Ratio Juris. Vol. 18 No.

2 June 2005 (27184)

Norberto Bobbio (19092004). A Short Guide to a Great Work

MICHELANGELO BOVERO*
Bobbio was always alien to rhetoric, and always shunned it. Most of all, he considered talk about himself in any rhetoric manner to be disagreeable. I would not want to do him wrong. For this reason, I have chosen an approach that seemed to me less celebrative than others: My aim here is not to propose a reection on Bobbios thought but rather a brief guide to the exploration of his work, even though I realize that such an attempt is at least hasty. 1. The two most complete volumes on Bobbio are both in Spanish, and each of them focuses only on one of the two realms of knowledge that Bobbio most frequently dealt with. Together, the two booksthe one by Alfonso Ruiz Miguel (1983) on legal thought and the other by Andrea Greppi (1998) on political thoughtamount to more than 800 pages. However, no space was allocated in either book for many aspects of Bobbios work, if not as hints and marginal references. There is no wonder why. The oeuvre of Bobbio is difcult to grasp in terms of quantity or quality. There are 4,466 titles listed in the online bibliography of his writings (www.erasmo.it/bobbio), edited by the Piero Gobetti Research Centre in Turin and updated at the end of 2004.1 The same website also hosts a section of secondary bibliography that is equally impressive and in continuous growth. In order to grasp the vast range of Bobbios work, the qualitative aspect is nonetheless important. I refer to the extraordinary variety of scientic
* Trans. P. Mindus 1 The site also offers comprehensive bibliographical data concerning all translations made until today. Besides the website, see also the most recent paper edition (Violi 1995).
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realms of knowledge that Bobbio addressed, and in some cases introduced. In 1984, in the preface to the rst edition of his bibliography (Bobbio 1984a, 134; 1996a, 8193), he wrote with typical understatement:
anyone who glances at the succession of titles [. . .] is at a loss and wonders where and if there is a thread running through it. I immediately warn the reader that there is probably no such le rouge. I, myself, have never intentionally searched for one. These writings are pieces of several outlines that cannot be recomposed into a scheme with a single outline, and each of them is unnished. (Bobbio 1996a, 85)

Some years later, in 1997, in his answer to Luigi Ferrajoli who notied him of the decision of Camerino University to award him a laurea honoris causa (altogether he was awarded nine of them), he admonished his colleagues from Camerino for exaggerating a bit in the motivation in which he was described as the most illustrious and inuential Italian intellectual in the second half of the twentieth century and he shielded himself by saying: I did enter a lot of paths but I never followed one up.2 A lot of paths that cross each other at several points forming a maze in which, indeed, it is easy to be at a loss. Bobbio recurrently used the metaphor of a labyrinth to illustrate his conception of the world and history, but, as we have seen, he also suggested the image of a labyrinth as far as his own work was concerned. Using one of his characteristic variations on the theme in an autobiographical note (Bobbio 1996a, 163; also in Bobbio 2001), he compared his bibliography in jest to a bazaar in which everything can be found, in disarray. Bobbios readers know that his thoughtI mean his way of reasoning and analysing any issueis, on the contrary, rigorously ordered. Even a labyrinth, no matter how complicated it might be, is consciously designed and set out. In order to see the design of the bazaar and therefore imagine the shape of the labyrinth and the method guiding Bobbios thought, I would suggest a system of intertwined bifurcations, in which every rectilinear segment ends up in a new split, which in turn is the appendage of a previous dilemma. The result would be a tree structure with ramications forming a dense network of dichotomies. Bobbios thought is primarily based on dichotomies. It develops according to a binary logic, just like the thought of Hobbes, the classical philosopher from whom Bobbio drew his main inspiration as far as method or, if one prefers, philosophical style is concerned. The dichotomies to be found in the works of Bobbio are boundless. Just to make some examples among the most well known: society and state, politics and morals, public and private, liberty and equality, democracy and autocracy, reform and revolution, peace and war, and so on. These are some of the most comprehensive conceptual pairs, useful to guide the reader in the overall struc2

These passages from Bobbios letter were quoted by Luigi Ferrajoli (1999a, 5) in the laudatio.

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ture of that objective labyrinth which corresponds, according to Bobbio, to the reality of human beings or, in other words, to the world of practical experience as he also used to call it. Among the most important pairs, there is onelaw and powerparticularly suitable for an initial outline of Bobbios work, i.e., the subjective labyrinth, which is a reection of the objective one. Among several considerations made by Bobbio, I choose one from 19993:
I always considered the sphere of law and the sphere of politics like the two sides of a coin, just to use a metaphor familiar to me. The world of rules and the world of power. Power creates the rules, and the rules transforms factual power into legal power.

