The Hidden Power Podcast S2 Ep 10: Check 9 - Democracy and Subsidiarity: Subsidiarity

Power to the People

Central government only undertakes tasks or makes decisions which localities cannot or which require uniform regulation.

The gravitational pull of power to the centre is one of the things designers of the German constitution had in mind at the end of the Second World War.

Germany had a certain fundamental and rather paradoxical advantage the UK lacks – they were defeated, along with Japan, and so their institutions were largely dissolved and reinvented in such a way as to avoid the accretion of power at the centre.

This is a version of this week’s topic – Subsidiarity – and we look at the German model in depth, and why it has been so successful.

Talking points:

Historic backdrop of Subsidiarity
We need to reinvent local democracy
Executive mayor in Tubingen and the pandemic
How that looks in other countries
Trust in government and optimal population (+/- 5 Million)
Advantages of principle of subsidiarity
Hazards of disempowerment
Uniform regulation and local implementation in Germany
Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety and subsidiarity
…and child protection
Regional power, policy experimentation and learning

Links:

Good 2 min overview of Subsidiarity (youtube):