A student's thoughts on subsidiarity

I've asked students in my "Catholic Social Thought and the Law" seminar to share their thoughts through (among other things) blog-posts.  I posted one such post a few days ago.  Here's another: 

Our recent discussion in class regarding subsidiarity resulted in my attempting to diagram the concept, with my final effort appearing at the top of this blog post.  Let me (attempt) an explanation, at least insofar as I understand it.  First, the axes: The horizontal axis indicates the source of organizational governance; moving from left to right we move from predominately privately-controlled organizations, such as Bowling Leagues or the Church, through intermediate organizations, such as small business, fraternal organizations (such as the VFW) to multinational corporations, which are all subject to varying degrees of both private and public governance.  At the extreme right is the government – the ultimate source of “public” control insofar as it regulates society and is, in turn, regulated by society. The vertical axis is a rough approximation for the scale of a group: small groups (Bowling Leagues) sit slightly above the individual level, while large groups span the entire distance, denoting the individual components, and the individual effects the large group has on a person, as well as the collective impact upon society. Note that within larger groups are shaded boxes—my attempt to denote hierarchical elements (in the case of the Church) or management structure (corporations or businesses).

Generally, groups exist within the “mediating soup” constituting society; they represent the methods by which individual citizens interact socially, politically, economically, and spiritually with one another. There are two exceptions to this rule, according to my illustration: First, the State, owing to its exclusive lock on the legitimate use of coercive power, is both a part of and distinct from society in general. At the same time, no citizen may legitimately escape the power of the State—as illustrated by the “Into the Wild” stick figure, a reference to the book and movie of the same name (in which the protagonist essentially tries to escape the bonds of humanity, only to realize [spoiler alert!] at the very end that humans are truly, unavoidably social beings). He is outside of society, but is not outside the power of the State, at least as a theoretical matter. Note also that the State is ultimately limited (unlike the Church, discussed below) in its power to only regulating society (in its broadest sense – the “here and now,” physical existence of humans).

The second exception is the Church, which is literally within and “above” society – a reference to its focus on Salvation in addition to building God’s Kingdom on earth.   Jacques Maritain’s “Man and the State” references a similar concept in the context of Religious Freedom: “While being in the body politic—in every body politic—through a given number of her members and her institutions, the Church as such . . . is not a part but a whole; she is an absolutely universal realm . . . above the body politic and every body politic.”  This is precisely the image of the Church I have sought to convey, with more or less success. It comports nicely with the idea of subsidiarity, in that it leaves room for individual, small group and other hierarchical elements to exist, while denoting the special characteristics inherent in the Church.

This image represents a sort of ‘snapshot’ of society at a point in time. If we added a time element, the shapes would shift and move amoebically according to social trends—for example, the “quasi-governmental organization” arm might reach out and overlap with the Social Services of the Church (one need only think of the current controversy regarding conscience clauses in healthcare service provision).