10/31/2020 Subsidiarity - Wikipedia

Subsidiarity
Subsidiarity is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be
dealt with at the most immediate (or local) level that is consistent with their resolution.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as "the principle that a central authority should have
a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level".[1]
The concept is applicable in the fields of government, political science, neuropsychology, cybernetics,
management and in military command (mission command). The OED adds that the term "subsidiarity"
in English follows the early German usage of "Subsidiarität". [2] More distantly, it is derived from the
Latin verb subsidio (to aid or help), and the related noun subsidium (aid or assistance).

The concept originates in the writings of Calvinist law-philosopher Johannes Althaus who used the word
"subsidia" in 1603,[3][4] and was later used in 1891 by the Roman Catholic Church for its social
teaching.[5][5] Subsidiarity is a general principle of European Union law. In the United States of America,
the principle of States' Rights is enshrined in the constitution.

Contents
Political theory
General principle of European Union law
Court of Justice
See also
References
Notes
External links

Political theory
Alexis de Tocqueville's classic study, Democracy in America, may be viewed as an examination of the
operation of the principle of subsidiarity in early 19th century America. De Tocqueville noted that the
French Revolution began with "a push towards decentralization ... in the end, an extension of
centralization".[6] He wrote that "Decentralization has, not only an administrative value, but also a civic
dimension, since it increases the opportunities for citizens to take interest in public affairs; it makes
them get accustomed to using freedom. And from the accumulation of these local, active, persnickety
freedoms, is born the most efficient counterweight against the claims of the central government, even if
it were supported by an impersonal, collective will."[7]

As Christian Democratic political parties were formed, they adopted the Catholic social teaching of
subsidiarity, as well as the neo-Calvinist theological teaching of sphere sovereignty, with both
Protestants and Roman Catholics agreeing "that the principles of sphere sovereignty and subsidiarity
boiled down to the same thing".[8]

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The term "subsidiarity" is also used to refer to a tenet of some forms of conservative or libertarian
thought in the United States. For example, conservative author Reid Buckley 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) defence of the commonwealth, (2) protection of the rights of citizens, and (3)
support of just order.[9]

The United Nations Development Programme's 1999 report on decentralisation noted that subsidiarity
was an important principle. It quoted one definition:

Decentralization, or decentralising governance, refers to the restructuring or reorganisation

of authority so that there is a system of co-responsibility between institutions of governance
at the central, regional and local levels according to the principle of subsidiarity, thus
increasing the overall quality and effectiveness of the system of governance, while increasing
the authority and capacities of sub-national levels.[10]

According to Richard Macrory, the positive effects of a political/economic system governed by the
principle of subsidiarity include:[11]

Systemic failures of the type seen in the crash of 2007/08 can largely be avoided, since diverse
solutions to common problems avoid common mode failure.
Individual and group initiative is given maximum scope to solve problems.
The systemic problem of moral hazard is largely avoided. In particular, the vexing problem of
atrophied local initiative/responsibility is avoided.

He writes that the negative effects of a political/economic system governed by the principle of
subsidiarity include:

When a genuine principle of liberty is recognised by a higher political entity but not all subsidiary
entities, implementation of that principle can be delayed at the more local level.
When a genuinely efficacious economic principle is recognised by a higher political entity, but not all
subsidiary entities, implementation of that principle can be delayed at the more local level.
In areas where the local use of common resources has a broad regional, or even global, impact,
higher levels of authority may have a natural mandate to supersede local authority.[11]

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 Union may only act (i.e. make laws) collectively where independent action of
individual countries is insufficient without equal action by other members. The principle was established
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in the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht.[12] However, at the local level it was already a key element of the
European Charter of Local Self-Government, 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 related in essence to, but should not be confused with, the
concept of a 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):

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.

The national parliaments of EU member states have an "early warning mechanism" whereby if one third
raise an objection – a "yellow card" – on the basis that the principle of subsidiarity has been violated,
then the proposal must be reviewed. If a majority do so – an "orange card" – then the Council or
Parliament can vote it down immediately. If the logistical problems of putting this into practice are
overcome, then the power of the national parliaments could be deemed an extra legislature, without a
common debate or physical location: dubbed by EUObserver a "virtual third chamber".[13]

A more descriptive analysis of the principle can be found in Protocol 2 to the European Treaties.[14]

Court of Justice

The Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg is the authority that has to decide whether a
regulation falls within the exclusive competence[a] of the Union, as defined by the Treaty of European
Union and its predecessors. As the concept of subsidiarity has a political as well as a legal dimension, the
Court of Justice has a reserved attitude toward judging whether EU legislation is consistent with the
concept. The Court will examine only marginally whether the principle is fulfilled. A detailed explanation
of the legislation is not required; it is enough that the EU institutions explain why national legislation
seems inadequate and that Union law has an added value.

An example is the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in a legal action taken by the
Federal Republic of Germany against the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union
concerning a Directive on deposit guarantee schemes (13 May 1997). Germany argued that the Directive
did not explain how it was compatible with the principle of subsidiarity. The Court answered:

In the present case, the Parliament and the Council stated in the second recital in the
preamble to the Directive that "consideration should be given to the situation which might
arise if deposits in a credit institution that has branches in other Member States became
unavailable" and that it was "indispensable to ensure a harmonised minimum level of deposit
protection wherever deposits are located in the Community". This shows that, in the
Community legislature's view, the aim of its action could, because of the dimensions of the
intended action, be best achieved at Community level....

