The social-economic system must be marked by the twofold presence of public and private activity, including private non-profit activity. In this way sundry decision-making and activity-planning centres come to take shape. The use of certain categories of goods, collective goods and goods meant for common utilization, cannot be dependent on mechanisms of the market,743Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 40: AAS 83 (1991), 843. nor does their use fall under the exclusive competence of the State. The State's task relative to these goods is that of making use of all social and economic initiatives promoted by intermediate bodies that produce public effects. Civil society, organized into its intermediate groups, is capable of contributing to the attainment of the common good by placing itself in a relationship of collaboration and effective complementarities with respect to the State and the market. It thus encourages the development of a fitting economic democracy. In this context, State intervention should be characterized by a genuine solidarity, which as such must never be separated from subsidiarity.
Private non-profit organizations have their own specific role to play in the economic sphere. These organizations are marked by the fearless attempt to unite efficiency in production with solidarity. In general, they are built on agreements of association and manifest a common way of thinking in the members who choose to join. The State is called to respect the nature of these organizations and to make proper use of their various features, putting into practice the fundamental principle of subsidiarity, which requires that the dignity and autonomous responsibility of the “subsidiary” subject be respected and promoted.