Subsidiarity

Decisions should be made at the lowest level competent to make them. Higher levels sit behind, providing context, guardrails, and intervening only when lower levels cannot handle the issue.

From Catholic social teaching (Quadragesimo Anno, Pius XI, 1931): “It is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do.” The etymology is structural: Latin subsidium means “to sit behind.” In the Roman military, the subsidium was the reserve line that sat behind the front to lend support in case of need. The higher unit does not command the lower unit. It sits behind it, ready to assist.