Republicanism 080908077X, 2001039556

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I

REPUBLICANISM

REPUBLICANISM Maurizio Viroli

Translated from the Italian hy Antony Shugaar

k

Hill

A

division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux

New

ancLWang

York

and

Hill

Wang

A division of Farrar,

Straus and Giroux

19 Union Square West,

Copyright

©

New York

10003

1999 by Gius. Laterza

Translation copyright

&

Figli

Spa, Roma-Bari

© 2002 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

All rights reserved

Distributed in

Canada by Douglas

&

Mclntyre Ltd.

Printed in the United States of America Originally published in 1999 by Gius. Laterza

&

Figli

Spa, Roma-Bari,

as Repiihhlicanesimo

Published in the United States by Hill and First

American

edition,

Wang

2002

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Viroli,

Maurizio.

[Repubblicanesimo. English]

Republicanism

/

Maurizio

Viroli.

—

1st ed.

cm.

p.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8090-8077-X 1.

(he

:

alk.

paper)

Representative government and representation

canism

—

History.

I.

JF1051 .V57 2002 321.8'6— dc21

Designed by Jonathan D. Lippincott

www. f sgbooks .com

10

—

History. 2. Republi-

Title.

987654321

2001039556

To Michael Walzer

Contents

Foreword

ix

Introduction 1

.

The

:

A New Interpretation of Republicanism

Story Begins in Italy

2

1

2.

The Neu^ Utopia of Liberty 35

3.

The Value of Republican Liberty 45

4.

Republicanism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism

5

Republican Virtue

.

6.

69

Republican Patriotism

Bibliography

Notes

109

Index

1

2

105

79

3

57

Foreword

I

WROTE THIS instance

ness of

it

book with the hope

might help

to

that in

the

strengthen the civic conscious-

my country's political leaders and citizens. however, that the prevailing

political events indicate,

Italy is to sustain principles that are the

Recent

mood

I

May

2001, a majority of Italians indicated that they consider

the liberty to pursue one

s

self-interest

respect for the rule of law.

concerned that the Berlusconi,

man

They

also

more important than showed they

owns three major

men and women who

are not

they elected prime minister, Silvio television stations, newspapers,

and publishing houses, has immense wealth, and of

in

opposite of what

consider civic ideals. With their vote in the elections of 13,

first

are totally loyal to

him

rules a party

—and therefore

concentrates in his hands a personal power that no democratic leader before it

normal

interests.

him has ever enjoyed. They

for the public

And

good

to

also appear to think

be subordinated

since that election,

many

have also indicated, in their response

to

Italians

to factional

and others

what happened

in

Foreword Genoa

in the

'

^

'

summer of 2001

during the-meeting of the Group

of Eight, that they favor a strong state over a state that protects civil rights.

*^

There are two have shown.

recent sociological studies

Italys -in fact, as

One

is

composed

own

only with their families and their

who have

other of people actively

engaged

are concerned

personal success, the

a strong civic awareness

commitments

in

who

of people

and are

community,

to their

to the

needy, to the environment, even at the cost of sacrificing their

own

interests.

As

any country, the boundaries between these

in

two groups are not unci\dc Italians

civic Italians

rigid:

may

discover the dignity of a

And

ideals of democratic citizenship.

inasmuch

significant overlaps,

as

be a fervent opponent of certain the community.

than civic If

we

Italy,

The problem and

this

is

is

and the

that

informed by

one and the same person can

social rights

and yet be

that uncivic Italy

true for

rise to

we must conclude

life

uncivic;

of course there are also

many other

consider the two facts together

civic spirit

power of

is

active in

far stronger

countries as well.

— the weakening of

a leader like

Berlusconi—

European and American

commentators have every reason a

may become

to worry. Italy

political

could become

democratic society with a regime that has given unchal-

lenged power to a

man

or a group

and that has come

without needing to violate democratic and

liberal

to

power

norms. By

using money, charisma, and the persuasive power of media

under

his control,

an ambitious

man might be

able to gain the

popular consensus he wants without breaking the rules of a constitutional democracy.

This decline in civic consciousness

is

a trend that affects

other Western democracies too, not least the United States.

X

Foreword The consequences

differ in different countries,

ening of civic spirit opens a path to

wealthy or for

demagogues

this reason,

hope

ways

I

that

(or a

my

from an Italian perspective,

for the

combination of the two). For

reflections

to strengthen civic spirit in

but the weak-

power everywhere

on the most effective

democratic societies, composed

may be

useful for

American

citi-

zens and political leaders.

M.V.

August 2001

REPUBLICANISM

INTRODUCTION

A New

Interpretation

of Repuhlicanism

THE

FIRST REPUBLICS without

in Italy at the

slaves

were created

end of the Middle Ages. Within the

city

walls of Florence, Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Siena,

and other

Italian towns, there

were no princes and no kings

common

but citizens living together under

even

if

citizenship in

minority cils

and

rists,

fullest

among them. And

sense was the privilege of only a

within these walls, in public coun-

in the studies of jurists, historians,

political theory

of liberty

an^

committed

first

a distinctive

and

legal

means

to

it.

does not

mean

to

be the best. But

theorists tend to forget pieces of

wisdom

had already

I

number

political theo-

to sustaining the principle

to explaining the political

and preserve

To be the

a

and

was created modern republican thought,

body of

attain

its

laws and statutes,

set forth

and studied.

political

that earlier thinkers

believe this

is

the case with

of the political ideas that belong to republicanism.

3

— REPUBLICANISM Unlike a natural science, political science proceeds not by inventing

new

theories to replace okJ ones but by rediscover-

ing and refining fo^otten ideas and themes; and sometimes

the work of rediscovery helps actual political practice.

with this in mind that

I

am

It

is

proposing this consideration of

republicanism, written from an Italian perspective for English-

speaking readers.

Republicanism

in its classical version,

Niccolo Machiavelli, racy,

some

as

sources.'

It is,

is

which

I

identify with

not a theory of participatory democ-

theorists claim, having in

mind more recent

rather, a theory of political liberty that consid-

ers citizens' participation in sovereign deliberation necessary to the

defense of liberty only

when

remains within well-

it

defined boundaries. Maintaining that sovereign deliberations deliberations that concern the whole body of citizens

be entrusted

to the citizens themselves, republican theorists

derived their principle of self-government from the that "what affects that self-interest

erate for the all

—must

all

must be decided by

would recommend

common

all.

Roman

The

law

idea was

to citizens that they delib-

good, since those

who

participated were

equally affected. If

sovereign deliberations are entrusted to a large body

rather than a small one,

it

is

more

likely that the council or

legislature will have the political strength to carry out the

common good wisdom

against factional interests.

offers us a valuable insight

and unclear conception of the

common good

is

about the much-contested

common

good. For

neither the good (or interest) of

nor a transcendent or higher good that

4

Here Machiavelli's

all

all

him the citizens

citizens are sup-

A New Interpretation posed

and then aspire

to identify

to,

detaching themselves

from their special interests and parochial avelli

the

want

to

He to

common

good

is

of Republicanism

loyalties.

who do

the good of citizens

be oppressed and have no ambition

For Machi-

to

not

dominate.^

equates the desire not to be dominated with the desire

be

free,

and he argues that republics are better equipped

pursue the

common

good than

political units

to

governed by

princes."^

Theorists of the early Italian republics

all

supported the

doctrine that the form of government that best promotes the

common

good

is

a

good government (aristocracy),

combination of the three

— the

rule of

classical

forms of

one (monarchy), of the few

and of the many (republican or popular govern-

ment)

—and was best exemplified by the Republic of Venice.

They

all

defended mixed government on the grounds that

it

provided different social groups an adequate place in the republic's

among

institutional

life

and ensured the

different aspects of sovereign

erative,

ciardini,

and executive). Some

power

balance

(legislative, delib-

Francesco Guic-

theorists, like

maintained that the making of

right

new

laws or the

correction of old ones should be entrusted to restricted, carefully

chosen groups because they believed that ordinary

citi-

zens were incompetent for the task.^ Others, like Machiavelli,

maintained that citizens

be able

to proipose

new

in large deliberative

bodies ought to

laws, not just approve or reject laws

framed by the smaller bodies. But even the most convinced advocates of the virtue of large bodies stressed that these

should not deliberate on

all

political matters

and should never

be entrusted with absolute powers.

These republican resentation,

and the

theorists understood the principle of rep-

early republics' legislative bodies

were

5

REPUBLICANISM based on cussed

it

it.

Fourteenth- and fifteenth-century jurists dis-

with reference both to councils as a whole and to

They

individual citizens serxdng on them.

stipulated that a

council as a whole represent the whole city or the entire people, not merely a part of the people. As for the individual citizen,

he was expected

and not the

to attend to the interests of the city

interests of his family or of the faction or group

that elected him. This meant, as

I

a theor\^ not of direct participator}^ tative

that republicanism

say,

was

democracy but of represen-

self-government within constitutional boundaries.

Another conventional view that this

study

The

truth

that republicanism

is is

is

intend to challenge in

1

an alternative to liberalism.

that liberal political theory has inherited a

number

of political ideas from classical republicanism, beginning with

the fundamental principle that sovereign

power must always

be limited by constitutional and legal norms. ited the principle of political individualism

the idea that the

main goal of

individual, his or her rists rightly

defend

life, liberty,

to

is

precisely,

to protect the

and property. Liberal theocommunitarians, but

had already stressed that the

there to protect individuals'

The

has also inher-

—more

political society

this principle against

classical republicans

It

life, liberty,

and

state

property.

principle of the separation of powers

was

also familiar

early-modern republican theorists, and early-modern

publics practiced

These tive

theorists

power

it,

at least partially, as

knew

in the

that to concentrate judicial

liberty.

It

re-

long as they survived.

same body was dangerous

nance of individual

is

was with

and

for the

this

in

legisla-

mainte-

mind

that

Machiavelli praised the Republic of Lucca and that Donato Giannotti, a few yeg^s

later, criticized

of 1494-1512.^ So although

6

liberal

the Florentine Republic theorists

have greatly

A New

Interpretation of Republicanism

refined our ideas about the functions of sovereign power, nei-

ther the principle nor the practice of dividing these functions

was

a liberal invention.

A distinctive

feature of liberalism that

from early-modern

is

Italian republicanism,

completely absent

however,

ory of the natural (or inalienable, or innate) rights of

doctrine

cal,

fundamental, but

weakness that

retical

when

is

it

rights are

is

the the-

man. This

from the obvious theo-

suffers

(more or

less)

respected only

sustained by laws and customs. Rights are thus histori-

when

not natural, and

they are not sustained by laws and

customs, they are not rights but moral claims

and reasonable, but only claims.

It

— noble, decent,

ior this reason

is

that

Machiavelli, wiser than later theorists, had no use for the idea of natural rights and spoke only of liberty as a good that individuals tutions,

may if

enjoy

if

they have good political and military

insti-

they possess a sufficient degree of civic virtue, and

they have the good luck not to

live

if

too close to powerful and

aggressive neighbors.

These points suggest

that

we should

reconsider the con-

ventional geography of political theory. Republicanism

is

all

too often seen as a province of democratic theory bordering

on the large empire of liberalism. But

it

is

historically

more

correct to regard both liberal and democratic political theory as provinces of republicanism, based in

its

classical

form on

the two principles of the rule of law and of popular sovereignty.^ Liberal

and democratic theory each emphasizes one

of these two and diminishes the relevance of the other: the

former emphasizes the rule of law, the eignty.

There

are, of course,

latter

many examples

praise popular sovereignty, advocating liberal

opposed

to liberal aristocracy or liberal

popular soverof liberals

who

democracy

as

monarchy And many 7

REPUBLICANISM democrats praise the rule of law and advocate constitutional democracies as opposed

to populistic or

demotic ones based

on the absolute poher of an assembly (and of demagogues). Still, it is fair to

describe liberalism as a tradition of political

thought in which constitutional and legal limits on sovereign

power

are considered the safest bastions of liberty,

and demo-

cratic theory as

one that celebrates the virtues of popular sov-

ereignty. If this

is

correct,

we

are compelled to conclude that

they are both parts of a larger and richer republican theory.

We

must even consider the disquieting idea

that the transfor-

republicanism into the two traditions of

mation of

classical

liberalism

and democratic theory should be not praised but

lamented. Perhaps, to put

it

differently, splitting Machiavelli s

legacy between Locke and Montesquieu, on the one hand,

and Rousseau, on the

other, has

been an

intellectual loss, not

a gain.

The

intellectual

when we compare

and

political loss

becomes more apparent

the classical republican ideal of political

and democratic

liberty with the liberal

our political culture today (the

first

ideals

predominant

more than the second).

means

Classical republican writers maintained that to be free

not to be dominated

—

that

is,

trary will of other individuals.

in

not to be dependent on the arbi-

The source

of political liberty was the principle of

of this interpretation

Roman

law that defines

the status of a free person as not being subject to the arbitrary will of

another person

—

dent on another person's or she has legal

insofar as

it

and

lives

in contrast to a slave, will. zAs

the individual

political rights, so a

under

its

own

laws.

who is

s

depen-

when he

a city is free

implication

the people of a city^or a nation receive their law

8

free

people or

The

is

is

that

if

from a king,

A New Interpretation

of Republicanism

they are not free but serfs; they are not at liberty but in servitude; their position

master. Monarchy, its

is

analogous to that of a slave before his

which

for the

Romans meant monarchy

in

absolute form, was equated with domination. Classical republican theorists also stressed that the con-

straint that fair laws

impose on an individuals choices

restriction of liberty but

erty itself.

They

an essential element of

is

not a

political lib-

imposed by the

also believed that restrictions

law on the actions of rulers as well as of ordinary citizens are the only valid shield against coercion on the part of any person or persons. Machiavelli forcefully expressed this belief in his

Discourses on Liij (1.29),

one citizen

whom

when he wrote

that

if

who

the magistrates fear and

there

is

has the power

to

break the law, then the entire city cannot be said to be

It

can be said

to

be free only

when

its

even

free.

laws and constitutional

orders effectively restrain the arrogance of nobles and the licentiousness of the people.

Rousseau puts very

between obedi-

clearly the difference

ence and servitude when he writes: "A free people obeys, but does not serve, but

it

it

has leaders but no masters;

obeys only the laws, and

laws that

it is

it is

due

not forced to obey men."

it

it

obeys the laws,

to the strength of the

He

identifies

freedom

with obedience to laws that impose the same constraints on everyone; conversely, he equates unfreedom with privilege

when some

individuals have the

power

to

exempt themselves

from the constraints imposed on others:

The

Citizen desires the law and that the law should be

observed. Every individual knows well that to the

law are allowed they

will not

work

if

exceptions

in his favor.

9

REPUBLICANISM Thus everyone h^s reason and

special exceptions,

to fear the practice of

this very fear

is

making

an indication

that he loves th^ law. But with the ruling classes

it

,

quite different: their'social condition lege,

want

and they seek such have laws

to

it is

is

based on

is

privi-

privileges everywhere. If they

not in order to obey them, but to

be the judges.^

Here we see how the republican fers

from the

so long as

we

liberal ideal.

According

to the former,

we

are free

are not dependent; according to the latter,

free so long as free

ideal of political liberty dif-

we

are free from interference.

from interference but

good master who

lets

be dependent,

still

him do what he

likes

A

we

are

person can be

like a slave of a

but remains his

master. Conversely, a person can be independent but not free

from interference, legitimate laws but obligations. is

that

The

who is subject only to number of civic duties and

like a free citizen

must

fulfill

a

central point for classical republican theorists

dependence

is

a

more

painful violation of liberty than

interference.

The democratic

ideal of political liberty,

understood as a

condition in which citizens have autonomy and are governed

by laws that reflect their

will, is in fact a radical

version of the

republican ideal of political liberty as absence of domination. If to

be free means that one

of a

man

complete

own

will

is

not subject to the arbitrary will

or group, as republican theorists claim, political liberty

—

that

is,

when we

when we

are

live in a

we

dependent only on our

self-governing polity that

permits us to approve or reject the rules governing the the collectivity.

1

0

^

enjoy

life

of

A New Interpretation Democratic

liberty

of Republicanism

a type of positive liberty that ex-

is

presses itself in direct participation in sovereign deliberations.

Republican

when

enjoy

liberty

is

a type of negative liberty that individuals

they are free from domination,

when

they are not

subject to the arbitrary will of an individual or group.

From

these different interpretations of liberty follow different interpretations of the significance of political participation. cratic theorists consider political participation as

democratic institutions ought to promote way; republican theorists think of erty

and

is

citizens

common both as a

means

good.

servility

who

to protect lib-

are ready, willing,

political culture

whims

and able

to inspire a mentality that

It tries

citizens

engagement educates

are not prepared to serve the

individuals but

every possible

in

encouraging a

hostile to domination. Political

who

something

most virtuous and best-qualified

to select the

for positions of leadership, thus

that

as a

it

Demo-

and arrogance and that considers

of powerful to serve the is

hostile to

liberty neither

good we possess regardless of what we do or don't do nor

as a condition

we

enjoy

bodies, but as a good

we have

This idea of political implications,

is

ethos),

because

sit

to earn

with

liberty,

more congenial

cal goals of a republic liberal

when we

to

in sovereign legislative

and deserve.

all its

moral and aesthetic

and better serves the

politi-

than the liberal conception (and the it

is

in

fact

impossible to be free

from domination and from the obligations and interferences

imposed by

women

law, as a

few examples

illustrate.

To emancipate

from the domination of men, a republic must impose

laws that interfere with

mens freedom

of choice. To emanci-

pate workers from the arbitrary power of employers, a republic

must impose laws

that restrict the employers'

freedom

oi

1

1

REPUBLICANISM choice. To permit

many people

to

and practicing citizenship,

that are indispensable to attaining a republic

must irnpose

resources.

These examples

fair

domination and

show that

domination but

main purpose of

obligations serves well the ity to

and collect the needed

taxes

clearly

political liberty that rejects

enjoy the social rights

a

conception of

is

not hostile to

a republic. Hostil-

to interference (possibly

more

to inter-

ference than to domination; does not help the republic to

be what

it

should be, namely, an association of persons

which no one

is

allowed to dominate and no one

in

forced to

is

serv^e.

This classical republican interpretation of political

libert\

has a wider emancipator}^ meaning than any liberal one. Lib-

aims

eral liberty

to protect individuals

from actions interfering w

can

liberty

aims

to

ith their

interferences,

freedom of choice; republi-

emancipate them also from conditions of

dependence. What worries

dom

onK from

a liberal

is

having anyone's free-

of action dominated or controlled; a republican worries

about

this

affects

but worries even more about the dispiritedness that

men and women who

ture in democratic societies

is

dependent

live

lives.

Ci\

ic

cul-

suffocated b\ the persistence of

arbitrary

powers and practices of domination. Republicanism

can help

to

remed\ the consequent w eakness of our democra-

cies today.

Republicanism

is

a theory not

onK

of political liberty but

also of the passions that political liberty needs.

wisdom

that republican theorists have repeated with

ation over the centuries

is

explain in this bool^, civic virtue

2

political

little vari-

that liberty can survive only

zens possess that special passion called

1

The

is

ci\'ic

virtue.

As

if citiI

tr\'

to

not a martial, heroic, and

A New Interpretation of Republicanism austere virtue but a eivilized, ordinary, and tolerant one of

zens of commercial republics. fulness, integrity is

It

combines

and transgression,

what Machiavelli taught us with

gravity

severity

and

his writings

and

citi-

play-

lightness. This

and

his

life.

Theorists of the early Italian republics equated civic virtue

with the love of country, and they described true love of the republic as a passion that translated into acts of service and acts of care.

It is

been almost

precisely this

entirely lost in

The sad consequence patriots erals

and

meaning of

love of country that has

contemporary democratic

that our intellectual

is

nationalists

who do

and democrats who do not

life

life,

like

republican patriotism.

way

ers of his time defined the republic as city."

on shared the

same

to

be a

of *

life,"

a particular

way

writ-

of

is first

life

of

all

based on the experience of citizenship, not

pre-political territory,

political

and other

This means that republican patriotism

a political passion

lib-

a culture. Machiavelli speaks, for

instance, of "affection for the free

of the

offers us either

not like political liberty or

Once, though, the republic was considered ordering and a way of

theory.

elements derived from being born

in

belonging to the same race, speaking the

same language, worshipping the same gods, having the same customs. The political experience of republican

memory

or

liberty, or

hope thereof, makes the spaces, buildings, and

streets of the city meaningful.

Republican theorists knew well

that the kind of commonality generated by inhabiting the

same gods

same

speaking the same language, and worshipping

city or nation,

the

the

is

hardly sufficient to generate patriotism in the

hearts of citizens: a true fatherland, they claimed, can only be a free republic.

They

also claimed that love of country

is

not a

natural feeling but a passion that needs to be stimulated

1

3

REPUBLICANISM through laws

or,

more

precisely,

through good go\ ernment and

the participation of the citizens in public

As Margaret Canovan has

correctly written,

can be described as a defense

w hich

ism,

life.

my

ot a "rooted republican patriot-

the opposite of Jurgen f^abermas

is

tional patriotism.

Habermas

position

s

constitu-

sees patriotism as consisting of a

loyalty to the uni\ersalist political principles of liberty

democracy embodied eral

in the constitution of the

Republic of Germany.

because

ularistic,

it

My

patriotism

is

and

postwar Fed-

explicitly partic-

describes love of countr\' as the citizens"

passionate love of their republic's institutions and way of life,

and

remains particular, e\en though

it

late into active

and passionate

F^owe\er particularistic,

because cal

it is

a 'patriotism

inasmuch

polity lives

as

up

it

it

is

it

can easily trans-

solidarity with other peoples.

"free of illiberal characteristics

w ithout nationalism,

'

it is

to its highest traditions

my

and

ideals.

"

Howe\er,

version of patriotism "trades on a

caricature of nationalism as a bigoted and racist

commitment

and cultural homogeneity" and does not take

w hile

account that

criti-

"dedicated to making sure that ones

is

according to Canovan,

to ethnic

and

"there

is

into

plenty of evidence of racist ver-

sions of nationalism (as of chauxinistic versions of patriotism),

there

is

also a long-standing association betw

een some nation-

alisms and liberal democracy.'"^

Of course,

the ideal of nation has also been used to sustain

projects of liberty

found

in the

and

social justice.

The

best examples can be

works of nineteenth-century republicans: Carlo

Pisacane, to mention one example, wrote that the principle of nationality that

was an

1

4

had excited the most generous souls

ideal of liberty Like

Giuseppe

in

1848

xMazzini, Pisacane inter-

A New Interpretation

of Republicanism

preted this as the opposite of nationalism. Nationality for him

meant the

common

free expression of the collective will of a people, a

interest, full

and absolute

classes, groups, or dynasties.

can only grow on the

soil

and no privileged

liberty,

Love of country, he explained,

of Hberty, and liberty alone can turn

Under the yoke

citizens into supporters of the republic.

of

princes and monarchs the generous passions of patriotism are

bound

to degenerate.

Still, if

'^^

by nationalism

we mean what

the late-eighteenth-

century founders of the language of nationalism meant and

most nationalist

mean

theorists

today,

seems

it

clear that

republican patriots and nationalists disagreed on the central issue of

what

build the

a true patria

new language

is.

Theorists began their efforts to

of nationalism precisely by attacking

the republican principle that only a self-governing republic true nation.

They

also disagreed

is

on what true love of country

a is

or should be. Republican patriots considered love of country

an

artificial

political

passion to be instilled and constantly reinforced by

means; nationalists thought of it

as a natural feeling to

be protected from cultural contamination and cultural assimilation.

The

patria of the republicans

a

is

institution; the nation of the nationalists

Republics originated

in the

Even

a

Qpd

political

a natural creation.

outstanding virtue and wisdom of

legendary founders or from nations from

is

moral and

the

citizens'

free

agreement;

himself.

modern

theorist like

Amy Gutmann, who

the view that republican patriotism

is

'anti-nationalistic,

and

my position

"not

defined in contrast to nationalism," considers

without dangers due to

its

accepts

over-evaluation of the republic rela-

tive to the individuals that constitute

it."

