Federalism and the Catholic Principle of Subsidiarity

Abstract

With the adoption of subsidiarity as a key norm in governance structures of the European Union, the principle has gained a degree of public currency. In this article, I consider subsidiarity as it has been invoked in support of decentralization and federalist political arrangements generally. I note that prevailing conceptions of subsidiarity have tended to neglect or only superficially appreciate its foundations in Catholic social doctrine. This, I contend, is no mere genealogical oversight: the separation of subsidiarity from its theological grounding obscures important features of the normative principle. These features—principally assumptions regarding social ontology and the normative function of civil associations—ultimately render the Catholic principle of subsidiarity incompatible with some of the prescriptive conclusions it is regularly alleged to support.