Subsidiarity

The term and the idea derive from the Papal Encyclical of Pius XI Quadragesimo Anno (1931) where he writes: “Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them …. Therefore, those in power should be sure that the more perfectly a graduated order is kept among the various associations, in observance of the principle of "subsidiary function," the stronger social authority and effectiveness will be the happier and more prosperous the condition of the State”. In brief the idea is that political power should be located as close as possible to those over whom it is exercised. This is incorporated in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1919: “The principle of subsidiarity is a teaching according to which a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need.” It bears a close resemblance to ideas developed by lay Catholics in the same period and by secular thinkers in the 1960s and 70s under the terms ‘communitarianism’ and ‘localism’.