Subsidiarity
Encyclopedia
Subsidiarity is an organizing principle
that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. The Oxford English Dictionary
defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level. The concept is applicable in the fields of government
, political science
, cybernetics
, management
, military (Mission Command
) and, metaphorically, in the distribution of software module responsibilities in object-oriented programming
. Subsidiarity is, ideally or in principle, one of the features of federalism
, where it asserts the rights of the parts over the whole.
word subsidiarius and was first described formally in Catholic social teaching
. The concept or principle is found in several constitution
s around the world (for example, the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
which asserts States rights and further, the rights of the people).
thought. For example, conservative author Reid Buckley
writes:
, an instrument of the Council of Europe
promulgated in 1985 (see Article 4, Paragraph 3 of the Charter
) (which states that the exercise of public responsibilities should be decentralised). Subsidiarity is similar in concept to, but should not be confused with Margin of appreciation
.
Subsidiarity was established in EU law by the Treaty of Maastricht, which was signed on 7 February 1992 and entered into force on 1 November 1993. The present formulation is contained in Article 5(3) of the Treaty on European Union (consolidated version following the Treaty of Lisbon
, which entered into force on 1 December 2009):
A more descriptive analysis of the principle can be found in Protocol 2 to the European Treaties.
Formally, the principle of subsidiarity applies to those areas where the Community does not have exclusive competence, the principle delineating those areas where the Community should and should not act. In practice, the concept is frequently used in a more informal manner in discussions as to which competences should be given to the Community, and which retained for the Member States alone.
The concept of subsidiarity therefore has both a legal and a political dimension. Consequently, there are varying views as to its legal and political consequences, and various criteria are put forward explaining the content of the principle. For example:
Organizing principle
An organizing principle is a core assumption from which everything else by proximity can derive a classification or a value. It is like a central reference point that allows all other objects to be located. Having an organizing principle might help one simplify and get a handle on a particularly...
that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
defines subsidiarity as the idea that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level. The concept is applicable in the fields of government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, cybernetics
Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
, management
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
, military (Mission Command
Mission Command
Mission Command is a style of military command, derived from the Prussian-pioneered Mission-type tactics doctrine, promoting relatively decentralised subsidiarity of command, freedom and speed of action, and initiative, within certain constraints...
) and, metaphorically, in the distribution of software module responsibilities in object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
. Subsidiarity is, ideally or in principle, one of the features of federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
, where it asserts the rights of the parts over the whole.
Origin
The word subsidiarity is derived from the LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word subsidiarius and was first described formally in Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching
Catholic social teaching is a body of doctrine developed by the Catholic Church on matters of poverty and wealth, economics, social organization and the role of the state...
. The concept or principle is found in several constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
s around the world (for example, the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791...
which asserts States rights and further, the rights of the people).
Political theory
Subsidiarity is also a tenet of some forms of conservative or libertarianLibertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
thought. For example, conservative author Reid Buckley
Reid Buckley
Reid Buckley is an American writer, speaker, and educator. Among his books is a history of his family, An American Family—The Buckleys , which primarily focuses on his father, William Frank Buckley, Sr. Reid's brother, William F. Buckley, Jr., is perhaps the best known member of the family...
writes:
Will the American people never learn that, as a principle, to expect swift response and efficiency from government is fatuous? Will we never heed the principle of subsidiarity (in which our fathers were bred), namely that no public agency should do what a private agency can do better, and that no higher-level public agency should attempt to do what a lower-level agency can do better – that to the degree the principle of subsidiarity is violated, first local government, the state government, and then federal government wax in inefficiency? Moreover, the more powers that are invested in government, and the more powers that are wielded by government, the less well does government discharge its primary responsibilities, which are (1) defense of the commonwealthCommonwealthCommonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has sometimes been synonymous with "republic."More recently it has been used for fraternal associations of some sovereign nations...
, (2) protection of the rights of citizens, and (3) support of just order.
General principle of European Union law
Subsidiarity is perhaps presently best known as a general principle of European Union law. According to this principle, the EU may only act (i.e. make laws) where action of individual countries is insufficient. The principle was established in the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht. However, at the local level it was already a key element of the European Charter of Local Self-GovernmentEuropean Charter of Local Self-Government
The European Charter of Local Self-Government was adopted under the auspices of the Congress of the Council of Europe and was opened for signature by the Council of Europe's member states on 15 October 1985...
