European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

74 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYthe Nation State whether due to the enlargement of the global marketor to the significant grass-roots mobilization promoted, to a greatextent, by organized civil society, the objective of which is to stimulatea process of participation and responsible co-partnership for public lifeat a local and regional level 6 .We customarily refer to vertical subsidiarity when it unfolds amongdiverse levels of public institutions (State and local Entities) and tohorizontal subsidiarity when it operates in relationship with and amongpublic and private sectors and the citizens’ right to autonomouslychoose the provider of the required service. Until the end of the 70’s,political attention was much more centred on vertical subsidiarity;subsequently, the debate has even also taken up the aspect of citizencommitment and participation, whether as the receivers or as theproviders of the same services 7 .Today everyone invokes the principle of subsidiarity. But while theneo-liberal culture embraces it to justify the return to the private and toindividualism typical of classical liberalism, common and popular culturesee in it the fundamental criteria for the responsible participation ofpeople and diverse institutions in obtaining the common good.The experience between problematics and demandsOne problem facing tomorrow’s Europe is linked to the democraticdeficit which shapes the institutional fabric of the Union. In fact, EuropeanInstitutions are suffering a gap between themselves and their citizens.There is a lack of definition of competences, excessive bureaucracy and ageneral absence of concrete participation.It is precisely here, at the sight of participation, when a demandarises for subsidiarity, for making things common, in which sovereigntyand responsibility are included.6In the past few years much talk has been heard about subsidiarity and the role ofthe State in the area of personal services, whether referring to the relation between theservices granted directly by the State and those demanded by local Entities, the latterservices subordinate to the former, or to the relation between public and privateservices granted by the private sector, in which the former services would besubsidiaries of the latter.7A recent process of decentralising the State has provoked revocations of absoluteauthority by citizens, slowly doing away with the assistancialist vision of publicinstitutions in favour of role of promotion, activation, and valuation of the ins and outsof the territorial community, that can cooperate with the State to satisfy the citizens’needs.