Intrinsic to republican

1

5

REPUBLICANISM patriotism, she argues,

liberty

the idea that the subordination of the

"is

obUgatory

self to society is

(for the

sake of realizing

Moreover, Republican patriotism

).

exclusivity that Conflict with the

cation, as reflected in

my

prone

openness of democratic edu-

it

simply needs patriots.

group identity and

Even

affiliation."

a "patriotism of liberty,"

it still

if

"a

is

form of

republican patriotism

is

proclaims the necessity of incor-

porating the moral principle of liberty within one's

am

"^^

too, points to the anti-individualistic con-

tent of republican patriotism, which, he writes,

try. "I

'common

to claims of

assertion that '"the cause of liberty

does not need cosmopolitans;

George Kateb,

is

own coun-

put in mind," Kateb writes, "of the Catholic view that

God cannot be

the immaterial and spiritual

loved without

either the incarnation or such devices as Mariolatry, or statues

and paintings of worship." is

that

it

The

saints, or

imposing and gorgeous houses of

nefarious consequence of republican patriotism

teaches the patriot that he "must unhesitantly prefer

inflicting injustice to suffering

patriotism, with a

tained I

modern it

'

History, after

all,

shows

The thoughts and

feelings "that

constitutional freedom into being

were not

that

few exceptions, has always served unjust

or stupid or irrational causes.

called

it.

and sus-

patriotic, but universalistic."'-

could respond that people motivated by republican patri-

otism have greatly contributed to the birth of modern constitutional democracies.

As

patriotism inspired England's

1

try to

show

here, republican

"Commonwealth Men," Ameri-

who fought for independence, French revolutionaries, and the many partisans of the Italian Resistenza who believed cans

that to fight against Mussolini

and Hitler was a

have no problem aoknowledging that

1

6

in

patriotic

duty

1

each of these cases

A New

Interpretation of Republicanism

patriotism had a particular connotation, in the sense that the

own

patriots loved the liberty of their

people. But

their love

is

of liberty of lesser moral dignity than love of liberty understood as a universal moral principle? Republican patriotism

pable of crossing national boundaries.

and

religious differences.

erty of his or her

it.

I

am

also loves

not claiming that the patriot

intense than the universalist Just as the

God who

as the spiritual

lives in

God,

s,

the

common

and respects the

commits himself

ca-

stronger than cultural

A person who loves

own people

of other peoples and

It is

is

lib-

liberty

or herself to defending love of liberty

s

only that

it is

equal to

it

is

more

morally.

same worth

the particular has the

to use Kateb's analogy, so the liberty of a

people has the same moral worth as individual liberty understood as a universal principle without reference to a given

country or

With

mann s

history.

difference

this

argument:

it is

—and

when

encourage citizens

when

way

not a

response to Gut-

and among an unfree people.

the advocates of republican patriotism

to consider

common

liberty the highest

means

to protect individual

good, they are indicating the safest liberty,

my

in fact utterly impossible to live as a free

individual in an unfree republic

This means that

this is

to enslave the individual to the state.

they assert that the liberty one enjoys in one

try is richer

than the liberty one

may

would have

a

this

own coun-

find in a foreign country,

they are sustaining an idea of individual

young people

s

And

liberty. If

kind of republican patriotism,

good chance of educating them

I

we

taught

believe to

we

be good

citizens.

The ers

task of educating good citizens

cannot be

fulfilled

unless

we

and good

political lead-

rediscover yet another piece

1

7

REPUBLICANISM of classical republican wisdom: namely, that political theon a

department not of philosophy, or

Contemporary

rhetoric.

books and w rite'their

political

theorists

ess'ays v\ith the

is

law, or science but of

compose

their

aim of producing reason-

able arguments designed to win the readers rational agree-

ment. Machiavelli and other republican theorists conceived

and practiced

means

theorv

political

that they

composed

persuading their readers

to

as a rhetorical pursuit. This

their

works with the purpose of

accept or reject particular political

ideas by winning their rational assent but also by passions. ratio

They intended

to

moving

their

empower reason with eloquence,

with oratio, and for this reason they used examples,

metaphors, narratix es. exhortations, and

all

the other

weapons

of classical rhetoric.

At the risk of being called an unrepentant nostalgic, believe that the old

way was

better than the

new one and

I

that

the evolution of political theory away from rhetoric toward analytic philosophy,

perfection

w hich began w ith Hobbes and

w ith John Raw Is, has been

in stylistic

attained

its

terms a decay,

not a progress. Leaving aside the obvious tbut not irrelevant) consideration that works like Machiavellis The Prince or The Discourses on Lii^ have a literarx beauty that contemporary

w orks

do not even aim

in political theory

to achieve,

it is

evi-

dent that the idea of political theory as a philosophical enterprise conflicts with the realities of poHtical life today

particular with democratic deliberation as

contemporary

political theorists

deliberations offer the

giv

public forum that aims

w ho presume

8

it.

in

Unlike

that legislative

e-and-take of reasoned argument in a

at justifying a

mutually binding deci-

sion, classical republicans believed that

I

w e know

and

v\

hat in fact occurs in

A New deliberative couneils

ments couehed

Interpretation of Republicanism

is

the give-and-take of partisan argu-

rhetorically.

These arguments may include

reasoned claims, but they are fundamentally aimed

at

moving

the listeners' passions. Real republics, therefore, are republics

not of reason, as Philip Pettit has written, but of eloquence.

Contemporary democratic

theorists

respond

to this

by saying

they hope that eloquence can be replaced by principled and

arguments. The

reasoned public

more

among

intelligent

republican theorists respond by urging citizens and political leaders to learn

Which

how

choice

to

is

master eloquence.

politically wiser

decide. But the main reason

I

believe

I

leave the reader to

we should

retrieve the

rhetorical style of political theorizing that enjoyed unchal-

lenged hegemony through the seventeenth century

more

effective.

Very

endorse or reject

rarely,

nowadays or

political values

ever,

is

that

it is

do citizens

by judging them from a

detached, rational point of view. Rather, they form their ideas

on the basis of feelings and emotions. rhetorical style, designed to

move the

passions,

we have

If

we

learn the old

win the reasons assent and

a better

to

chance of persuading our

leaders and our fellow citizens to accept and to put into practice the political principles congenial to the life of a

cratic republic. Isn't that, after

all,

demo-

the main task of political

1

9

ONE

The Story Begins

in Italy

THOUGH MODERN REPUBLICANISM

EVEN

nated

in Italy, the revival of

thought

at the

lip

political theorists

republicanism in political

end of the twentieth century revolved

around British and American only been paid

origi-

service in

seems

to

universities.

Italy,

Even now,

it

has

where the chief concern of

be an ongoing commentary on

vari-

ous versions of liberalism or rehashed discussions about the distinction

The

between true liberalism and

false liberalism.'

rebirth of republicanism ought rightly, however, to

interest us

and certainly

all,

republics of

Italy,

Italians. It

was precisely the

between the fourteenth century and the

free

early

sixteenth century, that witnessed the birth of that "classical

republicanism which served as the fountainhead for the '

many

republican theories and political movements that flourished in the next centuries in the Netherlands, England, France, and the United States.

We may

no longer remember

this,

but

2

1

REPUBLICANISM republican political thought was one of the most significant contributions that Italy ever offered to modernity.^ Moreover, the republic, or perhaps indelible

left

say the republics, of Italy

marks on the country 's culture, language, and the

appearance of

known

we should

cities

its

and countryside

—not only the

republics, such as Florence, Venice, Siena,

better-

Genoa, and

Lucca, but also the "forgotten republics."^

To rediscover the

history of Italy's republics

tion of republican political thought

is

this histor\'

histor\'.

to revive

Reconsidering

do not necessarily mean that we

shall find consolation or edification. Historians

emphasized that the

their tradi-

an opportunity

one of the richest aspects of modern and remembering

and

Italian republics of the

have rightly

Middle Ages were

hardly models of liberty and justice, as they proclaimed themselves to be. lesser

They were communities dominated, some

and some

to a greater degree,

the wealthiest, most

own

pri\'ileges,

countr\'side,

pow erful

to a

by narrow oligarchies of

families fiercely defending their

tyrannizing the peasants in the surrounding

and not thinking

Republican theorists were

in national terms.

fully

aware of these problems.

If

Florence were to be endowed with a true militia that might free

it

from the blight of mercenary troops, Machiavelli be-

lieved, the Florentine

just in city

and

Republic would have to become more

in countr\^side."^

Donato Giannotti observ^ed of

Florence under Pier Soderini that "the city was held under the

power

of a ver\^ few," and in such circumstances there cannot

be a "broad governance, which

is

instead, a narrow governance that

And Francesco

is

tyrannical

and peaceful; and

violent."

Guicciardini, in his Dialogue on the Govern-

ment of Florence, maintained 2 2

to say free

that the insignia of Florentine

The Story Begins liberty

were

in Italy

be taken 'as camouflage and justification"

to

rather than as symbols of the city's political reality. In

the highest city magistrates proclaimed proudly in the republic there

"is

that the in a

few

"

Italy,

presence of a hundred or so

in the

one scholar has put

but, as

542 that

1

the most popular government in

and never deliberates save councillors,

Lucca

it,

knew

"everyone

problem was that authority had been concentrated not citizens but in a

None

few

families/"'

however,

of this,

belies

the

the

that

fact

free

republics were experiments in government that ultimately

intended to allow a broad portion of the populace

broad for those times

—

to take part in the

—

at least

government and the

sovereign power. Those republics were representative govern-

ments based on councils, which the people or the city

—and

this

was especially true of the

great councils, or the largest assemblies.

personnel for the government

itself

The

task of selecting

was entrusted

commissions, which had to ascertain that the standards for holding public office. to

represented

in their entirety

If

all

we

to electoral

candidates met

consider the right

be elected to public office a distinctive element of the

republican experience, this right was, in Florence, for

in-

stance, quite broadly exercised; but the actual participation

of citizens in the decision-making processes ent.

The roughly

was very

differ-

three thousand public offices that were filled

anew each

year: in

tion of the

number

hold them.

Still,

Florence were occupied by only a tiny fracof citizens

who

theoretically

had

a right to

the tendency of the most powerful families to

monopolize government

offices

was

offset

by the power of the

legislative councils, notably councils of the sixteen districts

into

which the

city

was divided

—the

gonfaloni.

The

citizens

R E P L B L

who

C A \

I

1

S

M

sat 01^ the legislative councils

considered themselves, and

were considered, governmental representatives according

modem

the

Matteo good

Palmieri. in

\'ita

Cn^/^ (1435-1440

citizen placed in a magistracy in

component

principal

to

under^anding of the concept of representation. .

wrote: "E\er\

u hich he represents any

of the city considers himself before

all

else ... a representative of the universal interests of the entire city."

Florentines, like the citizens of other republics, were

eager (out of ambition, interest, or

ci\ ic

pride to participate in

the legislative councils and to be elected to government office, as

was shown

b\

the general enthusiasm with which they

greeted the establishment of the Consiglio Grande, or great council, in 1494.^

The guiding city.

principle of republican governments

There was no lord

be ser\ed, because the citizenr\

to

alone stood at the center of the interests of the

Ascheri wTote about Siena

w as the

in the

ruler," as

Mario

time of the Nove, or Nine

(128~-1355). Siena s oligarchic government during that period of

some

seventy years saw two or three thousand

zens (out of a population of

governing offices of the ticipation

single family or

powers. offices

The

—

In the Italian republics,

was regulated by written

their principal goal to

to

man

to

thousand) occup\ the

fort\ to fift\

cit\.

make

it

citi-

such par-

rules; the statutes

had as

as difficult as possible for

any

form a regime or monopolize the public

politicians of Siena selected to hold

be one of the Nine

and they were required by law they could once again do

so.

— sened to wait

its

for just tw o

highest

months,

twenty months before

Because selection took place by a

drawing, no one was certain to be chosen as one of the Nine. Lastlv, strict rules

forbade election to the Nine

if

a relati\e.

The Story Begins

in Italy

family member, or business partner or associate held office in

another civic institution.

What

even today a vague democratic Utopia

is

bility of calling

form

those in power to account for the

duties

their

republics. At the trates

—was

common

end of their terms

practice

—the

possi-

way they

in

the

halian

in office, in fact, the

were investigated by special commissions with

per-

magis-

real

and

substantial powers of review. In Siena there also existed a

Maggior Sindaco, or great syndic, whose task that public deliberations

were conducted

it

was

to

ensure

in full respect of the

procedures defined by the statutes. Nor was Siena exceptional, since in

Genoa

the principle was long established that

the actions of public functionaries had to comply with specific criteria

defined by law. To ensure that the rules were followed,

there was "a specific

mechanism

of review exercised by a mag-

istracy established for this particular purpose," that

dicate.

The

jurists

and

politicians of

is,

the syn-

Genoa considered

possibility of enjoining magistrates to respect the rules,

the

under

the threat of sanctions, a fundamental element of their republican liberty.^

Recent

historical research confirms, in

broad outlines, the

assessment made by Simonde de Sismondi

in his History of

the Italian Republics, written in the early nineteenth century.

The of

Italian republics,

modern

libjgrty

wrote Sismondi, were a basic experience

because, in contrast with Athens and Rome,

they did not base their economic and social

life

on slavery and

they admirably reconciled individual liberty with the pursuit of

wealth and with intellectual and

artistic life.

Indeed, they cre-

ated and diffused throughout Europe "the science of governing

men

for their

own

good, for the development of their

2 5

'

REPUBLICANISM industrial, intellectual,

their happiness."

"republican

which gave istrates of

faculties, for the increase of

With the science of good government arose

spirit that all

and moral

was seen

ferment

to

in all the cities,

a

and

those cities constitutions of such wisdom, mag-

such

zeal,

and

animated by such great

citizens

otism and capable of such great deeds.

confirmed by Carlo Cattaneo

in

an essay

'"^

patri-

His view was later

"The City Con-

titled

sidered as the Ideal Principle of Italian History" (1858). Catta-

neo

reiterates that the Italian republics, especially Florence,

could claim unquestionable credit for "having spread

way down and

to the

and

rights,"

lowermost plebeians

in this they

the

all

a sense of civil dignity

had outdone even ancient Athens,

"whose noble citizenry nonetheless rested on

substratum of

a

slavery."

The

"sense

of

civil

and

dignity

participate in public

life

that

rights"

republics instilled in their citizens by

fact

free to

has been kept alive over the centuries

and has become one of the strong points of

democracy This

the

summoning them

was brought

years ago by Robert Putnam,

who

Italy's

fragile

to general attention a

few

proved, with documents and

maps, that democracy worked best

in those parts of Italy that

had once enjoyed republican self-government.'

How

and why did

this centuries-old

active through the ages? This

understanding. But

summoned ity

different from those

lies in

of

life

remain

a mystery that resists our

not hard to see

to take part in public life

as subjects of a

why

citizens

who

are

should develop a mental-

who, generation

after generation, live

monarch, prince, or pope. And the difference

the fact that the former learn the art of living as citizens

whereas the

2 6

it is

is

way

latter le^rn the art of living as subjects.

The Story Begins Aside from handing

modern

down

Italian republics also

in Italy

a sense of civic dignity, early-

bequeathed

to us several

major

theoretical principles, such as the very concept of the inde-

pendent republic.

It

was

the fourteenth century of liberty

when

erty

it

the classical concept

does not depend on the

receives from the

requires of

who developed

they worked out the principle that a city can

call itself free if if it

and philosophers of

Italian jurists

emperor no statutes or

him no approval

Cque vivunt

will of the

laws,

emperor,

and

of any sort. Cities that live in

if it

lib-

in propria lihertate') enjoy self-government

Cproprio regimine'). According to the renowned phrase of Bartolus of Sassoferrato, these cities recognize ('civitas

no higher power

quern superiorem non recognoscit'') and therefore their ,

people are a free people Cpopulus

liber').

Another theoretical contribution

is

the justification of the

democratic constitution by virtue of the principle, taken from

Roman

law, of

quod omnes

tangit,

which

states,

'That which

concerns the many must be decided by the entire sovereign

body of the

citizens, acting in respect for

dance with procedures established by

law and in accor-

statutes.

'

If

public

deliberations concerning the entire city are entrusted to coun-

representing the entire citizenry, the republican theorists

cils

explained,

it is

common

the

niOre Hkely that sovereign decisions will affirm

good, rather than the personal interests of rulers

or a political faction or a social group, tect the citizens

and

will therefore pro-

from domination.'^

Theorists of later centuries developed a theory of the republic as a form of mixed government that blended the positive

aspects of three right forms of rule: the rule of one

(monarchy), the rule of the few (aristocracy), and the rule of

2 7

REPUBLICANISM the

many\popular

workshop

in

which

to test the theory of

and statesmen; sixteenth-century

richest

mixed government was

the Republic of Venice. Aside from Venice's

sidered

The

or democratic government).

own

political writers

historians

who

con-

mixed government included Niccolo Machiavelli,

Francesco Guicciardini, and Donato Giannotti; these

men ele-

vated modern repubhcanism to a high level of theoretical

development

some have described

as

or,

it,

to its "classic"

phase. In their view the theory of mixed government fulfilled the political

first

of

all

requirement of ensuring that a republic

guaranteed the three essential functions of government: rapid

implementation of sovereign deliberations, coordination and oversight of foreign policy, (in

Venice

this

and other

was ascribed

an adequate pool of

to a

government

doge or gonfalonier

political skills (a

most experienced and respected

for life);

Senate comprising the

citizens);

and

a reliable bar-

any attempt to establish tyranny or impose

rier against

tional

activities of

power

(a

Great, or Extended, Council with the

fac-

power

to

approve laws and to choose the magistrates entrusted with actual rule).

The theory

guaranteed that

all

the

of mixed government, moreover, also

components of the

city

had an ade-

quate role in public institutions. The office of doge or gonfalonier,

along with the most important positions of the

republic, could satisfy the appetites of the

zens; the Senate, or a

more

of the Pregadi in Venice,

most ambitious

restricted council

would

satisfy the

citi-

such as that

ambitions of the

"middle" citizens; while the Great Council met the require-

ments of

citizens with

no special desire

for

honor or glory but

desirous of ensuring that the republic passed no unjust laws or

summoned 2 8

evil or

corrupt

men

to public office.

The Story Begins Machiavelli,

Giannotti

Guicciardini,

in Italy

— unanimous

con-

cerning the general aims that the mixed government of a "well-

—held

ordered republic" was meant to

fulfill

on the powers

to the various institutions. In

be accorded

to

model Machiavelli proposed

Guicciardini's view, the

approve or reject laws but also the

to

in

his

endowing the Extended Council with not only the

Discourses,

power

differing opinions

ability to

propose

laws in free debate, was a source of "novelty and disturbance."

To ward be

left

off difficulties,

up

he suggested that "nothing important

to the people, save for those matters

the hands of others, might endanger liberty

which,

itself,

election of magistrates, while the creation of law

be presented

to the people, save after

s

if left

in

such as the should not

being considered and

approved by the supreme magistrates and by the senate; but those laws that they develop should not take effect unless they

have been confirmed by the people."' Giannotti, on the other hand, believed

mixed republic all

to

it

them

will

tr\^

to pre\ail over the others,

engendering a state of permanent social and

component dition that

this

dominant over the

offer assurances not to use

partisan interest over the others

only social

component

republic

in

—

political instabil-

from happening, he suggested making one

of the republic it

If

have the same weight, he

the republic's components

To keep

for a

have a prevalence of the popular element.

obsen^ed, each of

ity.

was best

its

others,

pow er

and thus destroy

that could take on a

to

on con-

impose a

liberty.

dominant

The

role in a

Giannottis view, similar to Machiavelli's

—was

the people.'"^

Despite their disagreements about the best way of ordering a

mixed government, republican

theorists agreed that a

good

2 9

REPUBLICANISM government

one that prevents, thro-ugh the separation of

is

powers, the formation of

arbitrary-

powers, whether of one

alone, or a few, or rftany, that elude the rule of law. ited

power of the people- is just

wrote Machiavelli in

The unlim-

as harmful as tyranny; the latter,

Florentine Histories, "displeases good

h'is

men, the former displeases wise men; the

latter

harm, while the former can only do good with

can

easily

do

difficulty; in the

much authority is given to insolent men, in the former much authority is given to foolish men."^^ Machiavelli too

latter,

too

once again praised the

political institutions of

Lucca because

the elders there, the Anziani, did not have "authority over the citizens.

power "that

'

The

in the republic

to that

if

short order Italy

reputation they enjoy as the highest executive

ill

is

already so great, wrote Machiavelli,

you add genuine authority, you

will find that in

effects will ensue. "'^ Perhaps the republics of

were not able

to achieve the separation of

powers

as well as

eighteenth-century England did, but their republican theorists

knew

well,

even without reading Montesquieu's The

Laws, that political liberty exists only where power

is

Spirit of

limited, by

law and by other powers.

The

Italian republics

gave way to an era of principalities and

foreign domination. After the in

fall

of the last Florentine Republic

1530, republicanism went through a complex process of

transformation and adaptation to the political and intellectual context of the age of monarchies and principalities, a phase that

has thus far received only scant attention from scholars.'' Historical

chies

judgments on the

var\^

transition

from repubUcs

3 0

monar-

according to whether the criterion of evaluation

nation-state or self-government. Thinkers ized

to

monarchic

who saw

is

the

the central-

stat^ as an oppressive power depriving Italys

The Story Begins cities of

autonomy and

in Italy

of the right to dispense as they wished

the riches they had accumulated and saved considered the end of the republics as tantamount to the

Antonio Gramsci, who saw the

end of

political

era as being the formation of the

liberty.

Those, Hke

problem of the modern

modern

territorial state hailed

the decline of the republics as a step forward, agreeing on this point with those who, Hke Montesquieu, considered England's constitutional

monarchy the form of government best

protect and nurture a

modern commercial

society.'^

However, as Franco Venturi has demonstrated tiful little

book Utopia and Reform

suited to

beau-

in his

in the Enlightenment,

it is

a

questionable historical judgment to assign to monarchies the role of

being creator of the modern world and to consider

republics as

ism

itself

little

more than museum

relics,

and republican-

on the order of an archaic critique of modernity. The

seventeenth-century republics, notably the United Provinces of the Netherlands, could rightly boast of their entirely

ern determination to establish peace, well-being,

mod-

liberty,

and

tolerance in the face of the absolute monarchies' expansionism, power-mongering, and raisons d'etat. Moreover, the re-

publican tradition was one of the most important sources of the Enlightenment, the school of thought that

other contributed to the creation of the

more than any

modern

world.

About

mid-eighteenth-century France, Venturi wrote:

Certainly a republican morale existed of state organization

when

which had embodied

the forms it

seemed

antique and decaying ruins. There survived a republi-

can friendship, a republican sense of duty, a republican pride,

even though the world had changed. These may

3

1

REPUBLICANISM even have existed

in the very heart of a

innermost

state, in the

monarchical

who seemed

self of those

integrated in th^ world of absolutism.

It is

fully

this ethical

aspect of the republican tradition which appealed to the writers of the Enlightenment, to Voltaire, Diderot,

d'Alembert, and, of course, to Rousseau.

with the Paris

new

among

vision of

life

It

mingled

being formed in mid-century

the creators of the Encyclopedie on a

moral, not a political level.

During the French Revolution,

in the

view of some schol-

ars,

the republican ethos degenerated into an ideology that

was

critical of

political will

commercial

and on the

society, insistent

on the primacy of

dichotomy between

radical

liberty

and

despotism, and prone to considering every situation as a

moment

of crisis in

dissolving.^^^ If

these features, cal

which the

political

body was

in

danger of

indeed the Jacobins' republicanism did have it is

certain that

its

transformation from classi-

republicanism was quite substantial. In no classical repub-

lican

work can we

find a criticism of

commercial

society;

indeed, praise of commerce, trades, banks, and the entrepreneurial spirit abounds.

As

for the idea that

republicanism

"metastasized" into the "language of terror," a single passage

enough

to clarify the differ-

ence between Jacobin republicanism and

classical republican-

from Machiavelli's Discourses

is

ism. Machiavelli, discussing the transition from tyranny to liberty, is particularly instructive:

There one sees how much to a prince to

3 2

hpid the

it is

harmful

to a republic or

spirits of subjects in

suspense and

The Story Begins

continued penalties and offenses. Without

fearful with

doubt one could not hold because

men who

to a

and become more audacious and things.

