Cloutier on Douthat, Francis, "conservatives" . . . and the rule of law

A good read, at Catholic Moral Theology, from David Cloutier.  I would quibble with the invocation and ritual-denunciation of supposedly "Randian" talk and thinking among "conservative" Catholics (because I do not believe that, really, any meaningfully Catholic "conservatives" embrace anything like Ayn Rand's objectivism and do believe that we should avoid taking down straw-men).

Anyway, one of the things I liked about Cloutier's piece is his reminder that "secure property rights" -- and, I would extend this to "the rule of law" more generally -- have to be seen as essential aspects of any market-system that has any hope of contributing to authentic human development.  It's not so much that "capitalism" in the abstract helps to lift people and societies out of poverty -- it is that a (reasonably regulated and relatively easily navigable and fairly transparent) market economy that rests on a foundation of rule-of-law commitments, well-designed social-welfare programs, and functioning legal mechanisms does so.