First principle
Subsidiarity and solidarity belong together
Responsibility should remain low and near; no vulnerable person should be abandoned.
Families should do what families can do. Communities and associations should retain real authority. Higher institutions should assist when the scale or failure of a problem demands it—but their goal should be restoration of capacity rather than permanent absorption.
Subsidiarity without solidarity can become neglect. Solidarity without subsidiarity becomes bureaucracy. Layered responsibility aims at agency, reciprocity, participation, and faithful care where independence is impossible.
Specific references
Read alongside the principle.
Quadragesimo Anno
Pius XI
The classic statement that higher orders should assist rather than absorb lower communities.
Open sourceDemocracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville
Local self-government and voluntary association as the practical schooling of free citizens.
Open sourceBeyond Markets and States
Elinor Ostrom
Evidence that communities can govern shared resources through durable, polycentric institutions.
Open source