Thus

it is

more pernicious

order,

begin to suspect they have to suffer

secure themselves by every

evil

in Italy

mode

dangers

in their

new

less hesitant to try

necessary either not to offend anyone

ever or to do the offenses at a stroke, and then to reassure

men and

give

them cause

to quiet

and steady

their

spirits.^'

A

republicanism that celebrates the primacy of political

and

social

from

its

political cohesion,

and

and

intellectual history of the nineteenth

century, republicanism in France

by side with liberalism

and consolidation of

and England proceeded side

for long stretches during the formation

their

modern

constitutional regimes. In

primarily thanks to Mazzini's advocacy, republicanism

Italy,

became an ical dignity.

ideal of

independence and of equal

While the

some inhabitants

classical republicans

—whether

stranger in her

to

be the

and

polit-

had thought that

city of

she was poor or of color

own

civic

of a city should have full political rights,

Mazzini wanted the republic

one

terror has strayed greatly

classical roots.

In the political

only

will,

all,

in

—would

which no

feel like a

country. For Mazzini, a true republic could

not exclude the^poor or

women

or blacks,

and

it

had

to

ensure

not only political equality but also the right to education and

work that

if

is

citizens

were

to acquire that sense of their

proper to a genuine civic

own

dignity

life.^^

With Carlo Cattaneo, who was fond

of quoting the pas-

sage in which Machiavelli explained that "a people, in order

3 3

REPUBLICANISM to preserve its liberty,

canism became

must keep

firmly in

it

its

a federalist theory of political liberty.

believed, in fact, that a people could preserv^e

means

its

Cattaneo

liberty only

by

of self-government, and he identified a republic with

he wrote,

liberty. "Liberty," is

hands," republi-

republic"

"is

an important addition, "Republic

federation."

He meant

by

that "the unified state, by

in

is

to say,

end imperious and despotic,

and of

perhaps

which

very nature, cannot help being

its

suffocate autonomy,

itself to

and

free initiative, in a word, liberty; political centers, or

plurality,

it

Norberto Bobbio observed,

this, as

authoritarian and thus in the

because unity tends

is

— but he added, and

is

only a plurality of

say,

only a pluralistic,

it

we should

non-undifferentiated unity, a unity with variety as opposed to a unity without distinctions, that offers any real assurance of liberty; this is the

per and

make

only environment in which society can pros-

civic progress.

believed that Italian history

'-^

Moreover, Cattaneo rightly

itself,

in its

tended toward the federal republic: "But nation, that the republican soul

indeed

it

seems

nation does not

3 4

is

found

that outside of this

know how

most this

is

vital aspects,

proper to our

in all orders

.

.

.

and

form of government our

to achieve great things.

"^"^

TWO

The New Utopia of Liberty

REPUBLICANISM NOT the past but also

is

Utopia of political

ONLY

meant

liberty.

IS

a

noble tradition of

as a new, or rediscovered,

Theorists of republicanism

today claim that true political liberty consists not only of the

absence of interference

(in

the actions that individuals wish to

perform and are capable of performing) from other individuals or institutions, as liberals claim, but also of the absence of

domination

(or

the individual

w ill

dependence), understood as the condition of

who

does not have

to

depend on the

arbitrary

of other individuals or institutions that might oppress

or her with irripiinity

A

if

him

they so desired.'

few examples can help

to clarify the difference

between

being subject to interference, or hindered, and being dependent, or subject to domination. Let us consider the following cases: citizens that has

w ho can be oppressed by a

no fear of incurring

tyrant or an oligarchy

legally prescribed sanctions; a

3 5

REPUBLICANISM who han be abused by her husband without being resist or to demand restitution; workers who can be

wife

able

to

sub-

jected to minor or

r^iajor

abuses from their employer or super-

whim

visor; a retiree

who must depend on

to obtain the

pension to which he has a legitimate

invalid

who must depend on

of a senior professor; a citizen at the arbitrary is

no

word of

interference:

I

who know

their

right;

an

that their careers

work but on the whims

who can be thrown

a magistrate. In

all

into prison

these cases there

spoke not of a tyrant or oligarchy that

oppresses but of one that can oppress

husband abuses

that the

of a functionary^

the goodwill of a physician in

order to get well; young scholars

depend not on the quaUty of

the

if it

chooses;

his wife but that

I

said not

he can abuse her

without fear of sanction, and the same goes for the employer, the functionary^, the physician, the professor, and the judge.

None

of

them keeps others from pursuing the ends they wish

to pursue;

subjects

none of them

—the

young scholars

interferes in the lives of others.

wife, the workers, the retiree, the invalid, the

—

are thus perfectly free

if

freedom from interference or freedom the

—from hindrance

same thing

ject,

The

by freedom

—and

this

or restriction.

we mean

amounts

They

to

are sub-

however, to the arbitrary will of other individuals and

therefore live in a condition of dependence, like the slaves of

whom free to

away

Plautus writes in his comedies,

who

are often perfectly

do what they want, either because their master

or because he

is

kind or foolish, but

to his arbitrary will, since

who

is

far

are also subject

he can punish them harshly

if

he

chooses.

While interference dependence 3 6

is

is

an action or an obstacle

to action,

a conditioning of the will that has fear as its

The New Utopia of Liberty distinguishing feature.

A

fine description of

denial of liberty, and the fear

dependence

as a

engenders, has been given by

it

Francesco Mario Pagano:

If

the law supplies the means, either to a private citizen

or to an entire class

and branch of the

magistrate

for

himself,

state or to the

oppressing others with

which are required

forces of public order,

the

defend

to

everyone equally, through an act not merely of omission but indeed of commission,

Not just the deed but the mere violence

dom

is

entailed,

is

ability to

slightest breath fogs

it

suffocated. it,

even

might be oppressed with impunity

if

the

it,

one

belief that

strips us of the free

faculty to avail ourselves of our rights. Fear attacks erty at

spring

its

very source.

whence

It

is

no

Free-

liberty.

shadow darkens

The mere

over.

is

do

an offense against

so very fragile that every

is

liberty

civil

lib-

a poison steeped in the

flows the river

—

there,

where external

force hinders only the exercise of liberty^

An

equally clear description of political liberty as the

absence of fear can be found cal liberty of the subject

is

in

The

Spirit of Laws:

a tranquility of

"The

politi-

mind, arising from

the opinion each- person has of his safety. In order to have this liberty,

it is

man need

reqjj-isite

the government be so constituted as one

not be afraid of another."^

Having

clarified the difference

between interference and

dependence, or domination, we need add that there ference without domination restraints

and

when we

restrictions of law.

is

inter-

are subjected to the

A law that requires

that

I

and

3 7

— REPUBLICANISM all

other Citizens pay taxes in proportion to our income, or a

law that condemns

me and

anyone else

sentence

to a life

commit murder, to>name two obvious examples,

but

stitutes a restraint, restriction, or interference,

make me

in

any way dependent on the arbitrary

one and

all

me

in par-

and they do not express the

will of

one or more persons imposing

"One

does not

it

will of other

people, because these are restrictions given not to ticular but to

we

if

certainly con-

their personal

when one

As

interest.

Rousseau put

it,

laws, but not

when one must obey another man; because

the latter case

Does

I

always free

is

must obey the

is

subject to the in

will of another."'*

this interpretation of political liberty as the

absence

of dependence, which neo-republican theorists propose, intro-

duce

Two

a significant

new

feature into our political language?

canonical texts of the liberal doctrine of political liberty

Benjamin

Constants

''Discourse

on

the

Liberty

of

the

Ancients Compared with That of the Moderns" and Isaiah Berlin's

"Two Concepts

of Liberty"

—do not mention the idea

of liberty as the absence of personal dependence. Constant distinguishes between liberty in antiquity "in exercising collectively

but directly

entire sovereignty, deliberating

—which

many

consisted

functions of the

on war and peace

in the public

square, concluding treaties of alliance with foreigners, voting

on laws, handing down judgments, managing magistrates, hav-

them appear before the

ing

entire populace, placing

them

under accusation, condemning them, or absolving them"

and

liberty in modernity,

which consists of

the right to be subjected only to the laws, and to be neither arrested, detained, put to death or maltreated

3 8

The New Utopia of Liberty in

any way by the arbitrary

uals. ion,

It

is

one or more individ-

the right of everyone to express their opin-

choose

property,

will of

and practise

a profession

and even

to

abuse

it;

to

it,

to dispose of

come and go without

permission, and without having to account for their

motives or undertakings.

It is

everyone's right to asso-

ciate with other individuals,

either to discuss their

the religion which they and

interests, or to profess

even simply

their associates prefer, or

days or hours

a

in

way which

is

to

occupy

most compatible

with their inclinations or whims. Finally

every-

is

it

some influence on the adminis-

one's right to exercise

government, either by electing

tration of the

their

all

or

particular officials, or through representations, petitions, less

demands

compelled

Berlin

to to

which the authorities are more or

pay heed.

Constant's

takes

between negative and

idea

and makes

positive liberty.

The

a

distinction

he writes, can

first,

be described thus:

am normally said to no man or body of men I

ical liberty in ihis

a

man

in this

be free

to the

interferes with

sense

is

degree to which

my activity.

simply the area within which

can^act unobstructed by others sense

democracy

is

not, at

Polit-

any rate

logically,

.

.

.

Freedom

connected with

or self-government. Self-government may,

on the whole, provide a better guarantee of the preservation of civil hberties than other regimes,

been defended

as

such by

libertarians.

and has

But there

is

no

3 9

REPUBLICANISM

^

necessary connection between individual liberty and

democratic

rule.

Positive liberty

The

is

different:

word

"positive" sense of the

the wish on the part of the individual to be his ter.

I

wish

my

life

and decisions

wish

my own,

I

wish to be the

not of other men's, acts of

be a subject, not an object;

to

own mas-

depend on myself,

to

not on external forces of whatever kind.

instrument of

to

my

which

causes which affect me, as

were, from outside.^

As legitimate

as this

wish

may

will.

are

own, not by

be, claims Berlin, the positive

conception of liberty has historically been viewed as the

mation of a

true, or superior, or

be allowed

to

triumph over

this reason, liberals

as a

autonomous "ego" even

if

affir-

that should

through coercion. For

have thought of the positive idea of liberty

mask concealing

It is

all,

I

be moved by rea-

sons, by conscious purposes, it

from

"liberty" derives

tyranny.

easy to see that the republican conception of liberty

is

neither the negative nor the positive liberty described by Berlin and Constant. Republican liberty differs from

counterpart in that

it

identifies the

absence of

its

liberal

liberty not

merely

in interference (being

puts

but in the constant possthility of interference due to the

it)

presence of arbitrary powers.

would

call liberty a "liberty"

obstructed by others, as Berlin

No

republican political writer

enjoyed by subjects of a

"liberal"

despot, as Berlin does, since the despot could, at any time and at his

4 0

own

discr&tton,

keep them from doing what they want

to

The New Utopia of Liberty do and might otherwise oppress them. They are subject

to

interference, but they are in a condition of dependence: a eral

can describe

Nor can

cannot.

lib-

as a condition of liberty, but a republican

it

a republican identify liberty as the affirmation

of a certain type of for there to

no

or self; to speak of liberty

life

sufficient

it is

be an absence of domination, whatever the way of

hfe the person chooses and whatever self she wishes to affirm.

Both Constant and Berlin identify modern, or negative, liberty as the

even

fundamental or more genuine form of

they admit that liberty understood as active participa-

if

tion in public life

modern

—

can have positive effects on the defense of

Neither

liberty.

emphasize

—and

why Constant and

liberty.

is

the point

I

wish

It

not necessary here to ask

is

back over centuries and that has been

analyzed and debated in this point

many fundamental

surprising:

is

if

texts.

But their

they chose not to discuss

the republican idea of liberty because they considered

evant or identical to negative or positive

have said

so; if

to

Berlin overlooked a conception of political

liberty that stretches

on

this

an absence of personal dependence as im-

treats

portant to political

silence

liberty,

they overlooked

confirmation that those

who

it

it

irrel-

they might

liberty,

out of ignorance,

it is

further

reason about political theory with

inadequate historical knowledge rarely develop theories of great importance..

The republican conception

of liberty differs from the

ocratic idea that liberty consists of the

norms

and

to

given to oneself." This

is

for oneself

Democratic

A

person

liberty, as

who

is

"power

dem-

to establish

obey no other norms than those liberty in the sense of

Bobbio puts

it, is

opposed

autonomy.

to constraint.

free in the democratic sense of the

word 4

1

— REPUBLICANISM is

who has free wilt: the "nonconformist who who waits fof approval from no one, who

therefore a person

thinks for himself,

withstands presslire,

flattery,

and

illusory career goals,"

who,

other words^ has a free will in the sense that he enjoys

in

self-

determination.

The democratic conception liberal

of liberty also differs from the

conception, in which, as Bobbio explains, "one speaks

of liberty as something in contrast to the law, to law, so that all laws (both prohibitive liberty/' In

all

forms of

and imperative)

restrict

the democratic conception, "one speaks of liberty

as a field of action in

compliance with the

law,

and one

dis-

tinguishes not between an unregulated action and an action

regulated by the law, but rather between an action regulated

by an autonomous law (one accepted voluntarily) and an action regulated by a heteronomous law (one accepted under duress)."^

The republican conception

of political liberty approaches

autonomy

the democratic idea of liberty as

of the will in that

too, sees constraint as a violation of liberty; yet cal,

because

it

holds that the will

laws or regulations that govern will,

but

when

I

am

is

my

it is

it,

not identi-

autonomous not when the actions correspond to

my

protected from the constant danger of

being subjected to constraint. Republican political writers

have never claimed that liberty consists of actions regulated by law (that

is,

accepted voluntarily) or of the power

to

bestow

rules or to follow only the rules

we

give ourselves; instead, they

have claimed that the power

to

make laws

directly or through representatives

—

is

for ourselves

the efficacious

means

(along with others) for living free, in the sense of not being

subject to the arbitrary will of one or a few or

4 2

many individuals.

The New Utopia of Liberty Action regulated by law the law

accepted voluntarily, or

is

desires of the citizens, but

when

free, in

is

when

viduals or to

all

members

when

the law

respects universal norms

it

when

other words, not

corresponds to the

it

is

(when

not arbitrary, that

it

applies to

indi-

all

of the group in question), aspires to

the public good, and for this reason protects the will of the izens from the constant danger of constraint

and therefore renders the

viduals

is,

will fully

imposed by

autonomous.

cit-

indi-

A

law

accepted voluntarily by members of the most democratic

assembly on earth may very well be an arbitrary law that permits

some

part of the society to constrain the will of other

parts, thus depriving

them of their autonomy

The republican conception

of liberty, then,

is

more

exact-

ing than either the liberal or the democratic conception:

it

accepts the idea of liberty as an absence of impediment, but

it

adds the requirement that liberty be an absence of domination (of the constant possibility of interference);

it

accepts the

democratic requirement of self-determination as a means obtaining

liberty,

but

it

to

does not identify self-government with

the political liberty consistent with a republic. Republicanism sustains a

both the

we can

complex theory of

liberal

and the democratic requirement; conversely,

say that liberalism and

versions of republicanism. ical

a

and

little

political liberty that incorporates

politiQ^l

more

On

importance,

democracy are impoverished

this last point, given its theoretit

would be worthwhile

to

spend

time.

4 3

THREE

The Value of Repuhlican Liberty

NEO-REPUBLICAN

THEORISTS DISAGREE

meaning of republican

liberty. In his first

OVer the

essays on

the subject, Quentin Skinner said that republican political writers political liberty,

and

liberal theorists agree

which both

or interference, but differ

identify as the

on the

liberty secure. In a later essay

on the meaning of

absence of coercion

political conditions that

on the subject, Liberty before

Liberalism, he maintains instead that the difference liberal

and republican

and the neo-Roman

make

theorists (or

between

political writers of the

between

liberal theorists

seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries, as he calls them, because they were not all

advocates of republican government)

their views of

what secures

is

political liberty

to

be found not

in

but in their differ-

ing interpretations of what constitutes a restraint or constraint.

Neo-Roman

political authors,

he thinks, accept unreservedly

the idea that the citizens' degree of liberty depends on the

REPUBLICANISM measure

to

to take in '*the

which they

^

are restrained^in the actions they wish

pursuing their aims. Thty repudiate,

key assumption of classical HberaHsm

force or the coercive 'threat of

it

in

to the effect that

constitute the only forms of

constraint that interfere with individual liberty." size, rather, that "to live in a

itself a

condition of dependence

that prevents

him from

They empha-

condition of dependence

source and a form of constraint."

lives in a

other words,

is

An

individual

is

in

who

subject to a constraint

exercising his civil rights.

The absence

of liberty can be caused, then, he concludes, "by interference or by dependence."'

According

to Philip Pettit, the

the consequence of

dependence

absence of

liberty

(or domination).

is,

rather,

Interfer-

ence and constraints, including those imposed by nonarbitrary laws, should be considered only a "secondary offense against

freedom." In other words, while Skinner believes that republi-

can

liberty includes the

absence both of domination and of

interference, Pettit agrees but adds that the absence of inter-

ference

is

the less relevant violation.

difficult to find in

He emphasizes

that

it is

republican political writers a significant

cri-

tique of the limitation on freedom of choice that the rule of

law imposes on individuals. They accept the restrictions on

freedom of choice and emphasize the difference between the conditions of those living under the rule of law and those

liv-

ing or wanting to live in a condition of limitless license. Re-

publican political writers have always shown complete scorn for

license and have always emphasized that license

civil liberty

are

and

two quite different matters. They never con-

sidered that restrictions on freedom of choice imposed by the rule of law migjit* be construed as "a serious infringement liberty.""

4 6

on

The Value of Republican Liberty Both Skinner and

means obeying laws

Pettit reject the idea that

that

we

being free

ourselves have approved, and they

both emphasize that the republican or neo-Roman conception of political

freedom

is

not a positive conception of liberty

consisting in the direct exercise of political rights. But while

Skinner believes that the absence of liberty "can be produced either by interference or by dependence,"^ Pettit believes that it

consists solely of dependence.

think

I

sical

it is

important to emphasize in this debate that clas-

republican writers have never claimed that true political

liberty consists of the

absence of interference, since they

believed that restraint or interference which the law imposes

on individual choice was not

a

restraint

on

liberty

but a

brake, an essential limitation intrinsic to republican liberty (In contrast, Isaiah Berlin noted that ''Bentham, almost alone,

doggedly went on repeating that the business of laws was not to liberate but to restrain: 'Every law liberty'

sum

—even

if

of liberty '"^)

such

is

an increase

'infraction' leads to

They considered the law

an infraction of

a public

to the

and univer-

commandment that applied equally to all citizens or to all members of the group in question. This meant that if the rule sal

of law his

was scrupulously respected, no individual could impose

arbitrary will

on other individuals by performing with

impunity actionsjorbidden

to others

under pain of sanction.

If

men

govern instead of laws, some individuals can impose their

wills

on others, oppressing them or keeping them from pursu-

ing the ends they wish to pursue, and thus depriving liberty.

(This can also be true in a case

rules, that

is,

in a

them

of

where the majority

democracy)

This interpretation of political liberty

is

eloquently de-

scribed in three classical texts that are the core of

modern 4 7

REPUBLICANISM republicanism.

Romans first

The

first is

.

Livy 's state-ment that the liberty the

regained after the expulsion of the kings consisted,

and foremost,

men. The second

in

is

having thedaws be more powerful than

the speech, reported by Sallust, in which

Roman people were their own laws. The third

Aemilius Lepidus proclaimed that the free is

because they obeyed no one but

the passage from Cicero's Pro Cluentio, quoted countless

times by political writers in the Renaissance and us obey the law to the end that

A

we may be

later: "All

second aspect of the republican conception of

liberty

is

political

the conviction that liberty entails restraints or brakes

{frenum) on individual actions. These two aspects of political

civic

{''dulce lihertatis

citizens.

is

a 'gentle

frenum') that the law imposes on

Leonardo Bruni reiterated the same

Cmera ac

liberty

Roman

wisdom were adopted and reformulated by Florentine

humanists. Liberty, wrote Coluccio Salutati,

brake"

of

free."^

all

principle: true

vera Lihertas') consists of the equality guaran-

teed by the laws.

And he

idea that liberty

preserved

is

attributes to {''Lihertas

Giano

della Bella the

senmtuf) so long as the

laws are more powerful than the citizens. In the late fifteenth century,

it

was primarily opponents of the Medici who empha-

sized that the foundation of civil liberty

republic that wishes to "live in cini,

must not allow

liberty,

a citizen "to

"

was the

rule of law: a

wrote Alamanno Rinuc-

be more powerful than the

laws."^

Machiavelli, too, identified the liberty of citizens with the restrictions the law

there

is

one citizen

fore break the

wrote

4 8

imposes equally on them

whom

the magistrates

fear,

bonds of the laws, then that

all.

If in a city

who can

city

is

there-

not free, he

in the Dis(^ourses. In the Florentine Histories

he wrote

The Value of Repuhlican Liberty that a city

*

can be called free" only

tional provisions efficaciously restrain the

nobility

and the populace. And by

laws and constitu-

if its

bad impulses of the

civil liberty

he meant the

absence of domination or dependence: "Without doubt,

if

one

considers the ends of the nobles and of the ignobles, one will see great desire to dominate in the former, and in the latter

only desire not to be dominated; and, in consequence, a greater will to live free."^ In contrast,

all

the instances of violation of liberty that the

classical republicans offer are violations of the rule of law: a

tyrant

who

sets himself

therefore rules by

above

whim;

civil

and constitutional laws and

a powerful citizen

who

has obtained

denied to other citizens and

for himself a privilege

who can

therefore do things that others cannot (such as use public

resources for private gain or obtain public offices in violation of normal procedures); a ruler

The

restrictions that law

who

has discretionary powers.

imposes on the actions of rulers and

ordinary citizens are considered the only valid defense against

coercion by individuals. To be free means living under equitable laws.

As

for the relationship

between

liberty

and self-government,

the classical republicans considered the latter a condition of the former. For its

Roman

laws from a king

is

political writers, a

enslaved, not free;

people it

who

receives

lives in a state

not

of liberty but of servitude, similar to that of a slave with respect to his master.^

Absolute monarchy

nation, while the republic

of

life

is

is

therefore similar to domi-

the form of government and

way

of a free people.

Republican government, as Machiavelli explained sage of enlightening lucidity,

is

in a pas-

best suited to the defense of

4 9

REPUBLICANISM because

liberty

it

has the power to prevent private interests

from dominating the

and rendering some, or many,

city

common good

zens unfree: "And without doubt this

obsen^ed

if

not in repubHcs, since

executed, and although

vate individual, those for

many

that they

who

the few

may

it

all

that there can be laws that

for that

not

purpose

is

this or that pri-

the aforesaid does good are so

can go ahead with it.'"^

is

harm

turn out to

whom

are crushed by

that

is

citi-

it

against the disposition of

But Machiavelli also explains

comply with the

citizens' will

and

and therefore destroy

desires but that

impose

political liberty.

As an example, he mentions the agrarian law

Roman

that the

a private interest

plebeians, "through ambition," called

for,

which "was the cause of the destruction of the republic" and "altogether ruined

Roman

freedom.

The republican argument condition for citizens to

that the rule of law

live free

and

is

a necessary

to prevent

them from

being subject to the arbitrary will of a few individuals (or a single individual)

is

at

the heart of James Harrington's reply

to

Hobbes s claim

lic

such as Lucca had no more freedom than the subjects of

in

Leviathan that the citizens of a repub-

an absolute sovereign such as the sultan of Constantinople,

because both were subject

Lucca

is

and

tion of

The

is

that in

Lucca both

rulers

and

and constitutional laws, whereas

sultan erty

What makes

the citizens of

freer than the subjects of Constantinople, Harrington

argues, civil

to laws.

above the law and may

citizens are subject to in

Constantinople the

arbitrarily dispose of the prop-

lives of his subjects, obliging

them

to live in a condi-

complete dependence and therefore without

liberty.

citizens of Lucca, Harrington explains, are free "by the

laws of Lucca," because they are controlled only by the law

5

0

The Value of Repuhlican Liberty and because the laws are "framed by every other end

which by

.

