Subsidiarity as a 120-Year old Innovation from Rerum Novarum 142.0

From 1891, a ‘new thing’ from Pope Leo XIII stays relevant

Dog-eared but with fresh, because timeless, concepts.

“… it is an injustice, a grave evil and a disturbance of right order for a larger and higher organization to arrogate to itself functions which can be performed efficiently by smaller and lower bodies. This is a fundamental principal of social philosophy, unshaken and unchangeable, and it retains its full truth today.” – Pope Pius XI Quadragesimo Anno, 1931.

This reflection on subsidiarity comes about from my constant search for models of social innovation that will transform Philippine political economy to benefit the people more and not just the political aristocracy. It is new and innovative in the Philippines because we have honored the great Pope’s concept by not implementing it by much.

In a similar vein is my ongoing look at the zanjera of Ilocos Norte, which was introduced to me by a book written by Professor Elinor Ostrom, the 2009 Nobel laureate on economics.

I learned more about the zanjera from a book I received just yesterday by Robert Siy, Community Resource Management (1982) that Professor Ostrom used as reference in her own landmark book, Governing the Commons (1990). Both books tell me that the Philippines has a domestic model of subsidiarity that has stayed resilient for at least one century.

Unfortunately, the zanjera is undergoing a third assault from big infrastructure projects overlayed, I think, without due consideration to its internal consistency as social institution to the needs and capacity of the people it serves and of its continued resilience.

Pope Leo XIII first wrote about the concept of subsidiarity in 1891 in the first great social encyclical, Rerum Novarum. Pope Pius XI, in Quadragesimo Anno written for its 40th anniversary, gave the clear definition of subsidiarity quoted above.

The concept of subsidiarity is so influential that it is embodied in the EU declaration as a key pillar for united action among the different nations that comprise it.

For the Philippines, it could provide a well-founded basis for federalization or a shift to a parliamentary system where most political decisions are local.

Pope John Paul II, in his 100th year anniversary encyclical – published in 1991 two years after the fall of the Berlin wall – added his own take that focuses on a minimal role of government in business:

The principle of subsidiarity… creating favourable conditions for the free exercise of economic activity, which will lead to abundant opportunities for employment and sources of wealth. – p.32 Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II 2001.

Creating favorable conditions can mean many things especially for an emerging economy like the Philippines. It can include critical activities in public safety, health, education, and sustainability.

My favorite quote from the social encyclicals is another one from Pope John Paul II on the 90th anniversary of the Rerum Novarum:

Work is a good thing for man – a good thing for his humanity – because, through work, man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes “more a human being.” – p.33 Laborem Exercens, Pope John Paul II on Human Work, 1991

The quote glorifies work itself, and not material wealth or position, as the true measure of man’s humanity.

I have seen these ideas alive especially among the northern Europeans who bring these concepts alive in their lives.

Maybe life, in ascending up the hierarchy of needs, is too difficult for peoples from the emerging countries like the Philippines – an easy excuse for materialism.

But working for improving the community is a continuing one, if not never ending, through historical time.

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Updated: March 14, 2011. Please extend SYNTHESiST Reach by clicking ‘Like’ on its Facebook page.

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