The Principle of Subsidiarity: Overcoming Market & State Polarities

There is a horizontal tension at the highest level of the social order regarding the power to be assigned to the market and the State. Those who consider that economic structures (the markets) have excessive power argue that it is not enough to guarantee equal rules for all, since—in their opinion—the exercise of the economic system generates injustices. On the contrary, those who judge that the State has excessive power in the social order will argue that history teaches that political interference in the social order has created totalitarianism and great material and anthropological poverty. Our thesis is that the principle of subsidiarity, with the family as a point of reference, allows us to solve the State-market tension through a healthy vertical relationship between higher-order societies and lower-order communities. Focusing attention on the principle of subsidiarity makes it possible to improve the vertical dynamics of society, where the needs and decisions—intelligent and free—of citizens about their life in society are known and respected. The market can increasingly consider the real benefits of those involved in commercial exchange and political authorities can more realistically address the needs of the population, without relying on measures that are merely politically correct or seem to be easy fixes.