Subsidiarity, wicked problems and the matter of failing states

ABSTRACT In the political context, the tenet of subsidiarity states that societal tasks should be solved by subordinate entities in society if these entities have the competencies to solve such problems without governmental assistance. Transferred to the business context the tenet of subsidiarity describes the assignment of co-responsibilities to corporate actors in the process of corporate-governmental task sharing. However, in a recently published article Tempels, Blok, and Verweij [2017. “Understanding Political Responsibility in Corporate Citizenship: Towards a Shared Responsibility for the Common Good.” Journal of Global Ethics 13 (1): 90–108. doi: 10.1080/17449626.2017.1320577.] doubt that subsidiarity might function as a governance principle for the corporate-governmental task-sharing especially in the context of wicked problems and in cases of failing nation-states. Wicked problems are typical in the social context since solving societal problems often requires efforts from various actors and does not allow for assigning responsibilities to clearly defined authorities, especially in cases where nation-states as guarantor of the political order fail to provide adequate political conditions for the subsidiary task-sharing in society. However, as we will outline in our contribution, a deeper analysis of the tenet of subsidiarity reveals that subsidiarity, at least partially, may function as a structuring principle for societal task-sharing even in the context of wicked problems and in the absence of a well-ordered nation-state since it allows for decentralized task-related decision-making.