What is the principle of subsidiarity?

How does it challenge conventional approaches to governance?

And how can it help us tackle some of the world's most wicked problems?

In this episode, Tom and Will chat with Dr Brendan Markey-Towler about the principle of subsidiarity and polycentric governance. 

Dr Brendan Markey-Towler is a credit analyst with a background as an academic economist. His areas of interest include behavioural, institutional, and evolutionary economics, as well as the economics of technology, topics which he has explored in his books An Architecture of the Mind (2018) and Economics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (2020). You can read more about Dr Markey-Towler here.

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Pillar Talk is published by the University of Queensland Politics, Philosophy & Economics Society. It is produced by Will Splatt and co-produced and edited by Tom Watson, with music created by Isaac Haynes. Your hosts for this episode are Will Splatt and Tom Watson.

If this episode has you keen for more content from the UQ PPE Society, you might want to check out our other publications: Statecraft Magazine, and The Statecraft Review.

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References

Read Dr Markey-Towler's substack here. 

Elinor Ostrom - 'Beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic systems' (Recommended by Brendan).

Friedrich Hayek - 'The Use of Knowledge in Society' (A canonical expression of the Austrian view of markets as collectors & disseminators of knowledge, also recommended by Brendan).

Charles Tiebout - 'A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures' (Tiebout's seminal paper introducing the concept of competitive federalism. Here is an article which reviews the evidence underlying the 'race to the bottom' critique.)

Read more about The Federalist Papers here. 

Read a brief summary of subsidiarity within Catholic social teaching here. 

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