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S i d e b a r
The EU: More Competent Than Thou
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This Rock
Volume 17, Number 4
 April 2006 
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Over the last fifteen years, with the formation of the European Union, the principle of subsidiarity has become a central part of European political debates. The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht explicitly mentions subsidiarity, as does the proposed European Constitution. Virtually every politician in Europe gives speeches about it. Newspapers routinely run editorials on the topic, and it is debated on the op-ed pages.
Political leaders who support European unification often interpret the idea of subsidiarity to mean (perhaps with a little twisting) that the larger body is presumed to have more expertise than the smaller one, effectively turning subsidiarity into an endorsement of centralized power. The proposed constitution would create a new "big government" of Europe.
In contrast, subsidiarity is rarely mentioned in American political debates, and when it is, it is usually understood as a principle that supports decentralization, local groups, and limits to federal power. Almost every American politician complains that "big government" is inefficient and impersonal. Americans interpret subsidiarity as being in accord with the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
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