Subsidiarity in the Australian Public Sector: Finding Pragmatism in the Principle

Deem, Jacob; Hollander, Robyn; Brown, Alexander Jonathan

doi:10.1111/1467-8500.12175

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Contrary to the pervasive thin ontological interpretations of the principle of subsidiarity within the corpus of scholarly literature on federalism (see, for example, Oates 1999;Deem, Hollander, and Brown 2015), we propose a broader interpretation of the principle which emphasizes human dignity and the common good within a society of plural forms. In this conservative reading of the principle of subsidiarity, government is accorded a much more limited role which responds to its mandate of contributing to the common good (Messner 1952;Sirico 1997).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Subsidiarity: More than a Principle of Decentralization—a View from Local Government

Drew

Grant

2017

Publius: The Journal of Federalism

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A common interpretation of the principle of subsidiarity in the federalism literature is that decentralized government, which is closer to the people, is better able to respond to the preferences of its citizens. However, when the principle is denuded of its moral foundations in this fashion it not only fails to provide the grounding for achieving human dignity and the common good, but may also become the harbinger of fiscal crises and social dysfunction. We provide a more comprehensive account of the principle of subsidiarity and contrast this with various conceptions prominently presented in the federalism literature. We then explore how this more comprehensive view of subsidiarity would look in practice. In short, we argue that mere decentralization of government fails to capture the ontology and desirable outcomes of the principle of subsidiarity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Subsidiarity: More than a Principle of Decentralization—a View from Local Government

Drew

Grant

2017

Publius: The Journal of Federalism

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“…This practical approach to achieving public policy goals includes national uniform legislation. 151 An example of a pragmatic practice is achieving sustainable uniformity by drafting skeletal sets of Acts. From a Commonwealth government perspective, there are advantages to a pragmatic approach: it is seen as being more likely to achieve the necessary consensus over the shape, form and scope of sets of uniform Acts.…”

Section: Sustainable Uniformity As a Pragmatic Federalism Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The practicality of pragmatic approach to achieving public policy goals includes national uniform legislation. 160 There is often no single, central decision-maker or decision-making organisation to resolve harmonisation issues. Instead, there are multiple centres of authority that are subject to unpredictable forces and in some cases restructuring and institutional change.…”

Section: Sustainable Uniformity As a Pragmatic Federalism Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Categories of the ‘Art of the Impossible’: Achieving Sustainable Uniformity in Harmonised Legislation in the Australian Federation

Hill

2020

Federal Law Review

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National uniform legislation links the federal distribution of powers achieved more than 119 years ago with the challenges and opportunities faced by Australia in an interconnected world. Over this span of time, developing national uniform legislation has been described as the ‘art of the impossible’. The main objective of this article is to critically examine the database of national uniform legislation with a view to applying public policy and federalist theory to explain how sustainable uniformity has been achieved. Rather than focusing on why an individual set of uniform Acts has not achieved a high level of uniformity or has diverged through unilateral amendment, this article examines national uniform legislation by analysing the factors at play. This approach allows the common patterns impacting sustainable uniformity to be identified. From among 84 sets of uniform Acts, four discernible links with theory have been found: (1) the ‘incrementalism and policy cycle’ model—to explain harmonisation that may take decades (31 sets); (2) the ‘multiple streams’ framework, explaining legislation that emerges as sustainably uniform from the outset due to an ‘open policy window’ (16 sets); (3) ‘pragmatic federalism’ solutions, such as skeletal legislation and the conferral of powers, which are developed in the course of inter-jurisdictional negotiations when uniformity is required but is particularly difficult to achieve (14 sets); and (4) the ‘advocacy coalition’ framework, which in contrast, explains situations where jurisdictions hold firm views about retaining diversity (23 sets). Developing and drafting national uniform legislation can become the ‘art of the possible’ with this improved understanding.

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Grant¹,

Drew²

2017

Local Government in Australia

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Subsidiarity in the Australian Public Sector: Finding Pragmatism in the Principle

Cited by 8 publications

References 20 publications

Subsidiarity: More than a Principle of Decentralization—a View from Local Government

Subsidiarity: More than a Principle of Decentralization—a View from Local Government

Categories of the ‘Art of the Impossible’: Achieving Sustainable Uniformity in Harmonised Legislation in the Australian Federation

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