Subsidiarity — keeping power at the most local and individual level feasible — is correct as a general political principle. Both state and corporate power are legitimate in proper domains but should be limited rather than expanded as default. Individual citizens are the ultimate source of democratic legitimacy.
Decentralization reduces risk of abuse and increases accountability. Concentrated power — whether state or corporate — tends toward imbalance. Distributing power supports autonomy and resilience.
Power should be kept as close to citizens as possible whenever feasible. That principle helps limit both state and corporate overreach.
Centralized power, whether held by a government or a massive corporation, inherently tends toward the erosion of individual agency and the prioritization of systemic goals over human needs. Keeping power at the level of the individual citizen ensures that the people most affected by decisions are the ones making them, which is the fundamental premise…
Concentrated power in either the state or corporations can threaten autonomy, rights, and democratic self-government. Keeping power closer to citizens supports accountability and pluralism. Some central authority is necessary, but it should be limited and justified.
Power should remain with the people and their communities — not with the federal government or multinational corporations. Subsidiarity — the principle that decisions should be made at the lowest possible level — is both constitutionally sound and consistent with Christian social thought. Project 2025 is built on restoring power to states, localities, families, and individuals.
Should power be kept as close to individual citizens as possible — subsidiarity — limiting both state and corporate authority?
Unanimous YES. Decentralization reduces risk of abuse and increases accountability; concentrated power — whether state or corporate — tends toward imbalance; individual citizens are the ultimate source of democratic legitimacy.
FCN YES — power should be kept with people and their communities, not with the federal government or multinational corporations. Project 2025 is built on restoring power to states, localities, families, and individuals. Subsidiarity is both constitutionally sound and consistent with Christian social thought.
FCN's enthusiastic YES on subsidiarity is consistent with its general positions. Interestingly, FCN invokes specifically Catholic social teaching (subsidiarity) in support of a Protestant evangelical conservative agenda — one of the rare places where FCN draws on broader Christian social thought beyond evangelical political theology.
Does subsidiarity apply to corporate power as consistently as it applies to federal government power for FCN? The principle is symmetric, but FCN's application in the corporate accountability section (S10) is much less consistent.