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Furthermore, in the fifth recital the Parliament and the Council stated that the action taken
by the Member States in response to the Commission's Recommendation has not fully
achieved the desired result. The Community legislature therefore found that the objective of
its action could not be achieved sufficiently by the Member States.

Consequently, it is apparent that, on any view, the Parliament and the Council did explain
why they considered that their action was in conformity with the principle of subsidiarity
and, accordingly, that they complied with the obligation to give reasons as required under
Article 190 of the Treaty. An express reference to that principle cannot be required.

On those grounds, the plea of infringement of the obligation to state reasons is unfounded in
fact and must therefore be rejected. (Case C-233/94[15])

See also
Anti-Federalism Localism (politics)
Cellular democracy Margin of appreciation
Decentralization Parochialism
Devolution Principle of conferral
Distributism Public choice theory
Federalism Oswald von Nell-Breuning
Foundation for subsidiarity Staatenverbund
Grassroots democracy States' rights
Local government Urban secession

References
1. Oxford English Dictionary. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/subsidiarity Definition: "[mass
noun] (in politics) the principle that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing
only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level:"
2. Early German usage: Subsidiarität(1809 or earlier in legal use; 1931 in the context of Catholic social
doctrine, in §80 of Rundschreiben über die gesellschaftliche Ordnung ("Encyclical concerning the
societal order"), the German version of Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo anno (1931))".
3. Endo, Ken (31 May 1994). "The Principle of Subsidiarity: From Johannes Althusius to Jacques
Delors". 北大法学論集. 44 (6): 652-553. "It is reasonable however to also identify Althusius as the
first proponent of subsidiarity and federalism (he uses, in fact, the word "subsidia" in the text). He
was a Calvinist theoretician of the laical State at the beginning of the 17th century."
4. Frederik H. Kistenkas (1 January 2000). "European and domestic subsidiarity. An Althusian
conceptionalist view" (https://brill.com/view/journals/tilr/8/3/article-p247_4.xml). Tilburg Law Review.
8 (3): 247–254. doi:10.1163/221125900X00044 (https://doi.org/10.1163%2F221125900X00044).
5. "Das Subsidiaritätsprinzip als wirtschaftliches Ordnungsprinzip", Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und
soziale Ordnung. Degenfeld-Festschrift, Vienna: von Lagler and J. Messner, 1952, pp. 81–92, cited
in Helmut Zenz (http://www.helmut-zenz.de/hznellbr.html), DE.
6. Schmidt, Vivien A (23 March 2007), Democratizing France: The Political and Administrative History
of Decentralization (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZsltI4XKXTUC&pg=PA10), p. 10,
ISBN 9780521036054.
7. A History of Decentralization (http://www.ciesin.org/decentralization/English/General/history_fao.htm
l), Earth Institute of Columbia University, accessed 4 February 2013

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8. Segell, Glen (2000). Is There a Third Way?. Glen Segell Publishers. p. 80. ISBN 9781901414189.
"When the Dutch Protestant and Catholic parties combined, to form the Christian Democrats, the two
parties agreed that the principles of sphere sovereignty and subsidiarity boiled down to the same
thing."
9. Reid Buckley, An American Family – The Buckleys, Simon & Schuster, 2008, p. 177.
10. Decentralization: A Sampling of Definitions (http://web.undp.org/evaluation/documents/decentralizati
on_working_report.PDF), Joint UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)-Government of
Germany evaluation of the UNDP role in decentralization and local governance, at the United
Nations Development Programme website, October 1999, pp. 2, 16, 26.
11. Macrory, Richard, 2008, Regulation, Enforcement and Governance in Environmental Law, Cameron
May, London, p. 657.
12. Shelton, Dinah (2003). "The Boundaries of Human Rights Jurisdiction in Europe" (http://scholarship.l
aw.duke.edu/djcil/vol13/iss1/2/). Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law. Duke
University School of Law. 13 (1): 95–154. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
13. Cooper, Ian (16 October 2009) Comment: Will national parliaments use their new powers? (http://euo
bserver.com/9/28839), EUObserver
14. Protocol 2 to the European Treaties (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:20
04:310:0207:0209:EN:PDF).
15. Judgment Of The Court in Case C-233/94 (http://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf?text=&docid=999
10&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=doc&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=190822)

Notes
a. Exclusive competencies are those matters that the member states have agreed with each other by
treaty are those that they should achieve jointly (typically through the European Commission). All
other matters remain as "national competences" (each member decides its own policy
independently). International trade agreements are an example of the former, taxation is an example
of the latter.

External links
Treaty establishing the European Community (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/dat/12002E/pdf/12
002E_EN.pdf)
The Assembly of European Regions' Subsidiarity is a word (http://www.aer.eu/events/press-communi
cations/2008/subsidiaritycampaign.html) movement, demanding recognition in dictionaries worldwide
"Subsidiaritaet" in the Lexikon der sozialoekologischen Marktwirtschaft (https://gerdzeitler.wordpress.
com/wirtschaftliche-subsidiaritaet/)

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