Friday, June 06, 2014

A recent article on subsidiarity

During the agitation for Telangana state 'Law and other things' had a few articles on 'subsidiarity'. One of the key articles linked is by N.W.Barber is behind a pay wall. Here is a new article and a passage from it "This difference does not just lie in the Catholic model’s attempt “to determine the bounds of the private sphere,” and the European model’s concern about “the allocation of power within the public sphere.” Rather, as N. W. Barber thoughtfully elaborates, the fundamental difference lies in the fact that the Catholic model does not address the procedural question of power
allocation at all: “there is always a right answer” requiring that “power be allocated to the correct institution.” In sharp contrast, under the European principle of subsidiarity, “centralizers must show that power can better be exercised by the Community, and that this improvement in efficiency is sufficient to warrant the shift”"

 According to the Wikipedia article:
"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 (according to the Information expert design guideline). Subsidiarity is, ideally or in principle, one of the features of federalism, where it asserts the rights of the parts over the whole.
The word subsidiarity is derived from the Latin word subsidiarius and has its origins in Catholic social teaching (see Subsidiarity (Catholicism)).[1] The concept or principle is found in several constitutions around the world (see for example the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which asserts States rights.
It is presently best known as a fundamental principle of European Union law."

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