Subsidiary Governance

Decision-making at the lowest possible level, involving all members of each community. Communities have almost complete autonomy and are not reliant on a state, but can choose to cooperate with other communities through federation to address shared interests.

Problems with Centralised Governance

Decisions are made at levels far removed from the places we actually live, leaving people disconnected from the governance process. Representative democracy ignores the demands of the minority, and is not flexible enough to allow communities to flourish independently.

Advantages of Subsidiary Governance

Every community is given complete autonomy and is free from external constraints, so each community can develop it's own approach to resource management, justice, and community life. Over time, people will move to the most successful communities with the best governance, and the less successful communities will naturally adopt the ideas of more successful ones. It allows for novel ideas for organising community life to be tested, refined, and allowed to compete.

A person's immediate surroundings, their community, are extremely malleable under subsidiary governance. Communities consist of a small group of individuals and families living in close proximity, so each person has much influence over how things are run.

People living in a small community are more charitable and altruistic, as the resources they donate are for local causes which they will directly witness the impact of.

Monolithic Societies

Most societies are becoming more individualistic and impersonal. The importance of immediate community is diminished by the idea of a monolithic society; one that is a single uniform entity. The inner structures of society are becoming less important as people are now only valued for their utility within a larger economic system. This way of living is antithetical to human nature, it ignores geography, identity and community in favour of treating every human being as a cog in a machine. In contrast, small scale community-based society is congruent with the human tenancy toward 'tribal' affiliation.

People don't see their impact on society, because 'society' has come to mean the nation state rather than a close-knit community. The impact of one's actions in society have become obscured by large-scale markets. For example; while a baker once used to bake bread to feed his community, he now works the machine which packs the bread, to be sold to an unknown customer in an unknown location, in order to earn money whose value is dictated by the state. Each person's impact is heavily abstracted by specialisation, and is transactional in nature, which causes alienation and lack of purpose.

The solution is not collectivisation, inequality is not the driver of these issues. In fact, some inequalities and hierarchy can help people by providing clearer responsibilities and purpose. The issue is rather the structure of society and the overbearing state, which restricts people and communities and forces conformity.

Unity causes fragmentation. Fragmentation causes unity.

A society that is monolithic, with no inner structures other than the citizenry and the state, causes deep fragmentation as relationships become more transactional and impersonal.

A society which is fragmented, where people are concerned with affairs on a smaller scale in their local community, creates far greater unity within each community but sacrifices some national unity.

Modern society consists of nothing but the individual and the state. In other words, you are either a citizen or a politician. As a citizen, your role is to provide value to society, and in return you can earn a living. As a politician, a member of the state, you are able to refashion society with governance and decision-making. There is no in-between, other than local councils which have very limited power and are completely dependant on the state for funding. A citizen has very limited power to change their local community. His only option is to "enter" politics, which very few have the opportunity to do. In an ideal subsidiary governance model, all members of a community have already "entered politics" from the moment they are born, but on a much smaller scale. This model draws on collective intelligence, and entrusts ordinary citizens to take care of their community, providing the meaning and purpose that impersonal work (an abstract contribution to society) cannot.

In essence, subsidiary Governance has the strong community, belonging and accountability of conservative hierarchical society, but with the equality and freedom of liberal society.