.

.

that

private

man

unto no

than to protect the Hberty of every private man,

means comes

to

be the

liberty of the

common-

wealth/'^^

The

idea that the rule of law protects a citizen from the

arbitrary will of others

because

way passed from the books

binds everyone in the same

it

of republican theorists to those

written by the founders of liberalism.

example

is

significant

that of John Locke:

The end of Law serve

The most

is

not to abolish or restrain, but

and enlarge Freedom: For

in all the states of

beings capable of Laws, where there

no Freedom. For Liberty

is

to

is

to pre-

created

no Law, there

be free from restraint and

violence from others which cannot be, where there

no Law: But Freedom for every

when

Man

to

is

not, as

do what he

every other Man's

him?) But a Liberty

is

lists:

we

(For

Humour

to dispose,

are told,

who

A

is

Liberty

could be

free,

might domineer over

and

order, as

he

lists,

his

Person, Actions, Possessions, and his whole Property,

within the Allowance of those Laws under which he

and therein not

to

be subject

is;

to the arbitrary Will of

another, but freely follow his own.'^

The

limitation that law

differs

imposes on the decisions of individuals

from the limitation that an individual might

impose on others:

in the first case,

we have

arbitrarily

obedience, in the

second case, servitude.

The passages quoted here make political writers

it

clear that republican

never identified as limitations on liberty the

5

1

REPUBLICANISM imposed

restraints

b\ nonarbitrar\ laws, but they

ha\e always

defined as such an\ dependence on the arbitrary u indi\ iduals. The\>belie\ als free,

is

own

not because k expresses their

a uni\ersal

tects indi\"iduals

and abstract

from the

to

it

will

—

not. that

is,

— but because the

command and

as

such pro-

arbitrar\" will of others.

For them,

of \arious institutional s\stems

the \alidit\

of other

ed that the rule of law makes indi\ idu-

because the\ ha\e gi\en their assent law

ill

measured

is

their efficac} in pre\ enting the arbitrary use of power.

b\

W hen

Machia\"elli defended the \irtues of republican go\ernment.

he alwa\ of

referred to that go\

s

ernment

power were distributed according

in

w hich the functions

to the

model of mixed

go\'ernment. w here the people exercised so\"ereign pow er within the limits defined b\ constitutional law. \\ hile

it

the arbitrar\-

tion

\s ill

as

straint."

certainly legitimate to consider

is

of an indi\idual

Skinner does.

I

between dependence on

"

a

dependence on

source and a form of con-

belie\e that

making

arbitrary will

and subjection

a distincto

restraint offers the best insight into classical

republicanisms

ha\e

an\" significance

conception of in

political libert\. If

it

is

to

contemporary discussions, neo-republicanism must show

that

it

is

critical of

dependence and domination, and

it

must

sharply differentiate itself from both laissez-faire intolerance of restraints

and authoritarian

insensiti\ ity tow ard domination.

Classical republicanism has alwa\s opposed

because

it

believes that this encourages senilit} on the one

and arrogance on the repugnant

dependence

other,

to the ideal of ci\

because the persistence of domination, as

\\e\\ as

il

hand

two mentalities that are equalK life.

This

arbitrary

license

is

particulark important

pow ers and

of practices of

and the absence of moral and

The Value of Republican Liberty social responsibility, suffocates civil culture. eties

need

a political

and moral language that can

suasively the significance

it

and value of

soci-

illustrate per-

a dignified civil

life.

In

republicanism has authoritative credentials, pro-

this regard,

vided

Democratic

remains

faithful to the aversion its

masters

felt for

both

tyranny and license.

A

further reason for distinguishing

to restraints

some

that free their

and being dependent

freedom

citizens

to act.

demand

who may be

from dependence

2: a

restitution for

charity.

measures

restrict others in

wife

who cannot

at

offer resistance

abuse by her husband; workers

subjected to abuse from their employer or super-

visor; the elderly, the sick,

on

that legislative

Consider some of the examples cited

the beginning of Chapter to or

is

between being subject

To

free

and those

women

living alone

who depend

from dependence, one must have

laws that ensure equality within the family, limiting the arbitrary

power of men;

to protect

dependent workers, one must

have laws that safeguard their physical and moral dignity and limit their

from

employer s arbitrary power;

charity,

to

emancipate the needy

one must impose taxes that provide adequate

public assistance. In these cases, reducing the domination

from which some citizens suffer entails increasing the tion of others* (riegative) liberty; or, rather,

it

restric-

requires imposing

restraints

on individuals who once could act of their own free

will. It is

not possible to reduce dependence without imposing

legal restraints.

We

must choose between domination (and

dependence) and the back

restraint of the law.

to republican tradition

Those who hark

must choose poHcies

that attenu-

ate domination rather than those that try to attenuate civic

obligation in the guise of being free from impediments.

5 3

REPUBLICANISM ThisMoes not mean

absence of interference or of constraints.

ate liberty as the

Nor does

me^

it

that republicans should not appreci-

that they should consider

lesser value or dignity than liberty as the dence.'"^

It

means only some

nation for

that

if

latter,

since that

ideal of the res puhlica, a

no one

is

more

community

forced to serve and no one

is

the absence of

we must

restraint or interference for others, then

former above the

absence of domi-

as

liberty

a liberty of

absence of depen-

liberty as the

conflicts with

it

in

place the

keeping with the

of individuals in is

which

allowed to dominate,

an ideal that has been and remains the core of the republican Utopia.

The most perceptive republican

theorists point out that

questions of liberty are controversial ones that can be an-

swered only

in

ways that some

They understand

that the

live free

of those

good

it is

to

(or

(or interest) that transcends

the good of citizens

and independent and

who wish

and others condemn.

common good is neither the good

interest) of everyone nor a

private interests; rather,

will hail

as

such

is

who wish

opposed

to the

to

good

dominate. This interpretation should

answer some of the concerns raised by feminist scholars.

"When

republicanism gets associated with ideals of transcen-

dence," wrote citizens

must

Ann

Phillips, for

example, "with the notion that

set aside their partial, parochial,

one-sided pre-

occupations to address issues of a general nature, ask what guarantee there

is

that

women's

interests

many

will

and preoc-

cupations will be incorporated into the general good."'^ Precisely because republican theorists do not believe that

the

common

social

5

4

and

good

is

the good of each and

all,

they do not fear

political conflicts, as long as those conflicts

remain

The Value within the boundaries of

civil

Republican Liberty

oj

and they appreciate the

life,

value of the clashes of rhetoric that occur in public councils.

They do not individuals

foster the notion of an organic

work toward

a

common

community where

good, nor do they waste

time fantasizing about republics where laws aspiring to the

common good

are approved

unanimously by virtuous

Contemporary republican

wisdom

citizens.

from the

theorists should learn

of their classical forerunners and think of disputes

over political liberty as conflicts between partisan interests

and conceptions, not to ascertain or

stitutes

as philosophical debates

demonstrate the

truth.

an arbitrary action or what

the arbitrary will of an individual

goal

it

is

Determining what con-

means

it

whose

to

be subjected to

—two determinations domination — cannot

that are

essential to any identification of

help

being partisan and questionable. Evaluations of jective, driven

all

political actions

tend

to

be partisan, sub-

by passions; disputes in the real world are nei-

ther scientific nor philosophical but, rather, rhetorical in the classical sense of the term.

That the

state

should impose taxes

proportional to income in order to ensure decent health care

and good schools

for

needy

citizens,

for

example,

will

be

viewed by some citizens as an entirely arbitrary interference, indeed even a full-fledged act of tyranny; to others stitute a legitimate instance of interference.

cited to settle the debate definitively

and

No

it

will

facts

objectively,

con-

can be

nor will

it

ever be possible to establish procedures that enable us to resolve the debate in such a

way

that

all

contending parties are

satisfied.

5 5

FOUR

Repuhlicanisniy Liheralisniy

and Communitarianism

To

LIVE UP TO ITS AMBITION

tual

and

racies,

own

political

Framework

to

be a major

for constitutional

modern republicanism must

democ-

clearly state

its

position with respect to other schools of contemporary

political thought, especially liberalism.

lenge

it

poses for liberalism

is

The

intellectual chal-

relatively new.

Throughout

long history, liberalism has been criticized in the tice, in

the

name

and perfection,

munitarian ideals, or in the ticipation in SQifereign

of liberty,

its

name

name

power

of a

in the

name in

fundamental principle (except when

challenged in the

name

from formal

of

name com-

more broadly based

—but almost never

it

the

its

of jus-

of social hierarchy and tradition, in the

of ideals of moral renewal

tinct

intellec-

par-

name

has been

of "true" or "substantial" liberty as dis-

liberty).'

Liberalism has been formidably

successful in defending individuals against the interference of the state or other individuals, but less so in

accommodating

REPUBLICANISM demands

the

keep their eyes cast down

moods

by

for liberty voiced

—

men and women who must

or Avide

of the powerful people

who

open

to ascertain the

with impunity

time force them to obey, even to serve them.

have wanted to struggle against

this

may

When

at

any

liberals

kind of domination, they

have been unable to deploy a concept of liberty as an absence of interference, clearly unsuited to the purpose, and have had

such as justice or equality (hence the

to allude to other ideals,

various hybrid terms, perfectly nice in their way: 'justice and liberty," "liberal socialism," "social liberalism").

From ism

to

republicanism

eralism that

it

a historical point of view, the relationship of liberal-

is

is

one of derivation and innovation. Lib-

a doctrine derived

has taken several of

from republicanism

in the

sense

fundamental principles from

its

republicanism, notably that of the defense of the limited state against the absolute state.

Bobbio writes, that

all

conception of the state limiting the

can

is

true, as the liberal

It is

the theorists to

whom

Norberto

the liberal

attributed insist on the necessity of

supreme power, but

political theorists affirm the

it is

equally true that republi-

same requirement with equal

energy both for republics and for monarchical governments. Machiavelli, for one, calls absolute plains elsewhere that "a prince crazy; a people that

Liberalism

is

can do what

life, liberty,

it

an individualistic

wishes

is

political theory

community

some concept

8

which is

states

to protect

and property of its individual members. Liberals

with communitarians,

5

is

not wise."^

rightly boast of the excellence of this principle

of

ex-

who can do what he wishes

that the chief objective of a political

the

power "tyranny" and

who

when debating

set the objective as the affirmation

gf moral good; or with theocrats,

who

believe

Refuhlicanism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism the goal it

as the

is

the pursuit of salvation; or with organicists,

good of society

at large, or the group, or the nation.

was

this central liberal tenet orists.

Cicero, in

De

of property was the

who

earlier set forth

officiis (11.21.73), first

reason

claims that the security

men abandoned

Machiavelli explains what constitutes the a free

way

and emphasizes that things freely

it

of

life,"

But

by republican the-

the condition

of natural liberty and established political communities. ^

comes from

see

"common

When

utility that

he mentions no collective goal

consists in "being able to enjoy one's

and without any worries, not fearing

for the

honor

of wives and children, not fearing for oneself.'"^ Liberals are especially right to claim

doctrines of social

harmony

and pacified society

—

against conservative

or the Marxist Utopia of a pacific

that social conflict

indeed beneficial. But credit for

is

both inevitable and

this pearl of political

wisdom

all

the power of innovation

where he explains

that social conflicts in

goes to Machiavelli; in his Discourses,

—

it

appears with

Rome between plebeians and the Senate "were the of keeping Rome free. Those who rightly admire

Republican first

cause

John Stuart Mill diversity should avelli praises

for his criticism of conformity

admire

all

the

more the pages

as a

New

which Machi-

the variety of the world and underscores that

everyone should live in his or her ner of others.

in

and praise of

Some

own way and

not in the man-

republicans have thought of the republic

Jerusalem in which morality and \drtue reign, and

others have supported the necessity of censorship and religion,

civil

but classical republicanism wasted no time or energy

on such fantasies of moral and

spiritual

improvement.

Things are different where the principle of the division or separation of

powers

is

concerned. Even though

liberal

5

9

— REPUBLICANISM theorists have

gone

much

further with this

the masters of classical republicanism, as

I

it is all

among

(legislative, executive,

The

same

true,

the various functions of sovereignty

and judicial powers).

doctrine of natural (or innate, or inalienable) rights

may have

proper to classical liberalism

played a fundamental

part in the defense of individual liberty tion of peoples

and groups, but

weakness which

liberal theorists

Rights are in fact only rights

if

the

have already Suggested, that the republican writers made a

clear distinction

if

and

suffers

it

in the

emancipa-

from a theoretical

themselves have pointed out.

custom or law recognizes them

such and are therefore always

as

theme than have

historical, not natural;

and

they are not historical and not recognized by law, then they

are only moral aspirations, unquestionably very important, but

nothing more than moral aspirations. Similarly, the various theories

about the social contract

which see the fundamental norms

that regulate political insti-

tutions as being the product of a consensus that individuals

achieve in certain (ideal) conditions of choice to

have explicative value,

another.

Though

how states are formed, but showing why it is better to live in

to explain

only normative value, that a state than not

is,

and why one type of

suited, in

state

is

better than

there have been republican political theorists

of the social contract (Rousseau, to ill

—do not claim

my view,

to

name

republicanism.

I

one), the doctrine

believe

it is

is

wiser to

elaborate normative arguments on the value of political constitutions by using history to institutions of

compare past with present

or the

one country with those of another. This avoids

the awkwardness of having to shift from an ideal model to the political

and

allows us to

6 0

social reality

we

are trying to understand,

endow our reasoning with

and

it

the persuasive force of

Republicanism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism examples and narration. Republican nated and developed primarily lics,

where

language

political

in the councils of free

language of rhetoric rather than of philosophy;

common

truth but the tions but

We

good;

can

at least posit that

owes

its

less well.

masters, to blame for

conception of

political liberty

said, its capacity to

as the

from a

seeks not

it

historical point of

while those principles

withstood the test of time

have

a

requires not abstract founda-

republicanism

to classical

trinal principles,

of

it

it is

wisdom.

liberalism

some

repub-

debate sovereign decisions were made;

after

origi-

its

owes

it

And

most

its

it

view

valid doc-

to itself

has only

have or

itself,

forgetting the republican

and thus having weakened,

accommodate

the

demands

absence of dependence, which are central

as

I

of liberty

to the ideal of

civil liberty

From

a theoretical point of view, liberalism

can be consid-

ered an impoverished or incoherent republicanism, but not an alternative to republicanism.

If,

as

Quentin Skinner argues,

republicans, unlike liberals, insist that "to live in a condition of

dependence straint,"

is

in

and of

then republicanism

and consistent than

ical

itself a is

cause and a form of con-

a liberal theory that

classical liberalism.

believe that "force or the coercive threat of

it

is

more

While

rad-

liberals

constitute the

only form of constraint that interferes with individual liberty"

(emphasis mine-), republicans want to reduce as sible the constraint that

much

weighs on individuals and for

as pos-

this rea-

son also are wiUing to struggle against the forms of constraint that derive If

from dependence.

we accept

Pettit's thesis that

republicanism considers

domination, not constraint, the principal

then

we can

enemy

assert that a liberal considers that

all

of liberty,

laws (even

6

1

— REPUBLICANISM nonarbitrary ones, that aim to reduce'the dependence of certain citizens

on the arbitrary wiH of others)

restrict liberty,

while a republican considers the same laws the most secure

bulwark protecting

liberty

even severe interference

if

and

is

therefore willing to accept

that reduces the weight of arbitrary

power and domination over himself and tation

others. This interpre-

makes republicanism incompatible with

ideologies,

though not with liberalism.

Many

libertarian

liberals agree

with the republican objective of expanding liberty beyond present boundaries. Republicans would like more

men

to share the culture of citizenship; consider

its

women and democratic

equality a fine and worthy thing; refuse to be anyone's servant

but treat everyone with respect; stand ready to

fulfill

their civic

duties and practice solidarity. Expanding the boundaries of erty

means seeing

depend on the careers,

to

it

arbitrary

whether

that fewer

men and women must

judgment of others

in order to

in the public or private sector; that

fewer citizens feel defenseless

and bureaucracy;

that fewer

lib-

have

fewer and

in the face of public authority

and fewer

citizens are forced into

silence or passivity because their social or cultural or ethnic

group

is

considered

inferior, their history

without value; that

fewer and fewer citizens are discriminated against or treated arrogantly or condescendingly in the workplace, or confined

even self-confined— to the inner spaces of domestic

life.

Why

should liberals oppose these aspirations to greater liberty? liberals incorporated the ideal of liberty as

tion into their language

vigor into their political

and

politics,

message

absence of domina-

they would

for the

If

new

instill

new

century.^

Skinner has noted the important theoretical difference

between 6 2

classiQa^

republicanism and liberalism

in

the lan-

Repuhlicanism, Liberalism and Communitarianism ,

guage of

rights. Classical republicans,

speak of

much

Machiavelli

them,

fail to

rights.

(Of course, there are authoritative

also it

is

rights,

among

first

less of innate or natural liberal theorists

do not presume the idea of innate or natural

rights.

0

who Still,

important to point out that the modern idea of rights

is

perfectly consistent with republican ideals of political liberty

and

civil life.

The

idea and, especially, the practice of rights

way

teach citizens a

of

life

that rejects both servility

and

arro-

gance, as Tocqueville explained in a passage rich in classical

repubhcan echoes: Next

to virtue as a general idea, nothing,

beautiful as that of rights,

mingled.

The

think,

I

is

so

and indeed the two ideas are

idea of rights

is

nothing but the concep-

tion of virtue applied to the world of politics.

By means

of the idea of rights

men

have defined the

nature of license and of tyranny. Guided by

its light,

we

can each of us be independent without arrogance and obedient without

servility.

When

force, that surrender debases him;

man submits to but when he accepts a

the recognized right of a fellow mortal to give orders, there

of the

is

a sense in

which he

commands. No man can be

rises

him

above the giver

great without virtue,

nor any nation great without respect for rights; one

might almq^ say that without for

what

is

a

it

there can be no society,

combination of rational and intelligent

beings held together by force alone?^

The major convergences between

liberalism

canism notwithstanding, the republican

and republi-

ideal of liberty

is,

I

6 3

— REPUBLfCANISM believe,

more useful

hberal one.

It

trary will of

above

between

contemporary democracies than the

to

enables us to identify dependence on the arbi-

one

to'

all

^

more

^or

show

liberty

individuals as a loss of liberty and

and more persuasively the

ciearly

and

civic virtue.

the ideal of liberty as the

A

person

institutions,

subscribes to

mere absence of interference can

agree to perform certain civic duties table

who

link

—

giving

money

supporting programs of social

to charisolidarity,

participating in groups that are characteristic of civil society either because she believes these actions have a moral value, or that they help to or that a

keep the community decent and tranquil,

commitment

to the public

Benjamin Constant's term) helps

good (patriotism,

difficult to

persuade such

required by law to give interest, since eral liberty

is

money

who

a

citizens. Still,

it

person to agree

or time to works in the

would be

to

common

she would see that as a limitation of liberty Libnot merely the absence of interference but also

'^immunity from ser\ice, citizens

use

to protect individual liberty

from the abuses of arrogant rulers and be very

to

'

as

Hobbes

writes in Leviathan. But

accept the republican ideal of liberty do not

agree, because they identify^ a lack of liberty differently. Unlike liberals,

who

consider public service a restriction on

they consider

it

Hobbes once

again, they

a natural

companion

know

to liberty

To hark back

that the citizens of

required to serve the public good to a

much

liberty,

Lucca

to

are

greater extent than

are the subjects of the sultan in Constantinople, but they

know

they would feel freer in Lucca.

However important

the differences between republican-

ism and liberalism, those separating republicanism from the various communitarian philosophies are even

more marked,

proposing as they do to reinforce the moral and cultural unity

6 4

Repuhlicanisniy Liberalism^ and Communitarianism of our democratic societies as a Yet the belief that

ism

is

repubHcanism

widespread

Habermas,

is

of reviving civic virtue.

form of communitarian-

a

international political theory. Jiirgen

in

example, has written that republicanism

for

intellectual tradition derived

ciple of citizenship as

community

means

is

an

from Aristotle based on the prin-

membership

in

an ethnic and cultural

that enjoys self-government. In his view, republi-

canism considers

citizens parts of the

community who can

own

and moral excellence

develop and express their

identity

only within a shared tradition and culture that include a con-

ception of moral goodness.'^

This interpretation of republicanism as a form of political Aristotelianism rists

is

a historiographical error.

believed that being a citizen meant not so

civil

and

was

is,

a political

as exercising

law. For republicans, the

common good was justice, that individuals live freely.

The

because

do not have

it is

and

is

liberty

most important

only in a just republic

to serve the will of others

basis of the republic

to a res

community, whose goal

to allow individuals to live together in justice

under the rule of

belong-

from belonging

political rights that derived

fuhlica, or civitas, that

much

community

ing to a self-governing ethno-cultural

the

Republican theo-

and can

therefore the very idea

of equal rights or justice that communitarian philosophers try to enrich

with a.shared conception of moral good.

For repubhcan political writers, the republic

is

not an

abstract political reality but a good that our forefathers helped to build

come

and that

it is

our task to preserve

after us to live in

if

we want

those

who

freedom. Every national community

own

which

special,

and

make

it

different from others, but in order to be a true repub-

lic, it

must be based on

it

has

its

history

justice.

and

is

its

oivn character

A republic

founded on justice

REPUBLICANISM and the

"

can supply the fHendship,

rule of law

solidarity,

and

belonging that communitarians ^peak about. But a republic

on

built

a particular conception of goodness,

culture, will not be

be

fore not

will there-

it

just.

ism considers participation

rists

a particular

republic for ever\'one, and

a'

Another contemporar\' error

As

value.

on

in

is

the idea that republican-

self-government the highest

have already observed, classical republican theo-

I

believed that participation in the

life

of the republic

was

important both to preserve liberty and to give civic education

and therefore that

to its citizens,

reasonable ways. But the republic;

it

was

a

it

should be encouraged in

all

was not the main value or objective of

it

means

to protect liberty

best citizens for positions of responsibility.

and It

to select the

often

is

more

important to have good rulers than to have citizens participate

What

in ever\^ decision.

decide wish to serve the

counts

is

common

that those

who

govern and

good.

Republican equality does not consist solely of equality of civil

and

political rights;

citizens the social,

them

to live

on

this

lMachia\'elli,

also affirms the

need

left

theme is

which we owe

of social equality.

to allow

The

first,

formulated by

that poverty should not translate into either

to

Rousseau,

(or to sell his loyalty

becoming

is

The second,

that in a republic worthy of the

so poor as to be forced to sell himself

and obedience

to

powerful and wealthy

a serv ant or a client) or so rich as to

be able

purchase, witb favors, the obedience of other citizens.

6 6

all

us two particularly valuable considera-

name no one should be

to

ensure

economic, and cultural conditions

exclusion from public honors or a loss of repute.

citizens,

to

with dignity and self-respect. The masters of mod-

ern republicanism tions

it

Repuhlicanisniy Liberalism, and Commiinitarianism These two principles form the fundamental underpinnings of republican equality in our times.

The

first

government not allow poverty

to close the

private careers or to education,

it

tice,

must do

doors to public and

this for reasons of jus-

because the republic cannot tolerate

citizens

requires that our

a situation in

which

have to undergo the humiliating experience of exclusion

and because the republic must want the best people, not the

most privileged ones,

richest or the for

to

win out

in

competition

honors and distinction; indeed, precisely because

the best to win out,

The second

it

must require

it

needs

that the competition be

fair.

principle, that of Rousseau, requires that the

republic ensure that everyone has the right to work and the social rights that will

when misfortune ever,

keep him or her from hitting bottom

strikes.

These

how-

social rights should not,

be confused with the welfare-state approach, which

risks

creating lifelong clients of the state, sanctions certain privileges,

and

fails to

encourage individuals

to help themselves.

