral order must be treated as complements, not substitutes. He calls for dispersed property, subsidiarity, and policies that support economic independence, civic virtue, and human flourishing. 

Guidance Notes 

Free Enterprise Competitive Markets (A) – Central theme: explores how markets serve the common good when balanced by moral and civic considerations rather than pure efficiency. 

Healthy, Stable Systems (A) – Advocates dispersed property and subsidiarity to sustain freedom and prevent concentration of power—key CPR system-stability goals. 

Corporate Citizenship (B) – Frames enterprise as a moral actor embedded in community life, with duties to uphold shared well-being beyond profit. 

Responsibility (B) – Highlights the moral obligations of firms and policymakers to design markets that sustain families, workers, and civic order. 

Civic Institutions Governing (C) – Links property ownership and civic engagement, arguing that healthy markets depend on participatory institutions. 

Democracy Constitutional Republic (C) – Warns that economic dependence erodes democratic independence; connects market design to constitutional self-governance. 

Legitimacy (D) – Reflects CPR’s principle that economic authority must rest on moral legitimacy and broad-based benefit, not technocratic or partisan power.