“For a new right”, the weapons of individual freedom and presidentialism
A year after the publication of “Likecrazia” , Daniele Capezzone offers us a new essay of great interest and extremely topical. It is “For a new right. Anti-tax, pro liberty, on the side of the forgotten of the left ” ( Piemme editions).
From the title it is clear that the author – who feels part of the right – adopts a critical approach believing that in Italy the right itself, while boasting considerable electoral successes, is not doing enough to have a well-defined identity, capable of to place a serious risk on the future possibility of winning the leadership of the national government.
The key words of the volume are freedom and liberalism , since it is clear that, in Capezzone's view, the right is liberal or it is not. Unfortunately, in our country, liberalism, unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, has never really been popular. The reasons are well known and it is not worth repeating them in this context.
I will then dwell on two of the parties that today combine to form the right-wing alignment in Italy. At the cost of making some readers turn up their noses, let me say that both the League and the Brothers of Italy are often crossed by illiberal impulses that clash with the basic objective set out above.
Furthermore, as Alessandro Campi noted, opposing the people to the elites leads to nothing, and it is really strange that in the country that gave birth to Gaetano Mosca and Vilfredo Pareto, people refuse to consider the precious role of the elites in running the system. politic. Those who adopt such positions become complicit in the nonsense grilline.
The fact is, and Capezzone notes it with acuity, that currently the right seems to be a numerical sum of different parties, which often do not even find an agreement on minimal issues. There is no common program, which is essential for a coalition that wants to govern the country.
The author also insists on a well-known and very important question. Unlike the left, which has assimilated and put into practice Gramsci's lesson, the right has always cared little about achieving domination of the means of cultural production: press, justice, universities and, now, social media . This has resulted in the inability of the right to compete with its opponents on the ground of culture, which is fundamental.
Capezzone rightly believes that the masters of classical liberalism such as Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, John Locke and John Stuart Mill should be chosen as ideal references, insisting on the importance of the individual and the free market. Without forgetting Hayek and Mises, updated and not merely used as "holy cards" to venerate.
Another key point is presidentialism. On the model of Washington and Paris, it is useful to choose a president elected directly by the people, as well as a strong form of state and government, obviously with adequate balances. Therefore, any suggestion for the proportional should be abandoned.
However, a common program based on clear ideas is fundamental, such as to convince the electorate that the coalitioned parties that propose it are worth voting. All this does not exist today and, on the contrary, the three political formations – perhaps because they are too different – each go on their own. The result is that the adversaries also win when they are in difficulty, also thanks to the aforementioned domination over the media, and to the prevalence in cultural circles. This is why Capezzone speaks of the "new right", while aware of the great difficulties that its construction entails. An honest book, his, brilliantly written and without unnecessary abstraction.
The post “For a new right”, the weapons of individual freedom and presidentialism appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/per-una-nuova-destra-le-armi-della-liberta-individuale-e-del-presidenzialismo/ on Thu, 14 Oct 2021 03:54:00 +0000.