The expression is severely reductive, but it suggests the idea of two adjacent universes. They are apparently so as they are really interconnected or overlapping. Yet they remain distinct and analytically distinguishable, just like the head and tail of a coin. These two universes were the object of the two main subjectsphilosophy of law and political philosophythat Bobbio taught for almost 50 years.4 And Bobbio forged his thought almost exclusively in academic teaching. 2. Bobbio always used the word philosophy carefully, at least from the end of the 1940s, at the time when he returned to the place where he was born and where he had graduated, Turin (he began teaching in Camerino, and later moved to Siena and Padua). His opposition between the philosophers philosophy of law and legal scholars philosophy of law, as an ironic critique of the latter, is well known (Bobbio 1965a, 43ff.). Less renowned is perhaps his distancing from a certain interpretation of political philosophy, dominant in the last decades, that has it to be a Rawlsian normative philosophy of justice (Bobbio 1998a, 10). What is certain though is that he preferred his teachings not to go by the name of philosophy but rather theory, and more specically general theory. Since he considered law and politics as the two sides of a coin, he also conceived philosophy of law and political philosophyboth understood as general theoriesto be related and contiguous elds of study (I repeat, not separated, but rather linked like the sides of a coin). In 1998, Bobbio summed up his thought from a retrospective viewpoint:
3

I extract this passage from the unpublished letter from Bobbio to the dean and the colleagues at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Turin, written on 17 October 1999. Bobbio taught Philosophy of Law from the beginning of his career in 1935 until 1972; from 1972 until 1979 he went over to Political Philosophy. But it should not be forgotten that, for a decade, he also held a chair in Political Science. The most well-known indication for his interest in this subject is Bobbio 1996b.
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what the two theories have in common in my writings [. . .] is not only the aim (exclusively cognitive, and not prescriptive), but also the way to proceed towards it. To proceed [by] reconstruction, through linguistic analysis never separated from historical references to classical authors and fundamental categories, makes it possible to delimit the legal and political elds of study, to order them inside and to establish their interconnections. (Bobbio 1998a, 9)

Needless to say these short statements are, once again, reductive. First of all, the expression general theory has a general (my apologies for the repetition) and a specic meaning in Bobbios writings. Strictly speaking, general theory of law (or formal theory of law, or more simply theory of law) designates only one of the four ways of studying and teaching philosophy of law, that Bobbio classied in different writings with slight changes. His general theory of law consisted of elaborating and determining the concept of law and all the general notions related to it. He thus divided the theory of law into: a) theory of justice, that is, the consideration of what values should or do underpin the legal system; b) legal sociology, that is, the study of law as a historical and social phenomenon and therefore the study of problems regarding the relation between law and society; c) methodology or theory of legal science, which includes studies on the logic of normative propositions and legal argumentation. Similarly, for Bobbio the general theory of politics specically meant one of the four ways of understanding the nature and tasks of political philosophy: the way that aims to determine the concept of politics and fundamental concepts thereby implied. Hence he divided the general theory of politics into: a) the normative theory of the best state, like the one elaborated by utopians; b) studies on the foundation of power and on the issues related to legitimacy and political obligation; and c) studies on the method of political science and those concerning the analysis of political language. Sometimes, the expression general theory of politics occurs in a wider sense, indicating a comprehensive idea of the political universe and its problems that embraces the other elds of study outlined as well as by classifying the primary and more or less traditional kinds of political philosophy. In the latter sense, for instance, Bobbio labels as general theories of politics the work of great classical authors, where political problems are confronted in such a way that their complexity and interrelation are emphasised through the elaboration of broad conceptual models. The understanding of the role of political philosophy that Bobbio prefers and holds to be the most useful (1999b, 38), as he often repeated, is the analysis of Grundbegriffe, which is characteristic of the general theory of politics in its specic meaning. In Bobbios writings, this analysis appears to be not so much a limited eld of study alongside others, but rather an open perspective in which all the great problems of the political world are taken into account and dealt with in a particular way (Bovero 1999, xx-iii). For example, sufce it to mention the way Bobbio took part, as an intellectuel
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engag, in the (roughly speaking) ideological debate that in the 1950s engaged communist thinkers on the problem of freedom. By means of conceptual elucidation aiming mainly at theoretical knowledge, he also pursued practical recommendations by breaking down prejudices, resolving misunderstandings, and overcoming strong opposition. At least as a heuristic expedient, I suggest considering the general theory of law as the key perspective from which Bobbio faced the major problems of the legal universe. Besides, I do not think it is particularly difcult to include his metatheoretical and methodological studies in the larger meaning of the general theory of law, as well as his work on the relation between law and society. Likewise, the same style of conceptual analysis distinguishes his studies on the theory of justice. I should like to make another remark on the way Bobbio intended and practised the profession of theorist. It is hard to distinguish between the writings of Bobbio on theory and those on history (especially) of political and legal thought (but also of political and legal institutions). On the one hand, the purpose he states that he is to pursue in the writings concerned with the history of thought is to elaborate and systematise conceptual models. The preface to his rst collection of essays on classical authors states:
In studying the authors of the past I have never been particularly attracted by the mirage of the so-called historical framework [. . .]: I have instead taken great interest in the explanation of fundamental issues, the clarication of concepts, the analysis of arguments, and the recomposing of systems. (Bobbio 1965b, 67)

