Professor Urbinati, 2021 was the year of Draghi.
“There is no doubt about it.”
And what do you think of it?
(Sigh) “Very complex question.”
We have space and time.
«Then I try to start from here. Since Draghi became Prime Minister, apologists and detractors have practiced apodictic judgments, based almost exclusively on the person ».
It was inevitable.
“Yes, but wrong, both in the case of his supporters and in that of his enemies.”
We explain why.
“There is no question of the qualities of the Draghi person, but this is not the issue that interests me: concentrating the judgment on the man, whether negative or positive, deflects the debate on the political consequences of his appointment. This is exactly what I deal with: political systems and institutional problems ».
What is this technical government from the political-institutional point of view?
“There are no possible comparisons.”
Is the Ciampi government not comparable?
“No. It was a center-left political government with a technical premier and some non-political ministers but from the area. He had strong opposition in Parliament ».
And this is certainly not the case today. And the Monti government?
“Monti represented a genetic mutation. A government born as an institutional executive, but which along the way has been compromised by the descent into politics of its creator ”.
A senseless path.
«For a technician it is a paradox. And in fact Monti paid dearly for it ».
What is this government new?
“We are undoubtedly facing a new and – we could say – mature form of technocracy that has hybridized politics.”
He says this because inside the executive there are both technicians and politicians.
“True but not enough. The epistocratic mutation of democracy showed itself in the months of the pandemic. In Italy, it is enough to go back to the latest acts of government to see how subordinate the position of politicians is to the technical myth. The opposite of what Luigi Einaudi thought, who in 1955 drew up the hierarchy in democratic governments by placing technicians at the service of elected politicians ».
And then?
“Then there is the first real problem produced by this situation: this government of unity of purpose has semi-deprived Parliament (indeed, the parties have allowed this depreciation)”.
Wasn’t it the same with Monti?
“Partly. Never has the parliamentary opposition been so restricted ».
Against Draghi today there are only one leader on the left, Nicola Fratoianni, and one on the right, Giorgia Meloni.
«Fratoianni voted no confidence alone, not followed by the elected officials of his party. And Meloni, who even today enjoys a broad consensus in the polls, when this Parliament was voted on was 4.3%, and in the Chambers it has an even lower representation due to the majority vote ».
I understand where he wants to go.
“This government was born on the idea of the cancellation of any normal dialectical relationship between the majority and the opposition. And it has already achieved this result ».
Has this never happened before?
“Never, in republican history. In fact, Draghi can govern with a potential plebiscitary consensus of the Chambers ».
Yet there are several conflicts in the majority.
“True. But they are consumed among political leaders more for show than for real reasons. Parliament renounces its dialectical function and becomes a place of ratification of balances negotiated elsewhere. Another issue that worries me ».
This interview with Nadia Urbinati begins before Draghi’s famous end-of-year speech, which was passed on to the proceedings as that of the «self-nomination». However, rereading it today, Urbinati seems to have foreseen the outcome. The political science professor at Columbia University in New York senses that the coexistence between technocracy and politics is short-circuited on the subject of the Quirinale. As in an exercise in style (even after the controversy over Draghi’s words), we didn’t have to correct a single word.
Professor, this is not the first emergency government. It already happened with the DC-PCI National Solidarity, in 1978.
«But Aldo Moro had been kidnapped! There was shooting in the streets. The comparison between the defense of democracy and the pandemic is not possible ”.
Because?
«The parties in 1978 chose” voluntarily “to unite to face a common enemy: terrorism. And the premier, Giulio Andreotti, was the most political of politicians “.
While today?
“Conte Bis was dismissed by a maneuver by Renzi. And today, after that crisis, technocracy has taken control of politics to commission it “…
Continue reading the article in the weekly The Post Internazionale-TPI: click here
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