Skip to main content

Principle of Subsidiarity

  • 239 Accesses

Definition

The principle of subsidiarity is a socio-ethical and political concept which is based on the idea that decisions should be made on the lowest possible level of an organizational hierarchy. If the lowest organizational level is not in a position, or objectively cannot make a decision, the authority is transferred to the first higher level. Principle of subsidiarity can be looked at as sort of a defense mechanism against interference of higher-level authorities in matters concerning smaller communities, private concerns, and individuals.

Description of the Principle of Subsidiarity

The name of the principle of subsidiarity is derived from a Latin word subsidium, meaning help, relief, or reinforcement. This word was used for units in the Roman army who were tasked to give support to the central fighting units if the first line needed it (Thorne, 2011). The principle of subsidiarity is a prominent principle of social ethics and is found in the Catholic Social Teaching and is...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Borna Jalsenjak .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Jalsenjak, B. (2020). Principle of Subsidiarity. In: Idowu, S., Schmidpeter, R., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Del Baldo, M., Abreu, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_113-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_113-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02006-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02006-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Principle of Subsidiarity
    Published:
    04 March 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_113-2

  2. Original

    Principle of Subsidiarity
    Published:
    19 November 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_113-1