Nor should they be confused with public charity,

which

because

sick or old

is

ration but a

dignity of

its

it

is

incompatible with

offends the dignity of those

no crime.

way of

A

republic

living in

citizens, so

it

worse, private)

an act of goodwill. Public (and

however praiseworthy,

vate) charity, life

offers aid as

(or,

is

who

receive

it.

pricivil

To be

not a profit-seeking corpo-

common

that aims to ensure the

has the duty to offer assistance not

as an act of corgpassion but in recognition of a right of citizenship.

It

must therefore take on the duty of assisting

its

citizens

without making this help onerous and without assigning

it

to

private individuals.'^

6 7

FIVE

Repuhlican Virtue

To

PROTECT LIBERTY,

on the

a republic

civic virtue of its citizens, that

ingness and capacity to serve the

virtue

word

is

must be able

the foundation

—

is,

on

common

to rely

their will-

good. Civic

or the spirit, to use Montesquieu's

—of republican government. Among some contemporary

political theorists,

however, the idea prevails that the civic virtue

theorized by republican authors

is

impossible or dangerous or

both. Impossible because citizens in our democracies are tied to

group interests and have no motivation to serve the

good; dangerous because

zens were to

more have

become more

intolerant

wished

if

and more

to let virtue reign, to

in

common

our multicultural societies

virtuous, they might also

become

fanatic. Lastly, they claim,

make

citizens virtuous,

citi-

if

we

we would

to limit their liberties.^

The proximate

origin of the idea that civic virtue

is

out of

reach for modern citizens can be found in Montesquieu's Tl^e

REPUBLICANISM Spirit of Laws. For

^

Montesquieu,

political virtue

republican government, the dorninant passion zens

if it is

sizes that citizens.

It is

necessary because the laws will will dissolve

if

become

its citi-

extremely difficult because

it is

a

ineffec-

the citizens, out of greed

do not love the republic and

or ambition,

among

extreinely difficult to instill in the hearts of

is

and the republic

tive

the spirit of

and prosper. At the same time, he empha-

to survive it

is

its

laws;

it

is

form of renunciation, requir-

ing citizens to moderate their desire for exclusive goods, that

goods such as wealth and honors whose value comes

for

is,

from being accessible

same

to

some but not

all,

at least

not in the

quantities.-

To create virtuous

citizens,

Montesquieu wrote, one must

teach them to guide their passions and desires toward com-

mon

ends and

ests or

wallow

goals:

in the pleasures of private life,

republic, just as rule deprives to

fix.

they cannot pursue their private inter-

if

monks

them

of

they will love the

love their order because the monastic

all

that

on which exclusive passions tend

Citizens should live austerely and frugally: the

more the

republic succeeds in moderating private desires and passions,

more

the

saw

becomes strong and

united. In short,

Montesquieu

a threat to political virtue not only in greed

and ambition

it

but also in individual interests, and he believed that the ideal sites for political virtue

were small republics that were

frugal

and austere. Montesquieu's writings on

enced the

political virtue greatly influ-

political culture of the eighteenth century.

the heading "Patrie" in the Encyclopedie, for instance, that political virtue

is

we

read

"love of the fatherland" Mainour de la

patrie'), that is^^a^love of the

7 0

Under

laws and the good of the state that

Republican Virtue flourishes especially in democracies.

needed

interest; this spiritual est,

common good

to place the

pushing them

to

power

is

above one's individual

weak-

accomplish great deeds for the public le

modern people read about such fools to

spirit of sacrifice

gives strength even to the

good Cde grandes choses pour they consider

A

them not paragons

hien public').

And

when

yet

virtuous citizens of antiquity,

be imitated but more

to

likely

be derided.

Classical republican political writers, on the other hand,

did not think of civic virtue as renunciation and sacrifice or as a

way

of

the monastic one, which

life like

and rejection of

Nor

private goods.

virtue a virtue for

men

demands

frugality

did they consider political

cool to private passions, like Cato, or

capable of crushing their

own

passions and affections, like

Brutus. Coluccio Salutati, chancellor of the Florentine Re-

public from 1375 to 1406, for one, thought that political

vir-

tue required no sacrifice of one's passions and was in no

way monastic. One need not Cmarmorea quasi

severitas')

imitate the

marmoreal

severity

of Cato, he wrote to a friend,

because even though he served the republic with great

Cato neglected

his family

Following Cicero,

skill,

ties."^

the

humanists repeat that while a

philosopher in pursuit of wisdom

is

useful only to himself, a

common good is useful to many other close to man even when man is immersed

citizen working^for the

individuals.

God

is

in the life of the city, or

indeed anywhere that truth and virtue

glimmer. As Matteo Palmieri explained in his book on

civil life,

written between 1435 and 1440, one need not seek perfect virtue, "the

imaginary goodness of citizens such as have never

been seen on

earth,

'

but rather study "the approved

of

life

7

1

REPUBLICANISM^' whom

virtuous citizens with

and pursue the

earth"

one has Tived and may well

virtue of

men

c'ivil

—

live

on

earthly, imperfect,

but pleasing to dod.^ For Florentine republicans of the fifteenth centur\; civic \'irtue

that

was not

which makes

in this regard in

a sacrifice of pri\ ate life but

Book

III

is

life

foundation,

pleasant and secure. Exemplar}

the dialogue betw een Giannozzo and Lionardo

On

of

private

its ver\'

the Family, written by

Leon

Battista Alberti

between 1433 and 144L Like vou, lit\,

1

would say

but not so

much

good

that a

his

good men. fie rejoices

own

citizen loves tranquil-

tranquillit\ as that of other

but does

in his private leisure,

not care less about that of his fellow citizens than about his

He

own.

desires the unity, calm, peace,

own

quillity of his

house, but

much more

and

tran-

those of the

country and of the republic. These good things, moreover,

cannot be preser\^ed

nobility

among

other citizens,

And

men

who

Wise men

of wealth or

wisdom

or

are also free but less fortunate. Yet

same republics be presen ed

are solely content

later in the

men

the citizens seek more power than the

neither can these

good

if

same

w

if all

the

ith their prix ate leisure.

text:

say that good citizens should undertake to

care for the republic and to countr}', not

shaken by the

toil at

follies of

the tasks of their

men,

in order to

further the public peace and presen e the general good.

Thus they>aiso 7 2

a\'oid giving a

place of power to the

Republican Virtue wicked,

through

who through the indifference of their own dishonest wish soon

the good and pervert every

plan and undermine both public and private wellbeing.^

who accept commonweal must be

Civic virtue can be onerous, especially for those public duties. Those

who manage

willing to face the animosity of 'any zens"; they

and

for

good

and

and unjust

all evil

must be capable of employing "extreme

good people severity

citizen

the

is

a burden.

But

if it is

citi-

severity,"

required, a

cannot hang back; indeed, he must consider that

"exterminating and extinguishing thieves and every sort of

and every flame of unjust

vicious individual,

An

exceedingly pious action."

avarice,"

is

"an

act of piety, in other words,

toward the fatherland, toward the republic: piety understood as a passion toward those tives,

who

are dear to us

sons and daughters, and compatriots.

—

parents, rela-

A virtuous

citizen

does not suppress passions with reason but allows one passion, civic charity, to prevail over the others

virtue,

and service

and

tries to

to the republic, with private

balance civic

life.

For Florentine republicans, civic virtue was perfectly compatible with wealth. Suffice

it

to read the

commentary written

by Leonardo Briini on the famous treatise on economics that attributed to Aristotle but tus.

was probably written by Theophras-

True, Bruni warns that

beyond the needs of one's

if

cism

if it

men

one begins

to

amass wealth

family, the thirst for

become unquenchable Cnullus he adds, wise

is

est

money may

terminus divitiarum') But, .

believe that wealth

is

not cause for

criti-

hurts no one. Indeed, riches can sustain such virtues

as generosity

and

liberality,

which

are useful to the republic.

7 3

R E P L B L For Bruni,

C A \

i

it is

M

S

I

' ^

ngt true that

has no need of material goods,

same idea can men, \\

found

itself

and

a's

the Stoics claim.

And

the

in the writings of Palmieri: for "gentle-

he uiites. riches are tools for the exercise of

hich without

The \

be*

unto

\'irtue is 'sufficient

\\

ealth remains

eak and incomplete.

basic outlines of this humanistic interpretation of ci\ic

can be found as well

irtue

""w

virtue,

"^

in Machiavelli's

work. Machia\elli

did not share even remotely the ethic of sacrificing passions.

He

believed that civic

way one w as

life

demands

decorum

in the

speaks, dresses, and behaves toward others; but he

w orld and of people's weak-

tolerant of the variety of the

nesses, fie pointed out that the law

he did not expect

sene

a certain

to

make them

a good republic,

it

s

can make

arrogant and w ith those

warned

perfect; he

was necessar\

who wanted

to

to

men

good, but

that to pre-

inflexible with the

be

be tyrants, but he did

not think that citizens had to be saints. His conception of ci\ic \

irtue

had none of the marmoreal

severity of Cato;

it

required

not self-sacrifice but, rather, the expansion of certain passions at the

expense of others.

W hen \irtue, li\

Machia\ elli

sets the ancient

he describes them not as

es or pri\ ate interests to the

who

lo\ed to

because

the\-

li\e

in

wanted

a

who

as

examples of

sacrificed their

good but

to

enjoy their pri\ate

free so as to

command, but

all

li\"es

profits.

7 4

A

Machiavelli, "desires to be

who

the others,

as to live secure.

li\

liberty,

peace.

in

The

are infinite,

love of liberty, so

strong in ancient peoples, grew from the fact that

and provinces that

as citizens

freedom and therefore sened

among them, wrote

freedom so

people

common

small portion

desire

Romans

e freely in e\ er\ part

.

.

.

make

"all \

towns

er\-

great

For larger peoples are seen there, because marriages

Republican Virtue are freer

and more desirable

to

men

since each willingly pro-

creates those children he believes he can nourish.

He

does not

away and he knows not

fear that his patrimony will be taken

only that they are born free and not slaves, but that they can,

through their virtue, become princes. In Machiavelli's view, uncorrupt citizens sacrifice nothing

but

''in

rivalry

think of private and public advantages," and

because they do

this,

come

"both the one and the other

grow marvelously" Virtuous

citizens love the security that

ing in freedom offers, they love the "sweetness of a free

and since they want

life,"

and

that sweetness, they

trates

to

when

wish

to destroy their free

Like

it

all

becomes

way

of

do their duty and obey the magisto resist

necessary/, mobilize against those

way

of

who

life.'^^

humanists of the fifteenth century, Machiavelli

believed that thirst for glory was an important civic virtue: the

the

liv-

continue to enjoy that security

and laws when they must, and they know how

and,

to

common

Roman

component

in

people, he says, ''loved the glory and

good of their fatherland." And he thought

important that this passion be

felt

it

was

by ordinary citizens and

who fight for their soldiers." And it is equally

especially by soldiers, because only "those

own

glory are

important that

good and

when

faithful

a republic

corrupt there be

is

who, out of love of fatherland and

redeem

it:

he ought

"Anj^

truly, if a

glory,

has the strength to

prince seeks the glory of the world,

to desire to possess a corrupt city

entirely as did

Caesar but

to reorder

Machiavelli, glory dwelled in a councils; love of glory by no

from private

someone

interests: the

it

—not

it

as did Romulus."^* For

city's

squares and public

means required

Roman

to spoil

a

detachment

people were fond of the

7 5

REPUBLICANISM common good and

the fatherland but* also of their pri\ ate and

personal good.

One ists

\\

human-

point on\\ hich Machia\'elli differed from the

as the issue of po\'ertv: did

ci\'ic \

irtue require that citi-

zens be poor? Fie saw wealth as a danger, not as a tool of civic virtue.

He

thought that the rich were dangerous

to a republic

because they tended toward arrogance and, by dispensing favors,

could easily become the heads of factions that would

place private interests over the

common

good. For that reason,

he thought "well-ordered republics have rich

and

that for

their citizens poor."^-

important to keep in mind

(It is

Machia\ elli po\ erty w as merely the condition of hav-

ing to continue

w orking

in

order to

considered himself poor after he

li\

e decently. iVIachiavelli

lost his salar\- as a

public

offi-

he hadn't considered himself poor before so long as he

cial;

had

keep the public

to

it.

E\ en though he feared that his so-called po\'ertv w ould

prejudice others against him, his idea of po\erty w as not of a state defined

by needs.)

Montesquieu and the preted

ci\ ic

theorists

virtue as a virtue far

who came

latter

had proclaimed a more human

suited to individuals living in an earthly city

gods nor saints and yet not beasts; a

them

to sacrifice their passions

liberty

and private

and moral enrichment; li\ing

quite

because

that's

a virtue that

how the w orld

understandable

that

a

\

and

ties of affection a

w ho

virtue,

are neither

irtue that did not require

interests but tried to give

secure political foundation

accepted variety is

and

writer

in

it's

in

fine that

w ays

of

it is. It is

eighteenth-centur\

France, drawingt)n classical sources, should

7 6

inter-

rigorous than

humanists and by Renais-

that envisaged b\ the Italian ci\ic

sance w Titers. The

him

after

more perfect and

\"iew ci\ ic

\

irtue

Republican Virtue in a distant,

more

ideal

and luminous way, so luminous as

seem impossible. But those who thought of a

to

aetually lived in a republic

less severe quality, lighter and,

by that very token,

plausible.

This

a civic virtue for

is

men and women who

in dignity,

and since they know

when

community

the

whenever they can,

is

it is

impossible to

wish

to live

live in dignity

corrupt, they do everything they can,

to serve the

common

jobs in good conscience, without taking

liberty: illicit

they do their

advantage and

without profiting from others' need or vulnerability; members of their family respect each other, so that their

semble

little

republics

more than they do monarchies

lection of strangers held together by television; they

docile; they

homes

perform their

can mobilize

to

mere

civic duties,

re-

or a col-

by

self-interest or

but they are not

prevent the passage of an unjust

law or to push their leaders to deal with problems in the com-

mon

interest; they are active in associations of various sorts

professional, athletic, cultural, political, or religious; they take

an interest

in

national and international politics; they

want

to

understand, and they do not want to be guided or indoctrinated; they want to know, discuss, and reflect on the history of their nation.

For some, the chief motivation for

from

a

commitment comes

moral sense, more precisely, from indignation

at

abuse,

discrimination, corruption, arrogance, or vulgarity; for others,

from an aesthetic desire

for

decency and decorum;

are driven by specific concerns

—about

parks, well-kept squares, respected

still

others

safe streets, pleasant

monuments, good schools

and hospitals; or people become engaged because they want gain repute and they aspire to attain public honor,

sit at

to

the

7 7

REPUBLICANISM

'

^

chairman's table, give speeches, stand in the front row at cere-

many

monies. In

ing each other.

>

This type of ous, and

it is

cases these motives work together, reinforc-

is

neither impossible nor danger-

as republican as

any other. Each of us can think

civic-

virtue

who answer

of people

to this description of a citizen

sense of civic responsibility, and

we can

with a

say that they have only

brought good to their community and to themselves. Problems arise

when

this type of civic culture

is

suffocated by other ways

of living, especially by a culture of arrogance and

those

who

govern and those

often those

who

deserve

it

who pass laws would reward more and who do good for the republic,

rather than heaping honors on the slick and the ture

would grow

Is it

servility. If

sly,

civic cul-

in strength.

too late?

think the best answer to this question was

I

offered by Tocqueville:

No

laws can bring back

can make

men

and by linking

habits, to

ment.

make

And one

awaken and

to

direct that vague

it it

to

everyday thoughts, passions,

a conscious

and durable

should never say that

it

attempt that; nations do not grow old as fresh generation

7 8

is

It

which never leaves the human

instinct of patriotism

and

fading beliefs, but laws

care for the fate of their countries.

depends on the laws

heart,

life to

new

is

senti-

too late to

men

do.

Each

material for the lawgiver to

S

I

X

Repuhlican Patriotism

THE PROBLEM

OF CIVIC VIRTUE,

that

is,

the

citi-

zens' interest in the public good, brings us to the issue

of patriotism. For centuries, repubhcan political writers

have claimed that the chief passion that gives power to

civic virtue

is

love of the fatherland; often they have consid-

ered the two concepts identical. Given the importance of the

problem,

it is

no surprise that repubhcan

political literature

so rich in references to and treatments of patriotism. But surprise that in Tnotdern times

have failed to give ing,

and

I

it

shall try to

most neo-republican

the attention

remedy

it

deserves.

The

it is

is

a

theorists

lack

is

glar-

it.

to

be precise, a

charitable love of the republic {caritas reipublicae)

and of one s

In classical republicanism, love of country

fellow citizens (caritas civium).

from the

Roman

writers of the

The concept

is,

of caritas passes

sources to the works of the scholastic political

Middle Ages who supported self-government of 7 9

REPUBLICANISM communeSo Ptolemy

local

^

of Lucca, for one, wrote that "love of

the fatherland grows from the ro6t of charity, which places not

common

private goods abfeve

goods but,

common

rather,

goods

above private goods./

Even when

it

respects the principles of justice and reason

and can therefore be called land

and

a specific affection for a specific republic

is

zens.

"rational love," love of the father-

It

is

its citi-

found especially among citizens of free republics,

—

who

share

cils,

public squares, friends and enemies, memories of victo-

ries

and defeats, hopes and

many important

political equality,

and

it

things

fears.

(literally,

presupposes

It

common

charity toward the

and

rulers the courage to

obligations that defense of the

commonweal)

caritas lived

invigo-

perform their

liberty

demands.

which scholastic

authors used in their writings and sermons, the

cept

(ojfi-

meet the often onerous

common

In the language of patriotism

and

good. Lastly, caritas

rates the soul, giving citizens the strength to civic duties

civil

translates into acts of service

cium) and care (cultus) for the reipublicae

laws, liberty, public coun-

political

Roman

con-

once again, now accompanied by Christian

themes. The marriage of these two traditions was a distinctive characteristic of Florentine patriotism of the fourteenth fifteenth centuries, clerical, as is

more than Yet

it

was

though that patriotism was

shown by the saying

one's soul,"

which any

fiercely anti-

"to love one's fatherland

priest

would

also profoundly Christian. Unless

this intellectual context,

and

find heretical.

we

we cannot understand

are aware of

the

meaning of

a passage in Machiavelli's Discourses in which, after a quite radical attack

on Christian

that Christianity,

8 0

if

religion

and education, he notes

properly interpreted, "permits us the exal-

Republican Patriotism tation

and defense of the fatherland ...

and honor defend

it

it."'

among

not

and

to prepare ourselves to

While the

[I]t

wishes us

be such that

to love

we can

political writings of the scholastics

and he

his favorite reading

rarely

went

to

church,

even Machiavelli recognized the existence of a Christian otism in which

Roman themes

The language

were

patri-

lived on.

was

of patriotism

significant in the projects

of political reform theorized, and at times attempted, in the Italian states of the late sixteenth

The

and seventeenth centuries.

central theme, then, both in states governed by Italian

princes and in those controlled by foreign powers, was equality,

understood as "a principle of solidarity based on member-

ship in a

community and on common

interest." Equality of the

citizens, the historian Rosario Villari has explained.

did not exclude juridical disparities and a certain degree

Nor

of inequality of political rights.

respect for the law, pure and simple. for a governo largo, or "broad

tion

whereby

it

did It

it

amount

included a

to

call

government," as a condi-

would be possible

to establish the stable

authority of the law and to prevent arbitrary rule, anarchy,

and tyranny The essential objective

consolidate the

civil

bond

linking

all

each

at

his

own

level

.

.

members

community, the subordination of one and small,

.

all,

was

to

of the

great

and

of social and political

power, to the general interest."

In the eighteenth century,

patriotism took on a

more

the language of republican

distinctly political significance,

though entirely consistent with the

classical conceptions of

8

1

REPUBLICANISM caritas \eifuhlicae

and

as

iis

means not the place

common

the

we

caritas civium.. ''PatrieJ'

Encyclopedie, for instance,

were born,

-

v

''free state" {'etat lihye')

of

read in the

in

which we

understanding, but, rather, a

which we are members and whose

laws protect 'our liberty and our happiness" ("wos lihertes notre honheuf).

The

et

Enlightenment

political writers of the

used the word "fatherland" synonymously with "republic," because they believed that the true fatherland could only be a

was not merely polemical:

free republic. This identification

summarized the idea

under the yoke of a despot,

that

are without protection

and cannot participate

it

citizens

in public life;

they might as well be outsiders, and they therefore have no fatherland. Following Montesquieu, the author of the entry in the Encyclopedie wrote:

despotism, where there

is

"Those who

no law but the

no other maxim than the adoration of principles of safe,

no head

government than lies

easy

terror,

live

will of the sovereign,

his caprices,

is

no other

where no fortune

— those people have no

do not even know the word, which

under oriental

yatrie,

is

and they

the very expression of

happiness."^

To these

political writers of the

eighteenth century, love of

the fatherland was not a natural sentiment but an feeling to be fostered by laws

ment and

or,

participation in public

better yet, by good governlife.

"Let our country, then,"

wrote Rousseau in his Economie politique, "show

common mother in their

them enough share guarantees of

8 2

it

to

them;

let

the

the government leave

in the public administration to

home; and

i\\e

itself

of her citizens; let the advantages they enjoy

country endear

feel they are at

artificial

common

let

make them

the laws be in their eyes only the

liberty."^

Republican Patriotism With

customary mastery, Rousseau linked the father-

his

land with liberty and virtue: "There can be no patriotism

without

liberty,

citizens.

"

no

liberty

In his best-sellers

and without true

citizens

land but only of a country.^ lie in

way

Emile and La Nouvelle Heloise, he

between pays and

reiterated the distinction erty

without virtue, no virtue without

lib-

one can speak not of a father-

The foundations

of the fatherland

the relationship between the citizens and the state and a

of

in

life

ther walls nor

keeping with republican institutions:

men who make

the fatherland:

toms, habits, government, and the

The

therefrom. state

without

patrie:

and

fatherland

lies in

members; when these

its

way

of

it

life

is

"It is nei-

laws, cus-

that ensues

the relations between the relations

change or

fail,

the

fatherland ceases to exist. Just a few years

later,

Gaetano

Filangieri

summarized

in his

Science of Legislation the significance of republican patriotism: "Let us not misuse the sacred

name

of love of countr)' to

indicate that affection for the soil of the fatherland

appendix of the very

found both eties." "It

True

in the

evils of civil

vigor in

in the

he claimed,

can be dominant and unknown;

it

one people and be omnipotent

is

exclude

The life

it,

it,

and Invigorates

and proscribe

it;

most perfect

an

an

artificial

soci-

passion:

can have absolutely no in another.

of the law and of government introduces

expands

is

unions and which can be

most corrupt and

love of country,

which

it,

The wisdom

establishes

the defects of both

weaken

it, it,

it.

idea that good government and participation in public

are at the root of true patriotism naturally develops into the

idea that true patriotism

government.

One

of the

is

first

born and flourishes in local

self-

theorists of local self-government

8 3

REPUBLICANISM as the root of ci\

"True patriotism

il

is

patriotism

found

"

^

was Gi-andomenico Romagnosi:

in the

able, active, real>and

permanent

ism

and

is

in thexit\- hall,-

there onl\. Let

me

— depend-

it

is

can be found there and the foundation for secu-

political ordering of a civil state.

The same concept reemerges Aiiierica

spring

of true and certain patriot-

dare sa\

I

add: there alone

and the

in ever\ thing

rit\

—

The

hall.

ei4:\

in the

pages of Dewocracr in

w here Tocque\ille describes the patriotism he

the townships of that, in general,

w here power

New

"It is

exists. Patriotism

in directions

does not long prexail

New Englander

finds in

important to appreciate

men's affections are drawn only

quered countn. The ship not so

England:

in a

con-

attached to his tow n-

is

much because he was born

there as because he

sees the tow nship as a free, strong corporation of w hich he part

and which

W hen

is

worth the trouble of

Carlo Cattaneo w

are the nation; thev are the nation in the

of

its libert}."'

he captured

fundity and expressix e

in a

pow er.

is

tr\"ing to direct.

1864. that "the

rote, in

^

communes

most intimate

manelous

nurser\'

phrase, rich in pro-

a long republican tradition about

patriotism.'" Cjiuseppe Mazzini did the same, but in a differ-

ent direction, at once more unitan and more democratic.

emphasized that the true fatherland ensures

onK

ci\

il

and

to all citizens not

political rights but also the right to

work and

education:

The tatherland

not a territon

is

:

the

but the foundation. Fhe fatherland that foundation:

communion into one.

