Subsidiarity affirms the right of people and groups to participate in decisions that affect them, but there is more to it than that. The element of subsidium – or assistance - from which the principle takes its name, indicates that organisations at a higher level of aggregation have a duty to support or assist those of a lower, or more local order, for the sake of the common good. Thus subsidiarity is about the multi-layered organisation of responsibility among groups at different levels. Participation is an implication of subsidiarity not just another word for subsidiarity (see Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church n 189).