Democratic State Reforms: Subsidiarity and Vision of Limited Government

Abstract

While its roots can be traced as far back as Aristotle’s political philosophy, Thomas Aquinas’s theological interpretation of Aristotle’s political philosophy proved to be the catalyst for the birth of the principle of subsidiarity, which would in time become a key aspect of Roman Catholic social thought. Despite similarities with Calvinist teaching and its well-known concept of “sphere sovereignty” as a principle of Catholic social thought, subsidiarity was first introduced in the encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) and was enunciated in subsequent encyclicals such as Quadragesimo Anno (1931) and Mater et Magistra (1961).

KEYWORDS: Democratic, government, rights and political, social tought, principals.

JEL CODE: J11, R48