8 4

it

is

as

nothing

an idea built on

the thought of lo\e. the sense of

that binds

As Jong

territor\- is is

all

one

the children of that

ot

He

\our brothers

is

territory"

not repre-

to

Republican Patriotism sented by a vote in the development of national

among

long as one languishes uneducated cated, as long as a single person

ing to

work

poverty,

lies idle, in

who

due

is

fatherland of

we

the edu-

ready and will-

you

to lack of a job,

all,

the fatherland for

all.

Mazzini also says that the fatherland

cause

as

have the fatherland that you should have, the

will not

where we

life,

with people

live

is

a

common

we understand and

feel they are like us

and close

to us.

hold dear be-

But

it is

that stands alongside other houses of equal worth.

are in our

own

when we

are in the houses of others,

house,

we must perform our

foreign land.

if

Our moral

a

house

When we

duties as citizens;

we must perform our

duties toward humanity. To defend liberty of each one of us, even

house,

is

the supreme duty

the people being oppressed are in a

humanity come

obligations toward

before our obligations toward our fatherland. Before being izens of a particular fatherland,

means

we

human

beings, and this

that national barriers cannot be a pretext for moral

deafness.

The

voices of suffering people

ever they are raised.

However great

tures, love of liberty

makes

So

are

cit-

for Mazzifii there

is

must be heard

the differences

v\

her-

among cul-

translation possible.'^

no need

to

renounce patriotism

order to support the cause of humanity.

On

in

the contrary, that

cause can be supported most effectively by building ones

homeland

first

help those

of

all.

who do

As

individuals,

we can do

very

little

not belong to our nation. At the most

to

we

can offer charitable gestures or exchange occasional favors, like

good neighbors, but we cannot work together on

enterprises.

There has

to

common

be a mediating between an individual

8 5

REPUBLICANISM and humanity,

at. large; this is

what nations

are,

and the

free,

republican fatherlands built in them. These are the God-given

means by whicb^to

We

ment.

carry out the plan for humanity's develop-

mlist therefore begin with the fatherland;

even dream of being able

to help

humanity without

we cannot help-

first

ing our country.'^

The quoted

considerations set forth thus far and the texts

—

I

could easily add others

—

were quite clear on

have

clarify the difference be-

tween republican patriotism and nationalism. Classical cal writers

I

politi-

this point: the political

and

cultural values of the fatherland differ from the nonpolitical

values of the nation.

They used two

different terms to describe

them: yatria and natio. Both patria and natio establish bonds

among

bonds of the

individuals, but the

are stronger

patria, or res puhlica,

and nobler than the bonds of the

natio, as

Cicero

wrote.

The ancient

distinction

is still

valid. Theorists of republi-

can patriotism considered that the republic's

and the way of

political institu-

life

based on them, had the highest

political value; nationalists,

on the other hand, put the people's

tions,

cultural or ethnic or religious identity in the forefront.

mer considered latter, a

The

for-

the only true fatherland a free republic; for the

fatherland exists wherever a people has preserved

its

cultural identity

A

further distinction concerns the interpretation of love of

country. For republicans, as

was an

have pointed out, love of country

artificial feeling that

nourishment by

political

required constant stoking and

means,

ernment and participation contrast, love^of country

8 6

I

first

and foremost good gov-

in public life.

was

a natural

For nationalists, in

emotion which,

to

Republican Patriotism and grow strong, had

thrive

to

be protected from contami-

nation and cultural assimilation. This difference obviously derives from the former considering the republic as a political institution,

and the

considering the nation as produced

latter

by nature, or God. Yet a republic

from

is

not a purely political institution, distinct

understood as a cultural

a nation

being a political order and a way of avelli

spoke of

certain

life, is

The

republic,

a culture.

Machi-

living free; others defined the republic as 'a

of the city."^^

life

reality.

cultural significance:

it is

Thus republican patriotism has

a political passion

a

based on the expe-

rience of republican equality and love of a certain culture,

although

born

it

does not assign great value

in a given territory,

to the

matter of being

belonging to the same ethnic group,

speaking the same language, having the same customs, or worshipping the same gods or god. Those lican patriotism

who

claim that repub-

cannot be a valid response

to the

problems

of social and political cohesion in contemporary societies

because

it is

a purely political credo are off the mark: republi-

can patriotism

Nor

is

opposed

to

is

by no means

a purely political credo.

the idea of nation or the principle of nationaHty

republican patriotism. Consider the definition of

the principle of nationality that John Stuart Mill developed in his System of Logic:

We

need scarcely say that we do not mean

in the vulgar

to foreigners;

the

human

nationality,

sense of the term; a senseless antipathy indifference to the general welfare of

race, or an unjust preference of the sup-

posed interests of our own country;

a cherishing of

bad

8 7

REPUBLICANISM peculiarities

because they are

adopt w hat has been found

mean

a principle of

among

W ho

those

gcx:>d b\'

mean li\

e

hostilit\

a feeling of

;

We

mean,

of union,

common

inter-

under the same gov ernment,

and are contained w ithin the same natural or boundaries.

We

other countries.

sympathy, not of

not of separation..-We est

na-tional, or a refusal to

that

historical

one part of the community

do not consider themscK es as foreigners w ith regard

to

another part; that they set a \alue on their connection

—

feel that

they are one people, that their

together, that ex

il

lot is

to an\' of their fellow -country

cast

men

is

themselves, and do not desire selfishh to free

e\il to

themsekes from

their share of

any

common

inconve-

nience by severing the connection. This conception of the nation became an integral part of republican patriotism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as

Massimo SaKadori has

feature of republican patriotism, he

the sense of the

and

\

The

explained.

w rites,

distinctive

is

alue of liberty as a good of

all

and

for

deri\ ing

from

equal participation; a system of rights that bases

citi-

all;

fidelity

lovalty

toward institutions

zenship in a republic on respect for the individual on the one

hand and

for

groups on the other, that

is,

on the

implementation and defense of a pluralism that may be competitiv e but need not

system that derives from a

a political

demands

become mutuallv

a tireless

who

common

pact,

defense of the established rules

order to defin^ relations betw een those

those

destructive;

are governed,

between the

vv

in

ho gov em and

state

and

civil

Republican Patriotism society; a civic

conscience nourished by love

fatherland which,

fest

way

of experiencing politics that

evil

of

mani-

is

on the public stage and that rejects the arcana

imperii; a public ethics that institutions spirit that

demands

loyalty to public

above and beyond any private

loyalties; a

conceives of the fatherland as an ideal, not a

physical, place,

and therefore considers

implementing the universal values cific

the

the garb of virtue, requires one to

degeneration of power and the

fight against the

corruption; a

in

ol

territoriality as

humanity

ot

in a spe-

space.

Perhaps the most precise meaning of republican patriotism

was expressed,

in

words that are especially touching because

of the intentional absence of rhetoric, by

Giacomo

one of

in

his last letters before being

executed

Ulivi, in

1944, at the age

of nineteen, by a fascist firing squad:

Believe me, the "public good" to

it is

not a cliche, a big

our love for a mother in tears ... If

we

is

ourselves;

empty word

who

calls

think about

us, in

it,

and consider

cate and important task. Because

conditions for

all

civic nationalism. In contrast political or

all

we need it

moral value

differs

deli-

our other tasks, the this one.'^

from both ethnic and

with the former,

in the unity

to take

our most

our other tasks, depend on

Republican patriotism, then,

chains and

wind up being the

thing. Precisely for this reason,

direct, personal care of

us

our interests and the

interests of the "public good" in short

same

ties

like "patriotism" or

upon

it,

what

it

recognizes no

and ethnic homogeneity of

REPUBLICANISM a people, while

it

does recognize the moral and political impor-

tance of values of citizenship, which are entirely incompatible

with any form of>ethnocentrism.. In contrast with the

latter,

it

proclaims allegiance .not to culturally and historically neutral political principles

but to the laws, constitutions, and ways of

of specific republics, each with

life

its

own

history

and

culture.

Civic virtue and the culture of republican citizenship do

not bloom on the branch of cultural or ethnic or religious

homogeneity. People

who

boast an elevated degree of

homo-

geneity in ethnic, cultural, or religious terms are often distin-

guished more by intolerance and bigotry than by their sense.

Only true republican

of civic culture in

politics

civic

can bring about a rebirth

modern democratic

societies without the

help of cultural or ethnic homogeneity. Civic virtue can also easily do without religion, though classical republicans

thought differently. Machiavelli, for ex-

ample, accused the church of having put the greatest stock humility, abjectness,

"in

and contempt of things human," of hav-

ing taught that strength consists in being capable "more of suffering than of doing something strong,"

made

the "world weak" and thus easy prey for "criminal men."

All the same,

was

and therefore of having

he believed that

essential "to

keeping

men

religion, especially fear of

commanding

good, bringing

shame

wrote that divine worship and fear of

to the wicked."

God were

He

cause of the greatness of republics, so disdain for cause of their ruin. For where the fear of

kingdom comes

God

to ruin or that

even

especially nec-

essary in republics: "As the observance of the divine cult

either that the

God,

armies, animating the plebs,

fails, it

it is

it

is is

the

must be

sustained by

the fear of a prince, which supplies the defects of religion.

9 0

the

"^"^

Republican Patriotism Three centuries

toms of the ville

later,

analyzing the institutions and cus-

modern world, Tocque-

great republic of the

first

praised the United States' sharp separation of church and

state but

wrote that what counted most

was not

that

profess

some

great

in

citizens profess a true religion but that they

all

religion.

America, he

said,

where

was

It

necessary: "For

my

political liberty itself that

part,

complete religious independence and entire

same

obey,

and

time. if

he

am

I

is

led to think that

free

he must believe.

Machiavelli and Tocqueville, two

low different paths

to

moral

lives

them

to respect the laws

Machiavelli's

free"

religion

support

political liberty at

he has no

faith

he must

"^^^

ver\' different

w riters,

fol-

reach the same conclusion: republics

have special need of religion

and

if

made

man can

doubt whether

I

had

religion

power over people, was "the most enlightened and

nation on earth.

the

American society

to instill in

argument

to orient their citizens in their

them

a sense of duty that will lead

and perform

their civic obligations.

singles out an important truth: reli-

gious belief and the fear of

God

penetrate the hearts of indi-

viduals and guide their actions; political authority

with their rewards and sanctions,

fail

to

do

this,

and laws,

merely condi-

tioning actions without influencing motivations except very

minimally. Unless another force can quicken internal motivations into action^yve

must accept the necessity of

But such ajorce does

exist: patriotism.

that patriotism "never leaves the

come, through

law, a lasting

one's thoughts, passions,

and

human

religion.

Tocqueville wrote

heart" and can be-

and conscious feeling linked

daily customs. Patriotism, then,

shares with religion the ability to enter into the heart and

people to action

in a lasting

to

move

manner. As Tocqueville put

it:

9

1

REPUBLICANISM "Patriotism and religion are the only things in the world which will

make

the whole body of citizens go persistently forward

toward the sarne

A

goal.""'

republic that could count on religion, especially the

Christian religion, and on republican patriotism would be, then, as good and united as one could hope. But one need not

A

aspire to such perfection. citizens

is

republic of patriotic and religious

unlikely to be a tolerant one. Civic patriotism sea-

soned by a sense of proportion and a healthy dose of irony and doubt would be more than patriotism already exists, its

lacking a religious

of

human

that should be

which

spirit,

after

a republic cannot

all

none of the

pursued solely through

What

entirely to the faithful.

is

concerns an aspect state's

spiritual

certain, in

one cannot expect personal

interest or

enough

means and

any case,

adherence

be

civil

choose, and

I

that

religion;

to universal

move anyone

the public good, and while universal principles

endorsement of reason, they

is

left

to foster civil responsibility.

Personal interests alone will not

One must

business and

do without both patriotism and

principles of liberty to be

kind of

this

would not be too concerned about

I

that should be

life

Wherever

sufficient.

rarely drive

one

uphold

to

may win

the

to take action.

believe that the wisest choice

would

patriotism.

In response to Tocqueville's view that

impossible to religion,

I

live free

believe

it

is

existentially

without the support of the certainties of

we may

say that political liberty

need of the sense of doubt proper certainties of religious faith.

It

is

to the secular soul

needs people

more

in

than the

who have

strong

views about political and moral values but with equal passion believe in and-^^perience these values not as absolute truths

9 2

Republican Patriotism The

but as possible choices alongside other possible choices. republican ethic finds meaning and beauty as

and

life

commitment

in a

in private life

to

and

reduce the individual

life,

life

inner

life to

active

vidual

life

meaning

a

and

reflection.

in public

civic life as

does not

It

try

to the citizen or private life to public life. It

sees the various dimensions of

completing one another.

as

and preserve

to build

in meditation

much

indicates a

It

that does not

way

to give indi-

end with death,

actions and speech that lives on after us in the

mode

a

of

memories of

others.

The republican but

belief,

it

ethic can therefore coexist with religious

has no need of

it

choices that liberty allows and demands.

main rigorously committed

secular.

Nowadays being

It

and proclaim them, from

He good, or commonweal. Secularism

can and must

secular

to excluding religious doctrines,

that support

weighty moral

in facing the

re-

means being

and the

institutions

operations of the pub-

all is

opposed

of

first

all

to

confessionahsm and integralism, doctrines that say a states political institutions

nonbelievers alike religion.

—the

example)

all

—

religious principles of

Second, secularism

zens' routine for

and laws may impose on

is

opposed

obedience (sadly quite to directives of the

believers

an established

to clericalism, the citi-

common

in Italian politics,

church and ecclesiastical

archy on sockl and political questions. Secularism

conception of^culture and

matism, as well as social problems.

pean

history,

parties

were

condemned,

all

One

civil life

simplistic

and

is

hier-

also a

that in general detests dog-

and sweeping solutions

to

proof of this can be seen in recent Euro-

during which secular political movements and hostile to

communist

significantly, for

being

totalitarianism, *'the

which they

other church."

REPUBLICANISM Precisely because they reject the certitude of dogmas, secular politics

and republics have

commemoration/ i\Iemor\'

is

a

need of memory and

a great

powerful means for encourag-

ing civic virtue. The.'democratic republics that most assidu-

ously defend the separation of church and state

and France

States

—

— the United

are also those that are especially

ted to celebrating their

own

history.

commit-

When we commemorate

a long-ago episode of resistance to tyranny or a struggle for liberty;

when we hark back

histor\';

when we speak

made

to a painful

of martyrs, of the

who

contributions to the republic,

ation or

founded

a league,

we can

page of our shared

men

or

women w ho

established an associ-

arouse in the hearts of the

participants a sense of moral obligation to carr\^ on the work.

The

past can

become

a resource for the civic education of

new

generations.

People

may

think that commemorations, especially repub-

lican ones, are manifestations of a dusty patriotism, relics of

bygone times, no longer of value ization

and exploding

scientific

in the

days of market global-

knowledge. But a people that

own

cannot give meaning, value, and beauty

to

its

unlikely to acquire that dignity

which

is

an indispensable

premise of

person w

becomes

civic culture. Just as a

ith

historv^ is

low self-esteem

either ser\ale or arrogant, a people with no national

pride cannot but be a people of ser\^ants or clients, easily trans-

formed into cruel oppressors of the weak. of

pompous

pathetic

lies

ancestors.

about the greatness of the fatherland and our nationalistic hubris

is

offensive to anyone w^ho

objects to being treated like an infant. But

9 4

have no need

national pride, constructed out of cowardly or

Such

cover in our

We

own

we need

to redis-

hational histories the important experiences

Republican Patriotism of liberty,

however

Italians, there

is

brief or snuffed out in military defeat. For

the

Roman

Republic of 1849 and the Neapoli-

tan Republic of 1799: these can

make our country To

stand

give it,

genuine

feel

it,

meant

it

order to put

it

to

and think about the

history,

we must

carefully. If

we

com-

are to

voice, ideal

the supreme sacrifice in

The problem

into practice.

under-

meaning of the republican

who made

to those

know nothing

our

it

rently dominating the intellectual

too often

community.

words and the proper tone of

right

we must understand

and what

civil

meaning and value

memorate with the then

a

us feel like inheritors of

imposes on us the moral obligation

a history with a dignity that to

make

and

is

that the forces cur-

political

landscape

all

about, or look with arrogance or scorn

upon, the historical memories, the myths, and the martyrs of the republican experience.

If

the remaining strength of our

republican tradition were to dwindle away, this cultural and

moral heritage would

in a

few years be buried and forgotten,

we would

lose

one of the most precious resources

and with

it

for the rebirth of a civil conscience.

In

Italy,

for

example,

republicans can be proud of having kept alive the tradition of

commemorating the Roman Republic, but even those who

are

not republicans should not be condescending about

but

be grateful I

to

them.

believe thaj;~republicanism has the historical

resources to

this,

rewe

or indeed

engender

civic

and moral

enthusiasm, with-

out a revelation of faith and without a dogmatic belief in history or in a leader. Either

we

shall find a w^ay to reinforce

republican politics and culture, or selves to living in nations

we

shall

have to resign our-

whose governments

are controlled

by

the cunning and the arrogant.

9 5

REPUBLICANISM Now,

the

at

dawn

of the

new

century,

we seem

to

be wit-

nessing a moral and political retreat on the part of the kind of

open-minded mending.

political

"It is a

and secular forces

common

belief even

I

have been recom-

among the

secular,"

Gian

Enrico Rusconi has written, "that the church and church

reli-

gion are the privileged repositories of the values needed for civil

coexistence."

Roman

When

television sets

show the head

Catholic church together with the world's highest sec-

ular political figure, the president of the

when we

United States, and

hear the pope speak out against social injustice, the

death penalty, and racism,

it is

standard-bearer of values and politics that It is

of the

my

difficult Bill

not to see the pope as

Clinton as the symbol of a

no longer has the strength of impression that

that churches, synagogues,

it

has

ideals.

become

a

common

belief

and mosques are the guardians of

the moral values of personal dignity,

liberty,

and

social justice,

while secular forces are concerned with power and indeed hold power: churches carry on persuasive debates over values

and the meaning of

straints,

contrast, secular forces speak of market con-

in

activities;

practice solidarity, organize volunteer

life,

the global economy, a united Europe, or electoral

reforms that are of

little

like this, secular politics

interest to voters. If things continue

has no future, because any power,

including ecclesiastical power, that establishes

and affirms

itself as a

guide as well tions I

on

major

is

moral guide expects to be a

rightly so.

It

values

political

can therefore impose condi-

all

the same, that a rebirth of secular culture and

possible, that secular politics can

role.

own

competitors.

believe,

politics

9 6

its

—and

its

But tHis

will

happen only

if it

once again play a

manages

to

become

a

Republican Patriotism form of

by strong moral ideals and

politics inspired

insist

on the need

above

all

respect the principle of consistency between words

the secular principle

11,

cerity."^^

in the years after

consistency;

"is

Those who experience

politics

its

what we

it

and seek

it

will not tolerate

become

stingy

to establish legitimate ideals

it,

maker can in politics

and

interests

and we know that when secular parties

and corrupt, they

The most daunting problem remains

sin-

indeed, will accept

But citizens who are involved

because they want

is

with the faith of a

call Jesuitical evasiveness,

out.

World

norm

believer (or fanatic) or with the cynicism of a deal tolerate

can

Secular politics must

for social justice.

and deeds. As Norberto Bobbio wrote

War

if it

this issue of causing,

stray far

from

politics.

that republican politics faces

encouraging, and diffusing the

rebirth of a civic patriotism. Since reinforcing the cultural,

moral, or religious unity of a people

is

not only incompatible

with the principle of liberty but also counterproductive, what

remains are the sterling policies suggested countless times by political writers in the past.

ment its

is

justice. If

we want

laws, then the republic

The

and most important

ele-

citizens to love their republic

and

and

its

first

laws must equally protect

all

of them, without offering privileges to the powerful or discriminating against the weak. This

punish always and only

in

means

that the republic

accordance with the laws,

must

in full

respect of the rights of the accused and in full respect of the law;

it

must punish

large

and small crimes with equal firm-

ness: the crime of the powerful individual

small tyrant

The

who

afflicts

and the crime of the

the weak.

principle of absolute respect for the rule of law

apply especially to public officials and politicians

when

must they

9 7

REPUBLICANISM

'

^

ha\e committed crimes against

common

and against the

rights

good, under the protectfon of a flag or a uniform, and

u hen they ha\ e tendency

'taken

up arms

to forgive'such

is

new

over a

human

suppress

to

Often the

people and to assume they

them

rather than punishing

leaf,

lihert\.

will turn

accordance

in

with the law, remembering, and causing others to remember.

Those who

us to forgive and forget maintain that

tell

is

it

impossible to punish properly (because the guilty are too man\ or too powerful

must be able

to

),

or that

nobler to pardon them, or that

it is

continue to

live

together as a people.

Republican wisdom teaches, instead, that civil

way

of

and

life,

a political order in

respected, the greatest severiw

who

of citizens

when

found

are

we

is

to preser\e a

which the laws

are

required in the punishment

guilt\ of serious crimes, especially

these are important, well-known, powerful citizens.

Machiavelli called such punishments "memorable executions"

and wrote that they "made men draw back toward the mark

whene\ er one of them rare,

arose;

men

they also began to gi\e more space to

themselves."

From one execution

more than ten years should

men

and w hen they began

begin to

\

ar\^

in their

when

customs and

memor\^ and fear

many delinquents punished w ithout Republican even

for the

quench

his family

9 8

renewed

is

past,

to transgress the law is

s.

brought back

in their spirits,

join together that the\

soon so

can no longer be

danger."--^

politics neither calls for nor justifies rev enge,

most atrocious crimes. Revenge ma\ sometimes

a thirst, as

camps w ho

is

to corrupt

time

this

Unless something arises by w hich punishment to their

be more

he wrote, no

to the next,

pass, "for

to

was the case w ith

killed with his

members

a survivor of the death

ow n hands the doctor w ho had sent

to the gas

chamber.

\\

hen

it

w as pointed

Republican Patriotism out to him that his deed had done nothing to bring his dead relatives

back

me back

to

to

life,

life."^"^

does nothing

he answered that his vengeance ''brought

But revenge almost never heals wounds,

to resolve

trauma, and

it

it

only triggers an unstop-

pable chain reaction of reprisals.

Matters are different

when

it

comes

to the

punishment of

guilty parties inflicted by public or supranational institutions

acting with

full

respect of judicial limits.

ment must uphold the

principle of equal dignity of

must correct the

and

it

and

in ordinary

the criminals.

crimes

Such public punish-

—

We must

message

false

—

implicit in

all

persons,

mass crimes

that the victims are of less value than

reestablish the

human

value of the vic-

tims by inflicting a public defeat on the criminals.

Public pardons that are translated into amnesties or con-

donations corrode the republic, just as a vendetta would do, but for the opposite reasons. victim, but that in

pardon can be extended by a

no way eliminates the

When

of justice and punishment. selves the right to

A

pardon and

institutionalize forgetfulness

states arrogate to

them-

proclaim amnesties, they

to

and

judicial requirement

sacrifice

the requirement

of justice in favor of the urge to forget and

move

on.

Thus

amnesties and condonations are not instances of genuine pardons, the exclusive prerogative of the victim, but ways of publicly

ignoring the,wrong that has been committed.

a public pardon-as nity,

an act of

though certainly there

choosing

good and

to

charity, is

I

cannot see

endowed with moral

enormous

dig-

dignity in a victim's

extend a pardon. True charity, love for the public

for the liberty

and dignity of

all

citizens, translates

into a relentless defense of law.

The same requirement

of justice and equality that

must

guide the administration of sentences should be present in the

9 9

R E P L B L

C A N

I

1

M

S

distribution of pirblic prizes

eloquent words on of

own

ful to its

He meant

"

free

way

and rewards through certain honest and

determinate causes,;and outside these

honors anyone.

