The subsidiarity principle was formally adopted in 1992 by the European Union to limit excessive centralization of competences. According to the subsidiarity test, a given policy responsibility should be allocated to the lowest possible level of government, unless there is evidence that the central government (the Union) has a comparative advantage in fulfilling the task under consideration. Contrary to its stated goal, the adoption of the subsidiarity principle was followed by a wave of intense centralization. In this paper, we address this paradox by studying the effects and the limitations of the subsidiarity test in promoting an optimal level of centralization.
Editor-in-Chief: Parisi, Francesco
Ed. by Cooter, Robert D. / Gómez Pomar, Fernando / Kornhauser, Lewis A.
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Self-Defeating Subsidiarity
Emanuela Carbonara / Barbara Luppi / Francesco Parisi
1University of Bologna
1University of Modena and Ctr. for Economic Research (RECENT)
1University of Minnesota Law School and University of Bologna
Citation Information: Review of Law & Economics. Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages 741–783, ISSN (Online) 1555-5879, DOI: 10.2202/1555-5879.1375, December 2009
Publication History:
- Published Online:
- 2009-12-30
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