Is There Really a Common Good?

The new Democratic Socialists in America refer to the common good, or communist good, all the time. But what do they mean?

Theodore Roosevelt Malloch | July 20, 2026

The new Democratic Socialists in America refer to the common good, or communist good, all the time.

Is there such a thing as “the common good”?  What is government’s role in providing it?

It seems that many arguments are made assuming such or referring to some broad abstract concept naming such.  Often it appears to be the last defense of various forms of collectivism.

What should we make of competing notions of the common good?  Do we need one, or would it be better to just drop it from parlance and debate?  Is it ideologically dependent or a self-evident truth?  Or is it perhaps a myth?

The answer differs significantly depending on which philosophical or political tradition you belong to, and which writings carry the most weight for you.  The communist and socialist arguments of Marx and myriad latter day neo-Marxists depend on the vanguard of the proletariat and the stated goal of equality of outcomes.  Most liberals think in terms of welfare and the benefits of progressive taxation to bring about various forms of social welfare.  Utilitarians and pragmatists are less sanguine about the term and tend to shy away from it in favor of obtaining happiness or some kind of maximum efficiency.

There are four historically distinct and major ways of thinking about the question.

(associated with Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas)

In this ancient tradition, the common good is not merely the sum of individual interests.  It consists of the social conditions that enable people to flourish together — justice, peace, trustworthy institutions, and shared moral norms.  Individuals achieve their own good partly through participating in the larger political community.  Catholic Social Teaching,........

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