"A

this subject are MachiaveUi's:

proffers honors

life

and honors. The clearest and most

it

neither rewards nor

emphasize that

to

to

remain

faith-

principles, a republic should distribute prizes

and honors according

norms designed

to

to protect the public

good. Hence, neither wealth nor friendship nor membership in a faction

good

—

— may

offices

A

cjnly

merit and the capacity to

open the doors

ser\'e

the

common

to public honors, to prestigious

and jobs.

republican politics that rewards those

the public good, and ha\e the

skill

who wish

and training

produce and reproduce a high-level ruling

elite:

do

to it

to ser\e so. \sill

can engen-

der a virtuous social hierarchy that will stimulate neither en\y

nor resentment (save it

among

the wretched and corrupt', and

fosters healthy competition to excel in the right way.

politics of

many

rewards and recognition that prevails

in

all

The too

countries today has, instead, largely been a politics of

patronage

—

that

is.

the distribution of jobs, profits, and priv

i-

leges according to the willingness of a citizen to be loyal to a

person or faction. This politics of patronage creates a corrupt

and incompetent republic,

law

in

and

it

elite,

it

encourages unhealthy competition.

the hospitals of

affiliations of the

republic.

That

who had

0 0

court of

Lombardy

in

distributed civil-service jobs

accordance with the party

job seekers did serious harm to the Italian

verdict, in fact, taught us tvso things that are

particularly repugnant to a civil conscience: that by

1

A

Milan that not long ago declared exempt from pun-

ishment some politicians in

undermines the moral soul of the

kow tow ing

Rcpiihl icmi Wii riot

power!

lo a

Ill

person one can uel a

ones Iriends rather patriotism

C-ivil i|")ation

someone

tli.in

emphasi/ed owv and

not

is

rewarding

that

illicit.

justice, but .ilso b\ partic-

As republic. m

in civic sell -rule.

and

merit

ol

encouraged by

is

job,

isDt

who

oxer, citizens

have

political writers

com-

p.irticipate in

munal sell-govcrnmcnl, attend debates, express opinions

in

public councils, elect representatives and monitor their work

such citizens

feel the public

and they develop toward Feel

toward their

own

good

don

W

t

belong

to

hen thev become

or, to

be something that

am

single

|)ri\ate,

public, thev don't arouse

ol

the republic are public, and idual or

incli\

we

we own

.iii

group exclusively.

sav that a republic res

is

it

to that

exclusively, but participation

theirs

and dear

to

to

make

.1

w

ith

political

when

the\ have a

dillerence and w hen the problems discussed

in

New

and

cixic

town meetings participation

townships and

cities the

power

lor the lile ol tlje collectivity.

England. spirit,

to

If

then

their

own

we w ish

lo revive

have

and eager

give

decisions

The greater the power

interests

connec-

we should

make important

institutions, the greater attraction they will

concerned with

can cor-

and mak-

affect their interests directly, as loccjuevilie noted in tion

lelt

them.

Citizens take participation seriously only

chance

corrupt

pulAica. I>eing

comparable

interest

is

rect this state of alfairs, bringing the rc^public closer

ing people leel

theirs,

property.

use the classical l.inguage, no longer a

toward property

is

an attachment similar to w hat thev

it

Ol course, the institutions the\

to

ol

local

to citizens

to distinguish

themselves, lo promin admiration, to exert influence and authority.

There

is

nothing wrong with

the best republican politics

is,

this.

Quite the contrary, can

precisely, a politics that

I

0

I

REPUBLICANISM speak to self-interest

^

in the best

sense'and to the just ambition

to distinguish oneself.

Men

women

and

learn citizenship

when

they go to union

meetings, join sports ^groups, attend city council hearings, participate in

church

activities, or

become members

occur in places and contexts that are

party: all these practices

culturally dense, specific, meaningful. Citizenship

many different fied

colors,

of a political

is

dressed in

nourished by different memories, identi-

with the words of different prophets, kept alive

by,

among

other things, festivities that belong to the historical experi-

ence of different cultural groups. The kind of commonality we should aim

at is therefore a culture of citizenship that is culti-

vated not by means of universal political principles applied to specific cultures, not

out a

common

by dispersing particular cultures through-

universal political frame, not by strengthening

the cultural homogeneity of different groups, but by encourag-

many

ing

A

civic traditions within different groups.

politics

designed

expand the boundaries of

enhance citizenship must be

and

to

tice

designed to grant

to

to

have dignified

all

liberty

a politics of social jus-

citizens the rights that permit

lives, a politics

them

of civil society designed to

strengthen a rich and diverse net of associations: unions, cultural associations, religious

communities, ecological groups,

sports clubs, local communities, neighborhoods, is

better to have

viduals

when

who

more

live solely

of

them than

and so

on.

It

fewer. Dissociated indi-

within the sphere of family and work,

they do work, are inclined to heed nationalist or religious

demagogues. Democratic institutions today are suffering aise, a lack of passion,

1

0 2

commitment,

a serious mal-

or loyalty that affects dif-

Repuhlican Patriotism them

ferent democratic countries differently but affects

American scholars speak of European Passion,

a collapse of civic

political scientists

commitment, and

mocracy and

to

speak of

loyalty

to

multicultural countries as a that reconnects the

lectual

and

this,

Europe.

have forsaken de-

have followed nationalistic and religious dem-

agogues. Republicanism should propose

accomplish

engagement;

a passionless

seem

all.

itself in

new political vision

words

"liberty"

and

republicanism must keep

political identity

and remain

democratic

of a civic ethos

'Vesponsibility." its

To

distinctive intel-

faithful to

its

found-

ing principles.

1

0 3

Bihliography

Among

the classic works, Aristotle's Politics deserves special mention,

even

Aristotle

if

was

not, properly speaking, a republican writer, for

it

contains the doctrine of the politeia, understood as a political constitution that

is

legitimate in general terms (inasmuch as

common good and lica derived.

the rule of law); from this the

The

classical theory of the res puhlica political authors

is

found

in

SalliJ^t.

Rome's imperial

in the

and historians written when the

De

re

Aside from'the works of Cicero, Livy's Histories

the works of

is

res

is

works of

puhlica was

puhlica and

De

essential, as are

To understand the persistence of republican

era,

text

the gallery of ex-

is

in Plutarch's Lives.

nothing more than a memory, especially Cicero's ojficiis.

idea of res yiih-

and of mixed government, the basic

of Polybius's Histories. Another basic text

amples of republican virtue offered

Roman

Roman

based on the

For the theory of forms of government, especially the idea

of the cycle of governments

Book VI

is

it

one should read Tacitus, Annales,

vol. 2,

ideals

Agricola

and Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

The duced

a

brief but important experience of Italy's free

communes

pro-

republican political literature primarily of reflections on the idea

of civitas

and on the obligations and

communal government. Examples

virtues of the highest office in the

of this literature are the

anonymous

1

0

5

,

B ihliograph)

Ociiliis pastoralis, ed.

Dora Franceschi, Memorie deH Accaclemia delle

Scien/e

di Torino,

regimine

et sapientid potestatis, ed.

liana 7

(

4,

ser.

no.

De

(1966): 3-70; Orfino da Lodi,

11

A. Ceruti, Miscellanea di Storia Ita-

1869):"33-94; Giovanni da X'iterbo, Liher de regimine civitatum,

ed. G. Salvemini. in Bihliotheca jiiridica medii aexi. vol. 3 (Bologna,

1901), 215-80; Brunetto Latini, Li livres dou Tresor, ed. Francis

mody

J.

Car-

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1948; reprint. Geneva:

Slatkine, 1975). Also of

fundamental importance are the works of four-

teenth- and fifteenth-centur\ Italian jurists w ho dexeloped the juridical definition of a free

cit\.

and also

.Marsilio of

Padua s Defensor pads, or In

Defense oj Peace. For the idea of republican go\ ernment as the most cacious means for attaining the fullest form of

civil

and

effi-

political life, see

De

regimine principum, in Divi Tl^omae Aquinatis opuscula philosophiae

ed.

Raimondo

Spiazzi (Turin: .Marietti, 1954). especialK

Book

writ-

ten by Ptolemy of Lucca.

Themes at

of republican liberty and the

\

irtues of citizens

the center of the political theor\ of Florence

the

first

modern

scholars to explore this area

s ci\ ic

and law s

humanists.

One

lie

of

was Hans Baron, whose

studies on the subject ha\e been collected in two \olumes, hi Search

Humanism (Princeton, The most significant works of

of Florentine Civic

N.J.:

Press, 1988).

this

Princeton Lniversit)

important earK period

of republican political thought are those of Coluccio Salutati. Invectiva in

Antonium Luschum Vicentinum.

ed.

in Prosatori latini del

Quattrocento,

Eugenio Garin (Milan and Naples: Ricciardi. 1952), and

"De tyranno" e

lettere scelte, ed.

//

trattato

Francesco Ercole (Bologna: Zanichelli,

1942); Leonardo Bruni, Panegirico della citta di Firenze, facing Italian text

by Frate Lazaro da Pado\a,

La Nuo\ a

Italia.

1974);

intro.

Alamanno

by Giuseppe de Toffol (Florence:

Rinuccini, Lettere e orazioni, ed.

X'ito

Giustiniani (Florence: Olschki, 1953), and "Dialogus de Libertate." in Atti e

baria

Memorie

dell

Accademia Toscana

21 (1956): 265-303. This

last

di Scienze e Lettere

La Colom-

publication dexelops a complete

republican interpretation of the relationship between political

and

libert\

ci\ic \irtue.

The work

that best

summarizes the republicanism of the

centur) Florentine humanists

is

still

fifteenth-

.\Iatteo Palmieri, \'ita civile, ed.

Gino Belloni (Florence: Olschki, 1981). Also of considerable importance are the serrrrons of Sa\ onarola, abo\e

1

0 6

all

his Frattato circa el reggi-

B ihliooraphy nieuto e govenio della citta di Firenze, in Prediche sopra Aggeo, ed. Luigi

Firpo (Rome: Belardetti, 1965), which contains the fundamental principles of the constitutional reform of the republic of

1494-1 512 that he

implemented. And of course one must consult Thomas More

The

riper fruit of

text of civil

often the case, u hen the republics were reaching their end in the early sLxteenth centur\, of

modern republicanism,

avelli, especial!) his

w orks were written first

Universit\- of

L ni\ ersit\

Government

Press, 1994);

In

and foremost those of Xiccolo Machi-

Discourses on L;n. trans.

Nathan Tarcov (Chicago:

Italy.

that laid the foundations

Haney

Chicago

C. Mansfield and

Press, 1996). Also fun-

damental were the works of Francesco Guicciardini. notably logue on the

L tophi,

s

humanism in northern Europe. republican political thought came to light, as is so

perhaps the most significant

of Florence

his Dia-

(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge

Donato Giannotti,

in particular

De//^ repuhblica

fiorentina and Della repuhblica de \eneziani, in Opere politiche, ed. Furio

Diaz (Milan: Marzorati, 1974),

vol. 1,

181-370 and 27-1

nio Brucioli, Dialogs ed. Aldo Landi (Naples

Newberr\

Libran,.

1990).

An

52:

and

.Anto-

and Chicago: Prismi-The

interesting study of Florentine political

thought during the transition from the republic of Soderini to the principalit}-

of

Cosimo

I

can be found

in

Rudolf

\

on

.Albertini, Firenze dalla

repuhblica al principato [Turm: Einaudi, 19~0). In the late seventeenth centur\ the centers of republican political

thought shifted to the Netherlands and England.

Dutch republicanism

is

Pieter de

la

An

important text of

Court and Johan de

van Holland (1642), which was translated into English True Interest and Political

Maxims

\\ in

itt.

hiterest

1702

{TJie

of the Repuhlick of Holland and West-

contains a key defense of the principle that republican gov-

Friesland).

It

ernment

the best suited to the prosperity of a commercial society.

is

For English republicanism the central work from a historical and theoretical point of \iew

Oceana: and, bridge,

L

.K.:

A

Cambridge

James Harrington, The Commonwealth of J. G. A. Pocock (Cam-

is

System of

Politics (1656), ed.

Universit)" Press, 1992). In the preliminaries,

Harrington responds to the critique of the ideal of republican liberty that

Thomas Hobbes texts

are:

set forth in

Chapter 21 of Lexiathan. Other essential

Henr\ Ne\ille, Plato Redivivus, or

A

Dialogue concerning

Government, and Walter Moyle, Essav upon the Constitution

Roman Government, both

in

Two English Republican

Tracts, ed.

of

tlie

Caroline

1

0 7

Bibliography \

Robbins (Cambridge', U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1969); Alger-

non Sidney, Discourses concerning Government,

ed.

Thomas G. West

and John Milton, Defence of the Thf Works of John Milton (New York: Columbia

(Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1990);-

People of England, in

University Press, 1932),- vol. lish

a Free

Commonwealth,

7,

and The Readie and Easie Way

to

Estab-

Complete Prose Works ofJohn Milton (New

in

Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980),

vol. 7.

For European republican political thought in the eighteenth century,

an indispensable guide

Franco Venturi, Utopia and Reform in the

is still

Enlightenment (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1971). Likewise,

it is

indispensable to begin with The Spirit of Eaws (Berkeley: 1977), even

University of California Press, republican. especially

And

The

Montesquieu was no

if

the canonical texts are those by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,

Social Contract

and

the Discourses

(New York: Everyman's

Library, 1993).

To gain a picture of republican

political

thought in the revolution-

ary period, one should read the collection titled

republique,

Aux

origines de la

1789-1792, with a preface by Maurice Agulhon and

duction by Marcel Dorigny

(Paris:

EDHIS,

Maximilien Robespierre. Also from the essay in which

Immanuel Kant

late

intro-

1992), 6 vols., as well as

eighteenth centur}'

is

the

states that a republican constitution

is

the prerequisite for perpetual peace {Perpetual Peace and Other Essays on Politics, History,

and Moral

anapolis: Hackett, 1982]).

bent

Practice, ed.

Among

at that time, the writings of

Pimentel Fonseca, both of

trans.

Italian political

Ted Humphrey

[Indi-

works of a republican

Francesco Mario Pagano and Eleonora

whom

Republic of 1799, are notable.

and

were martyrs

And

for the

Neapolitan

of course, for republican political

thought in the United States, the fundamental texts are

The Rights of Man, and Alexander Hamilton, John son, The Federalist Papers. In the nineteenth century, Italy's

most

Jay,

Thomas

significant republican

were those of Carlo Cattaneo, especially those

in

Paine,

and James Madiworks

which he discussed

his

theory of federalism, and Giuseppi Mazzini. In England the works of

John Stuart Mill abound with ations

1

0 8

fertile

republican ideas, notably Consider-

on Representative Government and

On Liberty.

Notes

Introduction: 1.

A New

Interpretation of Republicanism

See, for instance, Michael Sandel, Democracy's Discontent

(Cam-

bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998), 5-7; Roger Smith,

(New Haven, Conn.:

Civic Ideals

35-37 and Codex

3.

Schumpeter's well-known remark or be

5.59.5.

determined

made

to agree

fectly correct, but

the

common

it

good

I

—"There

common good

that

is, first,

all

no such thing

as

people could agree on

on by the force of rational argument"

—

is

per-

does not apply to the republican conception of

am

outlining here. See Joseph A. Schumpeter,

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

4.

1997),

82.

2.

a uniquely

Yale University Press,

(New

York:

Harper

1950), 251. 7^ See Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy, trans.

Bros.,

Harvey C.

Mansfield and Nathan Tarcov (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 5.

II. 2.

Francesco Guicciardini, Dialogue on the Government of Florence

(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 99-100. 6.

See

Donato

Giannotti,

politiche, ed. Furio

Delia

repuhhlica fiorentina,

Diaz (Milan: Marzorati, 1974),

vol. 1,

in

Opere

214. See

1

0 9

Notes \

also Niccolo Machiavelli,

Of ere

1997), vol.

1,

Sommario

7r8-19.

7.

See Machiavelli, Discourses on Liiy,

8.

Jean-Jacques Roussfeau, Lettres

9.

delle cose della citta di Lucca, in

Corrado Vivanti (Turin: Einaudi-Gallimard,

ed.

politiche,

1.5

ecrites

and de

1.58.

la

montagne,

completes (Paris: Gallimard, 1964),

vol. 3,

Margaret Canovan, "Patriotism

Not Enough,"

Political Science

Is

in

Oeuvres

889.

30 (2000): 413-32. She refers

to

British Journal of

my hook For Love

of Country (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). 10.

Carlo Pisacane, La rivoluzione, in Franco della Peruta, ed., politici

11.

See

deU'Ottocento (Milan and Naples, n.d.),

Amy Gutmann,

"Democracy and

Modernism and Democratic

Its

vol. 1,

Dana

1

184.

Discontents," in Liberal

Equality: George Kateh

of Politics, ed. Austin Sarat and

Scrittori

1181,

and the Practice

Villa (Princeton, N.J.: Prince-

ton University Press, 1996); see also

Amy Gutmann

and Dennis

Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement (Cambridge, Mass.:

Bel-

knap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996), and "Democratic Disagreement,"

in Deliberative Politics: Essays

Disagreement, ed. Stephen Press, 1999), 12.

Macedo

on Democracy and

(Oxford:

Oxford University

243-79.

George Kateb,

"Is

Patriotism a Mistake?" Social Research 67 (2000):

901-24. 13.

See

his

A

Republicanism:

Jlteor)'

of Freedom and

Government

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 185-89. Michael Walzer

has nicely described deliberation as "a particular way of thinking: quiet, reflective,

ferent views.

open

It is

to a

wide range of evidence, respectful of

a rational process of

dif-

weighing the available data,

considering alternative possibilities, arguing about relevance and worthiness, and then choosing the best policy or person." "Deliberation,

The Story Begins

1.

1

and What Else?"

.

Useful

in this

Michele

in Deliberative Politics, ed.

is

pubHshed

admirable exception

is

the dispute between Dario Antiseri and in Liberal

1,

no. 7 (1998):

89-93.

1

0

An

Gian Enrico Rusconi, Patria e repubblica

(Bologna: Mufino, 1997). Rusconi suggests "reviving the

1

58.

in Italy

connection

Salvati

Macedo,

spirit

of

Notes republicanism, reconjugating liberty and fatherland with a code and

language that belong to us and to our time. tivating the spirit of republicanism,

and

believe, as

demonstrate here, that classical republicanism and ism are

about reac-

fully agree

I

"

I

shall try to

I

Italian

human-

capable of providing us with the concepts of civic

still

and fatherland that can be the fundamental core of a

virtue, liberty,

rediscovered republican language.

Modern

have offered harsh condemnations of the

political thinkers

Italian republics. In

Chapter 21 of Leviathan, Hobbes,

in a

passage

no commentary, ridiculed the claims of Lucca and

that requires

all

the republics to be repositories of true political liberty: "There

is

written on the turrets of the city of Lucca in great characters at this day, the

ticular

word LIBERTAS;

man

yet

no

man can thence

infer that a par-

has more liberty or immunity from the service of the

Commonwealth

Whether

there than in Constantinople.

monwealth be monarchical

or popular, the

freedom

is

a

Com-

still

the

same." Montesquieu, the acknowledged master of constitutionalism, presents the Italian republics as realms of the arbitrary and, as

Hobbes had done with Lucca, compares Venice "In the republics of Italy,"

Laws

in

which he

he writes

in the

Constantinople.

sets forth his theory of the separation of powers,

"where these three powers are united, there

Hence

our monarchies.

their

is

government

recourse to as violent methods for

its

may

at all

less liberty

is

obliged

than in

have

to

support as even that of the

Turks, witness the state inquisitors and the lion

every informer

to

chapter of The Spirit of

s

mouth

into

which

hours throw his written accusations."

Equally harsh was the verdict of Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers, "It is

and

one of the fundamental

texts of

American democracy:

impossible to read the history of the petty republics of Greece

Italy

without feeling sensations of horror and disgust

tractions witlTwhich they

were continually

agitated,

and

at the dis-

at the rapid

succession of revolutions by which they were kept in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy." Federalist Papers

Whereas

(New York: Modern

for

The

Library, n.d.), 76.

Montesquieu the chief

failing

of the

Italian

republics had been that they were unable to institute a true separation of powers, for

Hamilton they had proved incapable of curing

1

1

I

Notes y

the

ills

of factions.

models of

The former

liberty; the latter

of permanent instability.

we

If

them the

status of

to negative

examples

defect denied

downgraded them

pass from the liberals to the Marxists,

things look' no better. Antonio

Gramsci considered the

free

com-

munes an expressiort of the primitive, economic-corporativist phase of the modern state. With the intellectual courage found only in the great,

he wrote about the

Maramaldo could be

Florentine Republic, in 1530: "That

last

a representative of historical progress

and Fer-

rucci might be in historical terms a throwback, might prove morally

unappetizing, but historically

may and must be

it

Gramsci, the free republic belonged not even Machiavelli

—although

escape. Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, vol. Buttigieg

(New York: Columbia

Forgotten, that

is,

from which

he did understand "that only an

absolute monarch can resolve the problems of the era"

3.

upheld." For

to the past, a past

2, ed.

and

—was able

to

Joseph A.

trans.

University Press, 1996).

by the great majority of Italians but not

all.

Every

year on February 9 republicans, especially in Romagna, solemnly celebrate the anniversary of the

Roman

Republic of 1849. In 1999,

on the occasion of the second centennial of the Neapolitan Republic

of 1799, the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies undertook

initiatives of great intellectual 4.

See the

letter of

March

4,

to Machiavelli, cited in

civic value.

Niccolo Machiavelli, Opere, ed. Franco

Gaeta (Turin: UTET, 1984), 5.

and

1506, from Francesco Cardinal Soderini

vol. 3,

217.

Donato Giannotti, Delia repuhhlica

fiorentina, in

ed. Furio Diaz (Milan: Marzorati, 1974), vol.

Marino Berengo, Nohili

e mercanti nella

1,

Lucca

Opere

politiche,

240-41. See del

also

Cinquecento

(Turin: Einaudi, 1965), 31. 6.

See Nicolai Rubinstein, "Machiavelli and the Florentine Republican Experience,"

in

Machiavelli and Republicanism, ed. Gisela

Bock, Quentin Skinner, and Maurizio Viroli (Cambridge, U.K.:

Cambridge University 7.

Press, 1990), 9-15.

Mario Ascheri, "La Siena del 'Buon Governo' (1287-1355)," Politica e cultura nelle repubbliche italiane dal

Medioevo

all'eta

in

mo-

derna: Firenze, Genova, Lucca, Siena, Venezia, ed. Mario Ascheri

and

S.

Adorni Braccesi (Rome:

Moderna

1

1

2

e

Istituto Storico Italiano per I'Eta

Cohtemporanea, 2001).

Notes

8.

9.

secolo,

"

in Politica e cultura, ed.

Simonde de Sismondi, Carlo Cattaneo, "La italiane," in

istorie

e

Ascheri and Braccesi.

Storia delle repiihhliche italiane, cd. Pier-

angelo Schiera (Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 1996), 10.

XIV

R. Ferrantc, "Legge e repubblica: L'esperienza genovese fra

XVI

citta

Opere

considerata ed.

scelte,

come

5.

principio ideale delle

Delia Castelnuovo Frigessi

(Turin: Einaudi, 1972), vol. 4, 123. 11.

See Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work (Princeton,

N.J.:

Princeton University Press, 1993). 12.

See "Laudatio Florentinae Urbis," 1968), 260; the source

omnes 13.

to

Leonardo

University of Chicago Press,

Cor^pus iuris

is

similiter tangit, ab

From Petrarch

in

Hans Baron (Chicago:

ed.

Briini,

civilis,

Codex

5.59.5.2:

"Quod

omnibus comprobetur."

Francesco Guicciardini, Considerazioni intorno

ai

"Discorsi" del la

prima

deca di Tito Livio, ed. Corrado Vivanti (Turin: Einaudi,

1983),

Machiavelli,

Niccolo

in

Machiavelli,

Discorsi

sopra

526. 14.

Giannotti, Delia repuhhlica fiorentina 214.

15.

Niccolo Machiavelli,

,

dro Montevecchi, 16.

vol. 2,

,

IV. 1;

see Opere, ed. Alessan-

468-69.

Niccolo Machiavelli, Sonimario delle cose della

Opere

politiche,

1997), vol. 17.

Istorie fiorentine

1,

ed.

