Introduction and Overview › Glossary for Networking Language · 2 min read
The subsidiarity principle is an organizational and governance principle stating that decisions and tasks should be handled at the level where they arise and can be responsibly resolved. Only when a task cannot be meaningfully fulfilled at a lower level is it transferred to a higher level.
The principle strengthens self-responsibility, prevents unnecessary centralization, and ensures that decisions are made as close as possible to the affected people, organizations, and regions.
Not every decision needs to be made centrally.
The closer a decision is made to the specific situation, the better local conditions, needs, and experiences can be taken into account.
A higher level therefore only assumes tasks that should reasonably be organized jointly or across borders.
A European software infrastructure can be structured according to the subsidiarity principle:
Each level assumes responsibility for the tasks it can best fulfill itself.
The subsidiarity principle naturally complements steward-ownership.
While steward-ownership ensures that a company permanently serves its purpose, the subsidiarity principle describes at which level responsibility should be exercised.
It prevents decisions from being unnecessarily centralized while strengthening the self-organization of the involved support structures.
In cooperative networks, multiple levels of responsibility often emerge:
The subsidiarity principle helps to meaningfully delineate these levels.
The shared infrastructure serves all participants without stripping them of their autonomy.
The subsidiarity principle does not mean that each level acts completely independently—it combines self-responsibility with collaboration.
Higher levels provide support where joint solutions make sense. Lower levels simultaneously retain responsibility for their own tasks and decisions.
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Created on June 27, 2026 · Last updated on October 11, 2026
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