The Competitive Governance Institute presents a video on the concept of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity describes the principle of making decisions and taking action at the lowest, smallest possible level of authority. It is the conservative principle that gives power back to local institutions and de-emphasizes the brute force of the national government.

We’re now at a point where Congress has a lower approval rating than cockroaches and polygamy. The discontent isn’t directed at specific decisions or lawmakers, but rather seems to express an overarching sense of mistrust and illegitimacy toward our political system as a whole. If the system is truly broken, then a serious and qualitative change must be made to correct it. Why are incumbents almost always re-elected if people overwhelmingly disapprove of the legislative results that they see? Pointing fingers and expressing frustration doesn’t seem to be renewing the system. In such a situation, a re-examination of principles can help us recover the je ne sais quoi that we are missing.

It’s clear that Americans are deeply upset with the status quo of our political systems. In this short video, Leo Linbeck III offers insights about why all our discontent and protests seem to be making no difference–is it possible we’re confused about the cause of our issues. Perhaps the answer to the meta-failure we are seeing today is tied up in our answer to the following question: is what we decide or who decides more important for good governance?

Books on this topic may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore. 

We hope you will join us in The Imaginative Conservative community. The Imaginative Conservative is an e-journal for those who seek the True, the Good and the Beautiful. We address culture, liberal learning, politics, political economy, literature, the arts and the American Republic in the tradition of Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Edmund Burke, Irving Babbitt, Paul Elmer More, Wilhelm Roepke, Robert Nisbet, M.E. Bradford, Eric Voegelin, Christopher Dawson and other leaders of Imaginative Conservatism. 

All comments are moderated and must be civil, concise, and constructive to the conversation. Comments that are critical of an essay may be approved, but comments containing ad hominem criticism of the author will not be published. Also, comments containing web links or block quotations are unlikely to be approved. Keep in mind that essays represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Imaginative Conservative or its editor or publisher.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email