Disability and Subsidiarity: Toward Social and Political Inclusion

While the ability to access social and political rights is essential to justice for people with disabilities, so is the ability to participate in local associations and local government, which can serve as agency-generating groups, and can provide more widespread opportunities for people to participate in politics. The requirements of a just society, then, cannot only be met by the decisions of national government or by international declarations, but also require attention to local politics and associations. But local politics and local associations are sites of power, and, like any sites of power, also hold the potential for abuse. As a result, we turn to the principle of subsidiarity, which not only attends to local governance as a way of empowering individuals, but also attends to the need for oversight of local governance in order to provide support and assistance, as well as protection against abuse. Our work considers the insights of the principle of subsidiarity for theorizing a just society for people with intellectual disabilities that takes seriously the responsibilities of different levels of politics and society.