Subsidiarity and solidarity

Subsidiarity and solidarity are two very popular concepts nowadays. Solidarity means we are all responsible for each other while subsidiarity means decisions being taken close to the grass roots.

While the word 'subsidarity' entered political language in connection with the Maastricht Treaty, Pope Pius XI had already clearly defined the principle of subsidiarity in his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno when he said: "Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to 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 or higher association what lesser and subordinate organisations can do.

"The supreme authority of the State ought, therefore, to let subordinate groups handle matters and concerns of lesser importance, which would otherwise dissipate its efforts greatly. Thereby the State will more freely, powerfully and effectively do all those things that belong to it alone because it alone can do them: directing, watching, urging, restraining, as occasion requires and necessity demands. 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 subsidiarity function, the stronger social authority and effectiveness will be, the happier and more prosperous the condition of the State."

Throughout Pope Pius XI's teaching there is an implicit and intimate relationship between subsidiarity and the common good. Catholic social teaching envisages that society should be made up of many layers, in a complex relationship with one another but which work as a whole towards the common good, in accordance with the principle of solidarity.

As the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales state in their 1996 statement: "We draw attention to the importance of retaining the connection between subsidiarity and solidiarity, two fundamental and inseparable principles of this body of teaching. Subsidiarity should never be made an excuse for selfishness, nor promoted at the expense of the common good or to the detriment of the poorest and most vulnerable sections of the community."