For an Italian Way to Constitutional Patriotism

Abstract

In 2012, the Academy-Award winning actor Roberto Benigni performed a stand-up show at prime time on the main Italian public television channel entitled The Most Beautiful Constitution in the World. Although for a comparatist nothing is as nonsensical as a world-record constitution, the exaltation of the Italian Constitution through superlatives and hyperboles symptomises the tepid relation Italians entertain with their fundamental law. Why is it so? Since 1948, two factors have thrived and mutually reinforced in Italians institutions: the partitocracy and a deeply inefficient system of government. Their persistent combination, cluttering the scene and pushing the Constitution behind the curtain, has educated Italians to depend on political parties and their power play. This seems the time when some kind of constitutional patriotism should be in order in Italy to strengthen the Italian civic-mindedness, finally found a common citizenship, and re-establish our cardinal values perilously at stake in a changing society – in brief, to face our own problems of modernity.