<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>If we want to think about Michael Novak’s contribution to the development of democracy and the progress of society in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, it will be necessary to look at several authors from whom he drew his ideas. With the help of the Italian moralist, Giuseppe Angelini, we will try to explain the historical and contemporary development of the concept of development as understood in the Social Doctrine of the Church and Novak’s commentaries on John Paul II’s encyclicals on progress and development. Novak cites “Aquinas’s forgotten conclusion that social order is based on civil dialogue”. With these reflections, he seeks to build on the work of other prominent American philosophers and political scientists, such as John Courtney Murray, Paul Steidl-Meier, and others, while presenting his vision of economic and social progress for the countries living under the totalitarian regime of the Soviet bloc. The most important ideas here are directed towards notions such as the right to economic initiative and especially a notion of genuine individual freedom in society.</p>
</abstract>

If we want to think about Michael Novak’s contribution to the development of democracy and the progress of society in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, it will be necessary to look at several authors from whom he drew his ideas. With the help of the Italian moralist, Giuseppe Angelini, we will try to explain the historical and contemporary development of the concept of development as understood in the Social Doctrine of the Church and Novak’s commentaries on John Paul II’s encyclicals on progress and development. Novak cites “Aquinas’s forgotten conclusion that social order is based on civil dialogue”. With these reflections, he seeks to build on the work of other prominent American philosophers and political scientists, such as John Courtney Murray, Paul Steidl-Meier, and others, while presenting his vision of economic and social progress for the countries living under the totalitarian regime of the Soviet bloc. The most important ideas here are directed towards notions such as the right to economic initiative and especially a notion of genuine individual freedom in society.

The idea of democracy and the progress of society in the work of Michael Novak: A look at the theory and subsequent development of Michael Novak’s predictions in the context of Central European countries

Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas

Ethics & Bioethics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

If we want to think about Michael Novak’s contribution to the development of democracy and the progress of society in the countries of Central and Eastern...

The idea of democracy and the progress of society in the work of Michael Novak: A look at the theory and subsequent development of Michael Novak’s predictions in the context of Central European countries

Published Online: Dec 09, 2023

Page range: 208 - 217

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2023-0019

Keywords
evolution and development of individuals, societies, and nations, democratic political system, the solution to world poverty, economic initiative, the real freedom of the individual in the political system

© 2023 Inocent-Mária Vladimír Szaniszló, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The idea of democracy and the progress of society in the work of Michael Novak: A look at the theory and subsequent development of Michael Novak’s predictions in the context of Central European countries

Published Online: Dec 09, 2023

Page range: 208 - 217

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ebce-2023-0019

Keywordsevolution and development of individuals, societies, and nations, democratic political system, the solution to world poverty, economic initiative, the real freedom of the individual in the political system

© 2023 Inocent-Mária Vladimír Szaniszló, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
evolution and development of individuals, societies, and nations, democratic political system, the solution to world poverty, economic initiative, the real freedom of the individual in the political system