Lucca,

citta di

in

Corrado Vivanti (Turin: Einaudi-Gallimard,

718-19.

In an important essay Elena Fasano Guarini has reconstructed the

complex and fascinating history of the

among

cal values

survival of republican politi-

Florentine exiles in the sixteenth century. This

was, she writes, a world of "dispersion and often

drift,

subject to the

opposing temptations of return and a new integration into the countries in

which one found

the history

reduced

t3f

hospitality."

But she also cautions that

sixteenth-century Italian republicanism cannot be

m^ly

to the story of the exiled

and

politically

defeated

Florentines or to the "cautious and tacit dissent that insinuated itself pality,

even

in Florence, within

look to the "more tions

an

official

mouthpiece of the

princi-

such as the Accademia Fiorentina." Historians should also 'silent'

republics,

which survived

that they offered of themselves, the ways

was received, the republican language

in

longer, the depic-

which

that

image

that thus developed

1

and

1

3

.

Notes

its

assonances and dissonances with the Morcntine republic." See

her "I^echno e durata delle repuBbliche e delle idee repubblicane neiritalia del

Maurizio 18.

Cinquecento,"

V'iroli

in Liherta politica e virtii civile, ed.

(forthcoming).

Even among scholars

the historv' of political thought, the idea

of

widespread that republicanism survived an archaic critique of the present. See blica

come

mutamento

critica del

J.

storico,

is

the age of monarchies as

in

G. A. Pocock, "La repub"

in Liherta politica e virtu

civile, ed. Viroli.

19.

Franco Venturi, Utopia and Reform bridge, U.K.:

20.

See

K.

Cambridge University

in the

Enlightenment (Cam-

Press, 1971

),

71

Backer, "Le trasformazioni del repubblicanesimo classico

nella Francia del Settecento," in Liherta politica e virtii civile, ed. Viroli.

21

.

22.

Machiavelli, Discourses on Liiy, 1.45.

The

equality for

which "brave and earnest

sible, logical,

and

fearless

man who

fights for

Equality, to whatever class or section of

Emilia Venturi,

May

1870, in

2,

This abolition

mankind

vol. 89,

can correspondent w ho asked his adv

slavery.

for

ice

any sen-

any question involving it

applies" (letter to

Scritti editi e inediti di

Mazzini [Imola: Paolo Gallati, 1906], rights for blacks in the

women" were

British

must be considered "sacred

struggling, wrote Mazzini,

1

Giuseppe

52-59). To an Ameri-

on the question of voting

United States he replied: "You have abolished the crown of your glorious

is

strife,

the

reli-

gious consequence of your battles, which otherwise would only have

been a lamentable butchery. You have decreed that the sun of the Republic shall shine freely upon soil

where

liberty

gospel, the

stamp

of

blessed

great principle?

is

all;

that as

is

one, so on the

not merely a chance fact but a faith and a

ffumanitv shall be one.

Can you

God

curtail

and reduce

Can you it

mutilate this

to the proportions of

the semi-liberty of the monarchies? Can you tolerate that any man among you should be only half of himself? Can you proclaim the dogma of semi-responsibility? Can you constitute on the republican soil

of America a class of political slaves like those of the Middle

Ages? Does

liberty exist

ber 30. 1865, 23.

1

1

without the vote?"

Carlo Cattaneft, Stati uniti

4

(letter to

in Scritti editi e inediti, vol. 88,

d'ltalia,

ed.

Conway, Octo-

163-64).

Norberto Bobbio (Turin:

Notes Chiantorc, 1945), 34-35 and 149. P^obhio ihoiighl that C-attanco

was

"liberal

and

federalist by eonvietion,

and therefore

and "republiean by reaetion, and thus by accident"

in

essenee,

he

(32), that

derived his federalism from liberalism and was especially inllu-

enced by Benjamin Constant, Sismondi, and Cattaneo's federal

republic,

But

Ibcciueville.

which the United States and

for

Switzerland served as models, was a development ol republican, not thought. Suffice

liberal, political

to c|U()te

it

The

Federalist Papers:

and proper structure of the Union, therefore, we

"In the extent

behold a republican remedy lican

government.

pride

we

feel in

tor the diseases

And according

to the

most incident

degree

to

repub-

pleasure and

ol

being republicans, ought to be our zeal

in

cherishing

the spirit and supporting the character of federalists" (62).

which we should add patriotism

of a

lb

that Toccjueville described as the "reflective

republic" that civic sense which Cattaneo praised as

the finest fruit of municipal self-rule. 24.

Carlo Cattaneo, Jesse

2. 1.

Scritti politici

ed epistolario, ed. Cabriele Rosa and

White Mario (Florence: Barbera, 1894),

vol.

1

,

263.

The New Utopia of Liberty See Philip

Pettit,

Repuhlicanism:

A

Theor)' of

Freedom and (Govern-

ment, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998). 2.

Francesco Mario Pagano, La coscienza della politici" al progetto di Costituzione

Ceneroso Procaccini, 1998), 3.

Montesquieu, The

Spirit of

,

ed.

liherta:

Dai "Saogi

Renato Bruschi (Naples:

73.

Laws (Berkeley: University

of California

Press, 1977), XI.6. 4.

Jean-Jacc|ues Rousseau, Des

Cagnebin 5.

aticf

lois, in

Marcel Raymond

Oeuvres completes, ed. Bernard

(Paris:

Gallimard, 1964),

vol. 3,

492.

Benjamin-Constant, "The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with

That of the Moderns,"

in Political

Writings (Cambridge, U.K.:

bridge University Press, 1999), 310-1

I.

Isaiah Berlin,

Cam-

"Two Con-

cepts of Liberty," in The Proper Study of Mankind, ed. Henry Hardy

(New York: 6.

F^irrar,

Norberto Bobbio,

Straus and Giroux, 1998). Poliiica e cidiura (1955; Turin: Linaudi,

1974),

172-74.

1

I

5

Sotes The \alue

3. 1.

Re public a

of

Liberty

yi

See Quentin Skinner, "Machiavelli and the Maintenance of Lih-

em:' Politics 18(1983): 3-15; The Idea of Negative sophical and Historical Perspectives." in Philosophy Richard Rort\. U.K.:

Cambridge

doxes of

(

Tanner Lectures on

Political Libert\.~ in Tlie

M. McMurrin

Utah

225-50; and

Press. 1986),

Cambridge

ond

iSalt

Values.

(Cam-

Hindsight,** afterword to the sec-

edition of Philip Pettit. Republicanism: *

4.

Human

Cit\: University of

Liberty before Liberalism

Government Oxford: Oxford Univ ersity 3.

Lake

University Press, 1998), 84, n. 55.

Once More with

"Republicanism:

193-221; "The Para-

1984),

Press.

vol. 7, ed. Sterling

bridge, U.K.: 2.

University

in History, ed.

and Quentin Skinner Cambridge,

B. Schnee\sind.

J.

Liberty: Philo-

A Theory

of Freedom ami

Press, 1998).

Skinner. Liberty before Liberalism, 84. Isaiah Berlin, "Tv\o

Concepts of

Liberty,** in

Mankind, ed. Henry Hardy^ (New York:

The Proper Study of and Giroux,

Farrar, Straus

1998), 148. 5-

"Liberi

iam hinc populi Romani

magistratus, imperiaque

gam,"

Livy,

Ab

res

pace belloque gestas. annuos

legum potentiora quam hominum pera-

urbe condita,

"Nam

II.I.l.

quid a Pyxro, Hannibale.

Philippoque et .Antiocho defensum est aliud

cuique sedes, neu cui

nisi legibus

epistulae excertae de historiis, 4,

Loeb

Hodge

Cluentio, trans. H. Grose

quam

libertas ct

suae

pareremus?" Sallust. Orationes

•

et

Classical Library. Cicero, Pro

192"";

Cambridge, Mass.: Har-

vard University Press, 1990), L\.146. 6.

Coluccio Salutati to Niccolodio Bartolomei, April 1369, in Epistolario di

Coluccio Salutati, ed. Francesco Novati (Rome: Forzani,

1891-191

1), vol. 1.

90.

tine Constitutionalism

On

Bruni. see Nicolai Rubinstein, "Floren-

and Medici .Ascendancy

in the Fifteenth

Century," in Florentine Studies, ed. Nicolai Rubinstein (London: Faber, 1968),

442-61, especially

arum Florentini populi carum Scriptores, vol.

libri

-145:

XIL

19, pt.

and Leonardo Bruni,

ed. Emilio Santini,

3 (Bologna,

On

Hans Baron Chicago: (

1

6

to Leofiardo

Bruni,

University of Chicago Press, 1968). 259.

Rinuccini. see Ricordi storici di Filippo di Cino Rinuccini dal V

1

Itali-

1914), 82: see also

"Laudatio Florentinae Urbis," in From Petrarch ed.

Histori-

Renim

Notes 12S2

111

1460

colla contDiuazioic di

Giuseppe Aiazzi (Florence:

siioi figli,

ed.

1840^, 103.

Piatti,

7.

Machiavelli. Discourses, 1.5.29; foreword to Florentiue Histories, W.

8.

See

9.

Machiavelli, Discourses,

10. 1

Xen

Alunininw e

1.

Li\y,

II.

15.3.

James Marrington. Politics, ed. J. sitv Press,

12.

II. 2.

Ibid.. 1.3".

Commomveultii

of

Oceana, and

A

S\stem of

1992), 20.

An

John Locke, oj Civil

Tlie

G. A. Pocock (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Uni\erEssay concerning the True Original, Extent, and

Government

1

3.

See Skinner,

1

4.

See Norberto Bobbio, "Delia dei posteri,

Two

57.29, in

,

Peter Laslett (Cambridge, U.K.:

Treatises of

Cambridge

End

Government, ed.

Uni\ersit\ Press, 1998).

Liberty before Liberalism, 84.

"

liberta dei

in Politica e cultura

moderni comparata

a quella

(1955; Turin: Einaudi,

1974),

160-94. 15.

Ann

Phillips,

"Feminism and Republicanism:

Is

This a Plausible

Alliance?," speech deli\ered at a conference titled 'The Historical

Perspectives of Republicanism and the Future of the European

Union," Siena, September 24-27, 1998.

4. 1.

Republicanism

,

mu

Liberalism, and C o m

See Norberto Bobbio.

Politica

}i

a ria

i t

}7

is

fji

(1955; Turin; Einaudi.

c cultura

1974), 269-82. 2.

Machiavelli, Discourses, 1.25 and 1.58.

3.

"Hanc enim" ob causam maxime,

ut sua tenerentur, res publicae

civitatesque constitutae sunt. 4.

MachiavellirD/scozirse's, 1.16.

5.

Ibid., 1.4.

6.

See Roger Boesche. "Thinking about Freedom.

Political

Theon 26

(1998): 863. 7.

Stephen Holmes, Passions and Constraint:

On

Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago 8.

Alexis de Tocquex

ille,

Democrac^

the Tlieor\ oj Liberal

Press, 1995).

in Ainerica, ed.

J.

P.

Mayer, trans.

George Lawrence NewAbrk: Harper & Row, 1969), 23" (

—

^0.

1

1

7

Notes

9.

Habermas,

Jiirgen

unci Geltiitig

Faktizitcit

(Frankfurt:

Suhrkamp,

1992), 640; and Die Sachholende Revolution (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, '

1990), 208. 10.

See, for instance,

Theory

Political

Don 14

Herzog, "Some Questions for Republicans,"

and Charles

486,

(1986):

"Cross-

Taylor,

The Liberal-Communitarian Debate," in Liberalism and the Moral Life, ed. Nancy L. Rosenblum (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 165 and 177; Michael Sandel, DemocPurposes:

Discontent (Cambridge,

racy's

1998) 1999)

;

Michael

W'alzer,

62-67; David

:

Har\ard Uni\ersit\

Mass.:

Press.

"Rescuing Civil Society," Dissent (Winter

Miller,

introduction to Liberty, ed. David

Miller (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 6; David Wootton, "Introduction:

Common

The Republican

Tradition:

From Commonwealth

to

Sense," 17—18, and Blair Wbrden, "Republicanism and

the Restoration, 1660-1683," 1~4, in Republicanism, Liberty, and

Commercial Calif.:

11.

Society,

1649— 17~6, and private

In reference to public

apph

:

"Christian charity was a

than a consciousness about a of

Da\id Wootton (Stanford,

ed.

Stanford University Press, 1994).

God, here on

earth:

it

charit\. the

means

common

to

never went beyond the limits of almsgiving or

new

religion

found the hun-

they fed them, they dressed the naked, they surrounded the sick

with care; but there w as ne\ er a thought to for po\'ert\' di

still

goal to be obtained, by the will

philanthropy; where the adherents to the gry,

words of Mazzini

improve ones soul rather

and nakedness." "Dal Concilio

Giuseppe Mazzini Tmola: Paolo

how to remove

the reasons

a Dio," in Scritti editi e inediti

Gallati, 1906), vol. 86.

241

ff.

Republican Virtue

5. 1.

See

in this

connection Michael Walzer, Wliat

It

Means

to

Be an

American (New York: Marsilio, 1992), 81-101. 2.

See Montesquieu, The

Spirit of

Laws (Berkeley: University of

Cali-

fornia Press. 197"), I\;5. 3.

Ibid.,\111.16.

4.

Epistolario

Forzani,

1

1

8

di

Coluccio Salutati, ed.

1891-191

1 ),

vol. 1.

197-98.

Francesco Xovati (Rome:

Notes

5.

Matteo Palmieri,

Vita civile, ed.

Gino Belloni (Florence: Olschki,

1981), 7 and 54. 6.

Leon R.

The Family

Battista Alberti,

in Renaissance Florence, trans.

N. Watkins (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press,

1969). 7.

Cited in Hans Baron, In Search of Florentine Civic

Humanism

(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988), vol. 2, 229-50. Palmieri, Vita civile, 63

Machiavelli, Discourses, 1.16.

10.

Ibid.,

II. 2.

11.

Ibid.,

1.

12.

Ibid., 1.37.

1

and 151.

8.

9.

3.

6.

10.

Democracy

Alexis de Tocqueville,

in America,

94—95.

Republican Patriotism

1.

Machiavelli, Discourses,

2.

Rosario

virtu civile, ed.

II. 2.

"Patriottismo e riforma politica," in Liheiia folitica e

Villari,

Maurizio

Viroli (forthcoming).

3.

Encyclopedie (Neuchatel: Bouloiseau, 1765),

vol. 12,

4.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Economic politique,

in

ed.

178 and 180.

Oeuvres completes,

Bernard Gagnebin and Marcel Raymond

(Paris:

Gallimard,

1964), vol. 3,258. 5.

Concerning the difference between Oeuvres completes,

vol. 4,

have no homeland

at least

land,

State, the

more

than a country

Rousseau

to

it is

homeland

[patrie],

a fine thing to

and

have a home-

those

all

in fact

consider this

I

who

believe

have nothing more

[|7ays]!"

(Geneva: Droz, 1965-1995),

Gaetano

who

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Pictet, in Correspondance

complete de ]ean-]acques Rousseau,

7.

pays, see Emile, in

657: "The more closely

think that

and ma)L the Lord preserve from harm

that they have a

6.

I

and

have a country," and La Nouvelle Heloise,

in Oiievres conipletes, vol. 2, little

patrie

858, where Rousseau writes, "Those

Filangieri,

vol. 19,

La scienza

ed.

R.

A.

Leigh,

vols.

190.

della legislazione, ed.

(Naples: Generoso Procaccini, 1995),

53

IV, pt. 2a,

Renato Bruschi

42.

I

1

9

Notes \

8.

Giandomenico^Romagnosi,

"Istituzioni di civile filosofia," in Opere,

ed. Alessandro de Giorgi (Milan: Perelli

1841-1848), 9.

10.

.

Democracy

Alexis de Tocquevilk,

in

in

Opere

scelte,

Castelnuovo Frigessi (Turin: Einaudi, 1972),

vol. 4,

406.

Giuseppe Mazzini,

Comba

(Turin:

Scritti politici, ed.

UTET,

12.

Ibid.,

882 and 872.

13.

Ibid.,

882.

14.

See Quintilian, officiis,

later Volpato,

America, 68.

Carlo Cattaneo, Snlla legge comunale e provinciale, ed. Delia

1 1

and Mariani,

1548.

vol. 3,

Terenzio Grandi and Augusto

1972), 885.

oratoria,

Institutio

V.

10.24-25, and Cicero,

De

1.17.53.

15.

Antonio Brucioli, Dialogi, ed. Aldo Landi (Naples and Chicago:

16.

John Stuart

Prismi-The Nev^berry Mill,

A

Library, 1990), 112.

System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive

(1843), VI. 10.5. 17.

M.

L. Salvadori,

"La tradizione repubblicana

del 900," in Liherta politica e 18.

Giacomo

Ulivi,

Pirelli (Turin:

virtii civile,

nell'Italia

deir800 e

ed. Viroli.

in Lettere della Resistenza europea, ed.

Giovanni

Einaudi, 1969), 229. 2 and

19.

Machiavelli, Discourses,

20.

See Tocqueville, Democracy

21.

Ibid., 94.

22.

Norberto Bobbio, "Politica

II.

in

I.l 1.

America, 290—301 and 444.

laica," in Tra

due repuhhliche (Rome:

Donzelli, 1996), 37. 23.

Machiavelli, Discourses,

24.

See Martha Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after

llff.

1

2 0

III.l.

Genocide and Mass Violence (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998),

Index

Accademia Fiorentina,

Brucioli, Antonio,

\\3nl7 Alberti,

107

Bruni, Leonardo, 48, 73-74,

Leon

Battista,

72-73

Alembert, Jean Le Rond

d',

32

106 Brutus, 71

American War of Independence, 16 Aristotle, 65, 73,

105

Ascheri, Mario, 24

Caesar, Julius, 75

Athens, ancient, 25, 26

Canovan, Margaret, 14 Cato, 71, 74

Cattaneo, Carlo, 26, 33, 34, 108,

Baron, Hans, 106* Bartolus of Sassirferrato, 27 Bella,

Giano

della,

ix,

x

Bobbio, Norberto, 34, 41-42,

58,97,

1

15n23

Bill,

96

Constant, Benjamin, 38—41,

38-41, 47

Berlusconi, Silvio,

Clinton,

"Commonwealth Men," 16

48

Bentham, Jeremy, 47 Berlin, Isaiah,

114-15w23

Cicero, 48, 59,71,86, 105

64,

115w23

Constantinople, 50, 64,

llln2 Court, Pieter de

la,

107

1

2

1

Index \

Democracy

in

America

(Tocqueville), 84

fuhlica (Cicero), 1.05

re

of, 3,

22, 25

Germany, Federal Republic

Deojficiis {Cicero)^ 59, 105

De

Genoa, Republic

Dialogue on the Government of

of,

14 Giannotti, Donato, 6, 22, 28, 29,

107

Florence (Guicciardini), 22—23,

Giovanni da Viterbo, 106

107

gonfaloni, 23, 28

Diderot, Denis, 32

Gramsci, Antonio, 31, 11 2h2

"Discourse on the Liberty of the

Guarini, Elena Fasano,

Ancients Compared with That of the

Moderns" (Constant), 38

Discourses on Liij (Machiavelli), 9,

1

Guicciardini, Francesco,

13^17 5,

22-23, 28, 29, 107

Gutmann,Amy,

15, 17

18,29,32-33,48, 59,80,

107

Habermas, Jurgen, 14,65 Hamilton, Alexander, 108,

Economie

politique (Rousseau),

82

Harrington, James, 50-51, 107 (Sismondi), 25

Encyclofedie, 32, 70, 82

Hitler, Adolf, 16

England, 16, 21, 30, 31, 33, 107,

Hobbes, Thomas,

114^22

lllw2, Filangieri,

18, 50, 64, 107,

111^2

Federalist Papers, The, 108, \

Italian Resistenza, 16

\5n23

Gaetano, 83

Florence, Republic

of, 3, 6,

22-24, 26, 30,71-73,80,

Jacobins, 32

112h2,

Jay,

1

13-14I2J7

John, 108

Florentine Histories (Machiavelli),

48-49

Fonseca, Eleonora Pimentel, 108 France, 21,31-33,76-77, 94

Kant, Immanuel, 108

French Revolutioi3,*16, 32

Kateb, George, 16, 17

1

2 2

\\n2

History of the Italian Republics

Emile (Rousseau), 84, \\9n5

30,

\

Index Neville, Henry, 107

106

Latini, Brunetto,

New

Lepidus, Aemilius, 48 Leviathan (Hobbes), SO, 64, 107,

\\\n2

England town meetings, 92,

101

Nouvelle

Liberty before Liberalism

82,

1

Helo'ise,

La (Rousseau),

19h5

(Skinner), 45

lOS

Livy, 48,

Locke, John,

8, 5

Lucca, Republic 30, 50, 64,

1

1

1

of, 3, 6,

22, 23,

\n2

22, 28-30, 32-34, 48-50, 52, 58, 59,

the Family (Alberti),

63,66, 74-76,80-81, \

\2n2

Pagano, Francesco Mario, 37, 108 Paine,

Thomas, 108

Palmieri, Matteo, 24, 71-72, 74,

106

Madison, James, 108

Pettit, Philip, 19,

Marsilio of Padua, 106

Phillips,

Mazzini, Giuseppe, 14, 33,

Pisa, 3

84-85, 108, 114fi22, 118;^i] Milan, 100-1 Milton, John, 108

8,30,31,69-71,76, -

82,

V

More, Thomas, 107 Moyle, Walter,

Politics (Aristotle),

105

Polybius, 105

Montesquieu, Baron de La Brede 108, lllfz2

Pisacane, Carlo, 14—15

Plutarch, 105

John Stuart, 59, 87-88, 108

et de,

46-47, 61

Ann, 54

Plautus, 36

Medici, 48, 107

Mill,

72-73

Orfino da Lodi, 106

Machiavelli, Niccolo, 4-9, 13, 18,

87,90,91,98, 100, 107,

On

Prince,

The (Machiavelli), 18

Pro Cluentio (Cicero), 48

Ptolemy of Lucca, 80, 106

Putnam, Robert, 26

lt)7

Mussolini, Benito, 16

Rawls, John, 18 Rights of Man,

Naples, Republic of (1799), 95, 108,

\

\2n3>

Netherlands, 21, 31, 107

The

(Paine), 108

Rinuccini, Alamanno, 48, 106

Robespierre, Maximilien, 108

Romagnosi, Giandomenico, 84

1

2 3

Index \

Roman Roman

law, 8-9,

27

Switzerland,

Republic (1849), 95,

•

'

1

15n23

System of Logic (Mill), 87

112n3

Rome, ancient, 75,79-81

25, 48, 50, 59, 74,

Romulus, 75

Tacitus, 105

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 8—10,

Theophrastus, 73

32,38, 60, 66, 67, 82-83, 108,

119w5

91-92, 101, 115w23

"Two Concepts

Rusconi, Gian Enrico, 96,

110-llwi

Sallust, 48,

(Berlin),

105

Ulivi,

Salutati, Coluccio, 48, 71,

Salvadori,

Tocqueville, Alexis de, 63, 78, 84,

106

Massimo, 88-89

Savonarola, 106-7

Giacomo, 89

United States, 21, 91, 94, 96, 114n22, 115n23 Utopia (More), 107

Schumpeter, Joseph

A.,

109w3

Science of Legislation (Filangieri),

Utopia and Reform in the

Enlightenment (Venturi), 31,

108

83 Senate, 28;

of Liberty"

38

Roman, 59

Sidney, Algernon, 108

Siena, Republic of,

3,

22,

24-25

Venice, Republic

Sismondi, Simonde de, 25,

115w23

of, 3, 5,

Venturi, Franco, 31-32, 108

Skinner, Quentin, 45-47, 52, 61,

62

Villari,

Rosario, 81

Vita civile (Palmieri),

slavery, 8, 25, 26,

49

Voltaire,

24

32

Soderini, Pier, 22, 107 Spirit of Laws,

The

(Montesquieu), 30, 37, 69-70, 108, llln2

Stoicism, 74

22, 28,

\\\n2

Walzer, Michael,

UOnB

Witt,Johan de, 107