Suchergebnisse

THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY REGULATES AUTHORITY WITHIN A POLITICAL ORDER, DIRECTING THAT POWERS OR TASKS SHOULD REST WITH THE LOWER-LEVEL SUB-UNITS OF THAT ORDER, UNLESS ALLOCATING THEM TO A HIGHER-LEVEL CENTRAL UNIT WOULD ENSURE HIGHER COMPARATIVE EFFICIENCY OR EFFECTIVENESS IN ACHIEVING THEM. IN THIS ESSAY, THE AUTHOR SUMMARIZES ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATIONS AND JUSTIFICATIONS OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY. HE SKETCHES THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND OF THE DEBATE WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION WHERE, RATHER THAN REDUCING AND REMOVING FUNDAMENTAL POLITICAL CONFLICTS, THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY INCREASES AND SHAPES SUCH TENSIONS. THEN HE DELINEATES ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY AND ITS POSSIBLE INSTITUTIONAL ROLE. THE ALTERNATIVES HAVE STRIKINGLY DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONAL IMPLICATIONS REGARDING THE OBJECTIVES OF THE POLITY, THE DOMAIN AND ROLE OF SUB-UNITS, AND THE ALLOCATION OF AUTHORITY TO APPLY THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBSIDIARITY ITSELF. FINALLY, HE ASSESSES FIVE ALTERNATIVE NORMATIVE JUSTIFICATIONS OF CONCEPTS OF SUBSIDIARITY AND ILLUSTRATES THEM WITH REFERENCE TO THE EUROPEAN UNION.

Subsidiarity is a principle about the ordering of relations between groups. It has a foothold in legal doctrine, most notably in the law of the European Union, but increasingly also in international human rights law. But subsidiarity is at its heart a moral principle about how state and society (and perhaps states and societies plural) should be structured. While its precise content and implications in a range of contexts are certainly contested, at its core the principle requires higher (larger) groups to aid lower (smaller) groups, rather than to obliterate or subsume them. The principle thus recognises the value of a plurality of social groups, of multiple associations in which a measure of self-government is possible.

"In Federalism and Subsidiarity, a distinguished interdisciplinary group of scholars in political science, law, and philosophy address the application and interaction of the concept of federalism within law and government. What are the best justifications for and conceptions of federalism? What are the most useful criteria for deciding what powers should be allocated to national governments and what powers reserved to state or provincial governments? What are the implications of the principle of subsidiarity for such questions? What should be the constitutional standing of cities in federations? Do we need to "remap" federalism to reckon with the emergence of translocal and transnational organizations with porous boundaries that are not reflected in traditional jurisdictional conceptions? Examining these questions and more, this latest installation in the NOMOS series sheds new light on the allocation of power within federations"--