On the other hand, in his theoretical work on fundamental concepts there is no lack of references to the history of philosophy. In some instances his work may even have been constructed upon them. Sufce it to mention the book Lanalogia nella logica del diritto (1938), or Il positivismo giuridico (1979a), the essay collection Let dei diritti (1997a), or the volume La teoria delle forme di governo (1976a). Finally, I add the fact that it makes little sense to try to distinguish legal and political writings in Bobbios work when it comes to the thought of classical authors. Here, in fact, the coin is turned over and over continually. To say it with another metaphor, the two-sided world of practical experience is viewed from both sides: power and norms. 3. Bobbio never tried to project any real order on the myriad of his (more specically) legal writings, apart from some well-known essay collections I will mention later. Nor has anyone else really tried to reorder the bazaar, except in part Alfonso Ruiz Miguel (1990) and Riccardo Guastini (1995). In my initial, brief, and selective experiment (a hesitant one too, since I am not
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a legal scholar5), I will indicate three main directions or guidelines of exploration of the (subjective) labyrinth of Bobbios legal writings. These guidelines are to be considered simply as topographical indicators and are composed of a manifold of adjacent and often intersecting paths. The rst direction concerns above all his studies in metatheory and theory of legal science. We may certainly take the starting point to be the essay Scienza del diritto e analisi del linguaggio (1950a) that many consider to be the foundation of the analytical theory of law in Italy. Subsequent to this text, we nd the lectures entitled Teoria della scienza giuridica (1950b); then, some other contributions on the same topic, including the essay Essere e dover essere nella scienza giuridica (1967; 1970b). The writings, collected in the volume Giusnaturalismo e positivismo giuridico (1965), are mostly of a metatheoretical as well as a historical character. In this direction, even though as a well dened and distinct tangent, I would list the studies on deontic logic: the essay La logica giuridica di Eduardo Garcia Maynez (1954) in which Bobbio distinguishes between norms and propositions on norms, and between logic of law and of jurisprudence, partially anticipating Kelsen, Alchourrn, and von Wright; and the essay Diritto e logica (1962). A parallel route includes the studies on legal reasoning and argumentation, starting with the 1938 book, already mentioned, on analogy. Last but not least, I should recall the propaedeutical studies, among which I would mention the lectures from the 1940s: Lezioni di losoa del diritto (1941; 1945) and the Introduzione alla losoa del diritto (1948). The second direction explores, strictly speaking, the general theory of law or formal theory of law as Bobbio preferred to call it. Here, we face an impressive number of essays, articles, and encyclopedia entries. Most of them have been published in different collections: Studi sulla teoria generale del diritto (1955); Studi per una teoria generale del diritto (1970a); Dalla struttura alla funzione. Nuovi studi di teoria del diritto (1977a), and the aforementioned Contributi ad un dizionario giuridico (Guastini 1995). These studies address almost all the topics and issues of contemporary legal thought, starting with the determination of the concept of law: the notion of norms, their typology, general principles of law, customary law, validity, antinomies and breaches in law, sanction, and obviously the concept of legal system. Bobbios work entitled Teoria generale del diritto (1993) collects the two series of academic lectures Teoria della norma giuridica (1958) and Teoria dellordinamento giuridico (1960). On various occasions Bobbio acknowledged his debt towards Kelsens theory of law. However, experts have stressed that the identifying features of Bobbios theoretical schemenotably the norm theory and the problem of antinomies and breaches in law, that regard the nature of the legal systemdo not originate from the Kelsenian system, but also represent a radical critique of it.
5

I am indebted to L. Ferrajoli (1999b), as well as to numerous Bobbian studies by Riccardo Guastini (e.g., 1996).

