I came across a word again today which I've seen at various points in time and have always loathed with a passion: subsidiarity.

It is defined as "of secondary importance" by WordNet, but its usage is mostly in politics, where it means to devolve power as far down the decision chain as possible. The EC have adopted the principle, and Germany does it too, devolving a lot power from the Federal government to the Lander.

But it's ugly. Or at least I think so. Opinions?


The idiot also known as Capfka ...