Subsidiarity is essentially having the goal that the lowest level of government possible, should be the one in charge of whatever service it seems best suited for. It doesn't mean that everything should be dropped as close to the local level as possible, only the things that the local level is deemed to handle better than a higher level of government. It isn't a political idea in essence, it's more of a 'keep government as close, and therefore, directly responsible to and in contact with the people it is actually affecting as much as possible' idea.
Subsidiarity could easily be seen as the logic behind devolution - transfer of power/responsibility to a lower level of government. Why would a government want to devolve? According to subsidiarity, it is because a lower level of the government itself can more easily and effectively handle the issue than a higher one. Which would beg the question, why keep that power/responsibility that a higher branch isn't so good at with the other responsibilities that it actually does well? It would make more sense to give the one it isn't so good at to a lower level and not have to worry about it on top of the stuff it actually can do. Win-win all around.
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