, an instrument of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
promulgated in 1985 (see Article 4, Paragraph 3 of the Charter
European Charter of Local Self-Government
The European Charter of Local Self-Government was adopted under the auspices of the Congress of the Council of Europe and was opened for signature by the Council of Europe's member states on 15 October 1985...
) (which states that the exercise of public responsibilities should be decentralised). Subsidiarity is similar in concept to, but should not be confused with Margin of appreciation
Margin of appreciation
Margin of Appreciation is a concept the European Court of Human Rights has developed when considering whether a member state of the European Convention on Human Rights has breached the convention. The margin of appreciation doctrine allows the court to take into effect the fact that the Convention...
.
Subsidiarity was established in EU law by the Treaty of Maastricht, which was signed on 7 February 1992 and entered into force on 1 November 1993. The present formulation is contained in Article 5(3) of the Treaty on European Union (consolidated version following the Treaty of Lisbon
Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....
, which entered into force on 1 December 2009):
Under the principle of subsidiarity, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level.
A more descriptive analysis of the principle can be found in Protocol 2 to the European Treaties.
Formally, the principle of subsidiarity applies to those areas where the Community does not have exclusive competence, the principle delineating those areas where the Community should and should not act. In practice, the concept is frequently used in a more informal manner in discussions as to which competences should be given to the Community, and which retained for the Member States alone.
The concept of subsidiarity therefore has both a legal and a political dimension. Consequently, there are varying views as to its legal and political consequences, and various criteria are put forward explaining the content of the principle. For example:
- The action must be necessary because actions of individuals or member-state governments alone will not achieve the objectives of the action (the sufficiency criterion)
- The action must bring added value over and above what could be achieved by individual or member-state government action alone (the benefit criterion).
- Decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the citizen (the close to the citizen criterion)
- The action should secure greater freedoms for the individual (the autonomy criterion).
See also
- DecentralisationDécentralisationDécentralisation is a french word for both a policy concept in French politics from 1968-1990, and a term employed to describe the results of observations of the evolution of spatial economic and institutional organization of France....
- DevolutionDevolutionDevolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
- DistributismDistributismDistributism is a third-way economic philosophy formulated by such Catholic thinkers as G. K...
- FederalismFederalismFederalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
- Foundation for subsidiarityFoundation for subsidiarityFoundation for Subsidiarity is an Italian think tank founded in Milan, Italy, in 2002 with the goal of enriching the cultural-scientific discourse and to promote a vision of society based on the centrality of the person and the principal of subsidiarity, with a particular emphasis on the aspects...
- Grassroots democracyGrassroots democracyGrassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes where as much decision-making authority as practical is shifted to the organization's lowest geographic level of organization: principle of subsidiarity....
- Local GovernmentLocal governmentLocal government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
- Localism (politics)Localism (politics)Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity...
- Margin of appreciationMargin of appreciationMargin of Appreciation is a concept the European Court of Human Rights has developed when considering whether a member state of the European Convention on Human Rights has breached the convention. The margin of appreciation doctrine allows the court to take into effect the fact that the Convention...
- Oswald von Nell-BreuningOswald von Nell-BreuningOswald von Nell-Breuning SJ was a Roman Catholic theologian and sociologist.Born in Trier, Germany into an aristocratic family, Nell-Breuning was ordained in 1921 and appointed Professor of Ethics at the University of Frankfurt am Main in 1928...
- ParochialismParochialismParochialism means being provincial, being narrow in scope, or considering only small sections of an issue. It may, particularly when used pejoratively, be contrasted to universalism....
- Principle of conferralPrinciple of conferralThe principle of conferral is a fundamental principle of European Union law. According to this principle, the EU is a union of member states, and all its competences are voluntarily conferred on it by its member states...
- Public choice theoryPublic choice theoryIn economics, public choice theory is the use of modern economic tools to study problems that traditionally are in the province of political science...
- Subsidiarity (Catholicism)Subsidiarity (Catholicism)Subsidiarity is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. Political decisions should be taken at a local level if possible, rather than by a central authority...
- Urban secessionUrban secessionUrban secession is a city's secession from its surrounding region, to form a new political unit. This new unit is usually a subdivision of the same country as its surroundings, but in some cases, full sovereignty may be attained, in which case the unit is usually called a city-state...
External links
- Treaty establishing the European Community.
- The Assembly of European Regions' Subsidiarity is a word movement, demanding recognition in dictionaries worldwide
- For German-speaking visitors: see also Subsidiaritaet in the Lexikon der sozialoekologischen Marktwirtschaft.