Acknowledging the contribution of the poor to democracy

33. There is little appreciation of how dynamic the poor really are. To remedy this, a great many attitudes and practices — economic, social, cultural and political — have to be changed. When people living in poverty are excluded from taking part in drafting projects of relevance to them, history has demonstrated that, overall, little benefit is derived from such projects. The solidarity of the human community must be built up. It will not be possible to learn to share our daily bread unless it is agreed to re-direct our consciences and work throughout the whole of society(⁴⁹). Such attitudes lead to genuine democracy.

Democracy is generally acknowledged to be essential to human development because it enables everyone to play a responsible part in the governance of society. Moreover, the two go together and the weakness of one can jeopardise the other. If the principle of equality yields to force, the place of the poor in society may be reduced to the bare minimum. A democracy is judged in terms of the way it manages to dovetail freedom and solidarity, radically distancing itself from absolute liberalism or other doctrines that deny the sense of freedom or which act as stumbling blocks to genuine solidarity(⁵⁰).