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Zimmermann, Augusto --- "The principle of subsidiarity" [2019] ELECD 2223; in Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance (eds), "Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 390

Book Title: Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory

Editor(s): Crowe, Jonathan; Lee, Y. Constance

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 23

Section Title: The principle of subsidiarity

Author(s): Zimmermann, Augusto

Number of pages: 14

Abstract/Description:

The notion of subsidiarity captures the idea that higher governing orders are under an obligation to help or assist lower orders to flourish, rather than seeking to supplant or frustrate them. This concept forms one of the central and persistent features of the Catholic Church’s social doctrine. Augusto Zimmermann offers a defence of subsidiarity grounded in the wider natural law tradition, emphasising its basis in the work of Aquinas and John Locke. Aquinas’s conception of natural law, Zimmermann argues, emphasised the supremacy of natural law over human enactments, along with the distinct roles of various authorities and citizens in advancing the common good. Locke likewise stressed the limited nature of human authority and the importance of local organisations in securing social order - ideas that profoundly influenced the framers of the United States Constitution. Zimmermann concludes his chapter by exploring the link between subsidiarity and the values of autonomy and self-respect. Centralised governance, he argues, tends to harm the common good by undermining individual self-reliance and displacing local institutions that foster dignity, responsibility, and self-determination.