It is the sum total of all those conditions of social life which enables individuals, families and organizations to achieve complete and efficacious fulfilment. The Catholic Church also teaches that human beings have a right to goods and their distribution to serve the Common good. This understanding is the basis of economic and social rights in the modern world. The struggle against dictatorship taking place all around the world depends almost entirely on the idea of universal human rights. This is not an elite notion.
Democracy is the means of putting human rights into action.
We cannot expect that governments alone can do this. For a government without a strong base in the community is like a ship without a rudder. It is only through the active support of large numbers of people that governments can survive and put in place the programs and activities which will build a strong culture of cooperation and trust, without which no modern economy can prosper. Later this year, on August 30, the people of East Timor will vote once more - for the first time since the famous ballot of 1999 when they repudiated 25 years of Indonesian rule. At that time despite army and militia intimidation and violence, and despite the threats of what they knew would happen should they choose independence, Timorese people voted honestly and calmly, knowing that they might never get another chance.