What remains of “liberal” in Italy? Economic decline goes hand in hand with the decline of freedom
Anyone who has read Hayek can tell you that it is a film that has already been seen: the state clinging to the emergency to expand its powers, the use of "experts" that no one can contradict, the total subordination of democratic assemblies to the power of the executive and of those “special” figures chosen to face the emergency. This is precisely the way in which a state approaches totalitarianism, on a road paved with good intentions, "skills", "need for protection"
The difficult days we are experiencing, as we face a second wave of coronavirus infections, present us with a deeply divided, restless and confused country. While the recession threatens our economy, chaos also reigns supreme in institutions, as the constant bickering between state and regions shows. And we cannot be silent about great perplexities, from a liberal point of view, about the opportunity and moral legitimacy of the way in which the government is intervening to face the emergency.
The total absence of clarity and sensibility in the measures taken (just think of the bartender from Catanzaro, who closes at midnight and reopens at quarter past midnight, in full compliance with the Dpcm) requires once more a reflection on what has become our Country: are we still a liberal democracy?
The first real question we should ask ourselves is whether we have ever been: a deeply rigid Constitution that puts work before freedom, which does not allow the peoples who are part of the country to decide democratically to take different paths, which even does not want citizens express themselves on taxes, on international issues and on the form of the state, it does not set the best conditions for what should be a liberal democracy.
This government, however, is managing, with its methods, with its communication and with the help of teams of experts and journalists, to eradicate any residual germ of freedom left in Italy, and mine is not a "shot", something for "Raise the tone", but the simple fact that the decline of this country is going hand in hand with the decline of its freedoms. I spoke of "decline" because this is precisely the word that Hayek, one of the fathers of liberalism of the Austrian school, uses in his work "The free society" to describe the situation of a state in which having opinions different from the current one is a reason of disapproval.
If we think about what is happening in Italy, where politics is no longer ruling but the opinion of this or that virologist, we are arriving at the perfect photograph of decline. In Hayek there is everything: the state that clings to the emergency to expand its powers, the recourse to "experts" that no one can contradict, even (and this is our case) the total subordination of democratic assemblies (in which it should reside the true power, that emanated by the popular vote) to the decisions and the power of the executive and those "special" figures chosen to face the emergency. It is democracy that eats itself by erasing every liberal trait and yielding to the new values of "competence", "planning" and "control". Moreover, competence is really a value, but not when it is waved to silence others.
So what remains of "liberal" to our country? Very little now: alongside large sections of the population fed up with this way of doing things, there are large groups of experts, journalists and anything else ready to defend every move of the premier and to accuse anyone who thinks differently of "denial" and ignorance . The state promptly intervened by issuing confused and flawed Dpcm, prolonging the state of emergency and then not guaranteeing effective preparation for the second wave, justifying liberticidal acts and statements with the rhetoric of "it is necessary".
Anyone who has read Hayek and the Austrian school will be able to tell you that it is a film that has already been seen: this is precisely the way in which the State approaches totalitarianism, that is, on a road paved with good intentions, "skills", "need for protection. ". It is the same mechanism by which, in economics, the state always grows without ever stopping: finding from time to time a deceased company to be saved, an injustice to be healed or an inequality to be "rebalanced", the state continues to spend the money taxpayers and, if possible, to increase the amount of debt. This is the result of the danger that Hayek spoke of in "The Way of Slavery" , one of his most famous works: exchanging democracy for a political "end", when in reality it is only one of the many tools that can be used to achieve freedom. If the "democratic legitimacy" of a state leads the state itself to be able to afford illiberal measures and to silence those who think differently, slavery becomes a fact, totalitarianism a reality.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/cosa-resta-di-liberale-in-italia-il-declino-economico-va-di-pari-passo-con-il-declino-della-liberta/ on Wed, 21 Oct 2020 03:55:00 +0000.