Subsydiarność: stara idea na nowe czasy. Perspektywa encykliki Caritas in veritate

Subsidiarity is a well known concept in the Humanities, but its potential for ordering social life is far from exhausted. Aim of the article is to answer a question of the validity of this idea. A new impetus for its understanding could be found in the latest social Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI Caritas in Veritate (2009). Recalling the old idea, the Pope pointed at the biblical sources of subsidiarity and its anchoring it in the history of political and social thought. Theoretical explanations of the principle of subsidiarity allows also with reference to the Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo anno to select two negative and two positive description of individuals as ‘intermediate bodies’ and as ‘bigger’ and ‘higher’ communities. The latter are obliged to ‘help for self help’. When it proves effective, they should no longer provide help, but are obliged to make a ‘subsidiary reduction’. Using the language of Caritas in Veritate, it means that provided assistance ‘always implies the effect of emancipation’. Caritas in Veritate contains new elements of understanding subsidiarity; among others, the importance and meaning of civil society in overcoming contemporary social issues. Appropriate is ‘the logic of the gift’ that goes beyond ‘the logic of the market’ and ‘the political logic’. The perspective of subsidiarity seems to be useful in the management of globalization; this perspective considers the concept of development and reform of the social and tax systems (the notion of ‘the fiscal subsidiarity’). This perspective could be useful for those who are looking for solutions of the current economic crisis.