what institutions or structures seem capable of satisfying these needs. Thus it
may be possible to show that, for example, tasks carried out by political parties
in a developed Western democracy are still carried out in a primitive tribal
society, but by other structures. At this stage important questions of relative
efficiency, and of the fit betweenpolitical cultureand political institutions,
can be asked. Though increasingly abandoned, the theory seemed at one time
to hold great hope for an exact, generalized, and perhaps even quantified,
science of comparative politics.
Subsidiarity
The doctrine of subsidiarity, which sprang to prominence in the politics of the
European Union (EU)in the early 1990s, was first used by Pope Pius XI in
- What it essentially means is that government should take place at the
lowest level possible. In its usage by Pius XI, the co-signator of the Lateran
Treaty with Mussolini (seepapacy) and author of the encyclicalQuadragesimo
annowhich pronounced on the incompatibility of Christianity and true
socialism, the intention of the doctrine was in favour of bothfederalism
anddecentralization. This, indeed, was also the interpretation of most of the
member governments of the EU who were in favour of a tiered structure of
government with the European level at the apex, and national and regional
levels beneath it, with decisions being taken and implemented at the appro-
priate level: which level actually was appropriate would always have to be
determined by the European Parliament or other EU institution (seedirective
andregulation). The British and Danish governments, however, sought to
use subsidiarity as a concealment for their attempts to increase the number of
policy areas which rested at the national level, allowing them to claim victories
for their respective nationalsovereignties, which in turn would increase their
chances of gaining national approval for the Maastricht Treaty’s economic and
political unionobjectives.
Superpower
Superpowers in the modern world are those few nation states with huge
economic resources far transcending the next division in such a league table.
The exact number varies with different analyses. The most common view until
the beginning of the 1990s allowed only two superpowers, the USA and the
Soviet Union, with the possible addition of the People’s Republic of China.
Since the near collapse of the Soviet/Russian economy, the accompanying
enforced military retrenchment and the ending of the Soviet Union’s imperial
rule in Eastern Europe, many analysts insist that the USA is now the sole
superpower. However, this definition combines a series of variables together—
Subsidiarity