Mission, Not Price, Coordinates Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity coordinates through shared mission, not price signals. Hayek’s distributed system coordinates through prices, driven by self-interest. Subsidiarity coordinates through missionary culture: every member motivated by advancing the mission, viewing others as partners. The distinction matters under pressure. A team with full autonomy but no mission buy-in (e.g., an SRE team that internalized its role but not the organization’s purpose) responds to local incentives but has no reason to resist centralization when crisis hits. Missionaries push back because a directive that runs counter to the mission feels viscerally wrong. Price signals do not build that resistance. Shared purpose does.