Knowra Subsidiarity Subsidiarity Subsidiarity is the principle that public decisions should be made by the lowest level of government capable of addressing them effectively. Higher levels should act when lower levels cannot achieve the necessary results.
Decentralization : The transfer of authority, responsibilities, or resources from central government to lower levels or local institutions. Subsidiarity supplies a rationale for decentralizing decisions when local institutions can handle them.
Catholic social teaching : The body of teachings through which the Catholic Church addresses social, economic, and political life. Subsidiarity emerged as a principle within this broader tradition of social thought.
Treaty on European Union : The treaty establishing the European Union’s political framework and defining its institutions and principles. Article 5 makes subsidiarity a condition on EU action in areas of shared competence.
Centralization : The concentration of decision-making authority in a central government or institution. It favors concentrating authority where subsidiarity assigns decisions to capable lower levels.
Multilevel governance : A system in which public authority is shared among institutions operating at local, regional, national, and supranational levels. Subsidiarity helps determine which level should act within shared systems of authority.
Quadragesimo anno : A 1931 papal encyclical by Pope Pius XI on social order, economic life, and the role of the state. It gave a canonical formulation of subsidiarity in modern Catholic social teaching.
Protocol No. 2 to the Treaty on European Union : An EU protocol setting procedures for applying subsidiarity and proportionality to draft legislation. It specifies how national parliaments and EU institutions scrutinize proposed measures.
Federalism : A constitutional system that divides governing authority between a central government and constituent political units. Federalism fixes or structures authority, while subsidiarity guides which level should exercise it.
Fiscal federalism : The study of how taxing, spending, and regulatory powers are allocated among levels of government. It turns subsidiarity’s allocation question into choices about revenue and public services.
Rerum novarum : A 1891 encyclical by Pope Leo XIII addressing labor, private property, and social conflict. It established the modern Catholic social teaching tradition in which subsidiarity later developed.
Show all 21