Subsidiarity
At the foreshore fora I was introduced to the Catholic idea of subsidiarity, part of their catechism :
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 and help to co-ordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.
Read more here, here and here. It is a fundamental principle of the EU consitution too.
2 responses to “Subsidiarity”
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ahhhh – I read somewhere (I can’t find where) that it was against this idea that Kuyper developed his ‘sphere soveriegnty’. He rejected the idea of hierarchy. And it strikes me that subsidiarity fits nicely with the Catholic idea (from Aristotle, I think) that there is a ‘chain of being’ in the universe, from the lowest life forms to the highest, through animals, man, angels, to God.
I’m biased against this idea because of what I’ve already read, and I’m not sure that it would be helpful in, for instance, apartheid. But in that it shows the obligations of a greater power to a lessor, it seems to have good points.
There is a hierarchy though – the government is ‘over’ me, I have to do what it says.