The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (267 page)

 
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The notion that, as in a complex society majority rule is probably unstable ( see
cycle
; spatial competition), the observed stability of political control in many regimes results from institutions which suppress the underlying instability. Institutions which could have this effect include party discipline in the United Kingdom and the procedural rules of Congress in the United States.

 
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(1548–1617)
Jesuit theologian and philosopher, called by some the last of the great scholastics. What is of interest to political theory is his contribution to philosophy of law, and in particular international law. The notion of
ius gentium,
the law, recognized and agreed by all peoples, otherwise known as natural law, or, more simply, morality, had been in existence from ancient times. The notion of international law was new. It was generated by the expansion of the known Western world by the explorations of Columbus , Da Gama , and others. Suarez's theory of law is contained in
Tractatus de Legibus ac Deo Legislatore
. For the most part his theory of law is in the Thomist tradition, though he introduces refinements on law and right, natural law and
ius gentium
(which he regards as unwritten law or custom), the relationship between positive and natural law, penal law and conscience, and much else. On international law he drew up conditions for a just war that have stood up as well as any, particularly as he believed that natural law can be determined according to circumstances of time and place.
CB 

 
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In broad terms, the investment of authority at the lowest possible level of an institutional hierarchy.
The origin of the principle of subsidiarity is in Catholic Social Theory (CST), although similar principles can be found in Calvinist thought. The purpose of subsidiarity in CST was on the one hand to limit the role of government as a whole in order to vindicate and protect the place of private institutions including the Church itself, while, on the other hand, justifying some role for government. This notion of subsidiarity was enmeshed in an understanding of society as an organism characterized by a hierarchy of organs. Subsequently subsidiarity has been used as a quasiconstitutional concept in some federal or federal-type political systems to provide a rationale for the allocation of powers between various levels of government. Wherever possible powers are given to the least aggregated level of government; only when a particular task cannot be undertaken adequately by a ‘low’ level of government will it be handed ‘up’ to a higher level. It is this conception which is most useful in the analysis of German, Swiss, and European Union politics, which provide the empirical context for most discussion of subsidiarity. Controversy over subsidiarity in the EU has shown it to be an
essentially contested concept
. What to one person is of only local interest, to another is a matter of Union-wide concern. Transport of animals and working conditions are two examples. Although not inevitably incompatible with the CST definition, the use of the notion of subsidiarity in debates about federalism does not necessarily rest on an organic conception of society, as it focuses exclusively on the institutions of government.
DW 

 
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A subversion is an overturning or uprooting. The word is present in all languages of Latin origin, originally applying to such diverse events as the military defeat of a city and a severe gastric disorder. But as early as the fourteenth century it was being used in the English language with reference to laws and in the fifteenth century came to be used with respect to the realm. This is the origin of its modern use, which refers to attempts to overthrow structures of authority, including the state. In this respect, it has taken over from ‘sedition’ as the name for illicit rebellion, though the connotations of the two words are rather different, sedition suggesting overt attacks on institutions, subversion something much more surreptitious, such as eroding the basis of belief in the
status quo
or setting people against each other.
Recent writers, in the post-modern and post- structuralist traditions (including, particularly, feminist writers) have prescribed a very broad form of subversion. It is not, directly, the realm which should be subverted in their view, but the predominant cultural forces, such as
patriarchy
, individualism, and scientific rationalism. This broadening of the target of subversion owes much to the ideas of
Gramsci
, who stressed that communist revolution required the erosion of the particular form of ‘cultural hegemony’ in any society.
LA 

 
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