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The third and more remote guideline that I invite readers to consider concerns the theory of justice, viewed once again from the perspective (that Bobbio preferred) of conceptual analysis. Chiey, I point to the article Sulla nozione di giustizia (1952); the lectures Teoria della giustizia (1953); the preface to the Italian translation of Cham Perelmans De la justice (Bobbio 1959); and, nally, the essay entitled in the same way as the rst one, Sulla nozione di giustizia, which appeared in the rst issue of the journal Teoria politica (1985a). Finally, another fact ought to be recalled. Almost all of Bobbios writings on the political problem of equality, rst and foremost the homonymous entry in Enciclopedia del Novecento (1977b) include detailed analyses of the specically legal dimensions of the concept of justice. At this point it seems compelling to turn to political theory.

4. Guastini holds that Bobbio never felt like giving a systematic shape to his contributions on the general theory of law. On the contrary, many explicit mentions to the project of composing a General Theory of Politics can be found in the last 30 years of Bobbios work. Such a General Theory would be a broad systematic study based on what Bobbio called the recurrent topics in the history of political thought from ancient Greece to nowadays. The work would have been an ordered treatise of fundamental political concepts, able to provide a general representation of the universe of politics, almost a map, even though obviously entangled, and at the same time a compass for orientation in the complexity of the real labyrinth, the world of practical experience. Not only did Bobbio never nish this project but he did not, properly speaking, even start it (except for two or three sketches, composed as contributions to collections with various authors). Towards the end of 1996, I asked him to let me try to implement this project, by gathering and reorganising in a systematic order about 40 essays, mostly chosen among the least well known (but these are not at all minor writings). Hence, the Teoria generale della politica (1999a) took shape and was published by Einaudi on Bobbios ninetieth birthday, 18 October 1999. The guidelines I suggest concerning the political side of the Bobbian labyrinth (which I have reconstructed so as to be able to offer a more precise account of the comprehensive framework) amount to six, corresponding to the six parts of the volume Teoria generale della politica (from now on TGP). But each of these guidelines is twofold, structured along paths that meet at various points. In order to illustrate the directions (which are still simple topographical indicators, nothing more than an invitation to read, or read in an orderly fashion), I will refer not only and not even prevalently to the essays in TGP, but to some of Bobbios best known books.
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The rst guideline, entitled political philosophy and lessons of classical authors in TGP does not directly concern politics. Rather it examines the different possible ways to consider politics, on the one hand, and on the other, the characteristic way Bobbio analyses politics through the study and comparison of classical authors. On the one hand, I refer to four short essays about metatheory that were almost entirely recomposed in TGP. On the other, we are dealing with the ingens silva of studies in the history of political thought, or rather in the history of political and legal thought, as it would be pointless to separate these domains. Among these studies, I would especially like to recall the essay collection Thomas Hobbes (1989a; 1993c) since it focuses on the political thinker that Bobbio most admired. But the philosophers Bobbio holds to be classics are quite a few, not only the 10 mentioned in the preface to the rst edition of his bibliography.6 I would claim they include most of the great and less famous political thinkers in Western civilisation. Among the least well known essays included in TGP, I would like to refer to the 1981 essay Max Weber, il potere e i classici (1999c) and to the 1983 essay entitled Marx, lo stato e i classici (1999d; 1987c). The second guideline, entitled politics, morals, law, is directly concerned with the problems, on the one hand, of determining the concept of politics and on the other, the dimensions of the world of practical experience. As far as the rst problem is concerned, the lengthy entry on the state stands out. It was written for the Enciclopedia Einaudi and conceived by Bobbio as a sketch for a general theory of politics, then republished together with other entries from the same encyclopedia (Bobbio 1980). Apart from these, emphasis should be laid on the essays concerning the model of natural law, especially the longer essay included (with an essay by M. Bovero) in Societ e stato nella losoa politica moderna (Bobbio and Bovero 1979). And among the essays that the TGP contains attention should also be given to the 1987 essay, La politica, since it is a sort of general theory in nuce too (1999e). As far as the second problem is concerned, another bifurcation emerges. On the one hand, we recall the studies on the relation between ethics and politics, including the essay with the same title in TGP and furthermore, the writings on similar issues in the sublime pamphlet entitled Elogio della mitezza (1998b; 2000b). On the other hand, we nd the studies on the relation between politics and law. Among these, the essay Dal potere al diritto e viceversa (included in the TGP) stands out (1999f), even though Bobbio rst wrote it in 1981 when he was awarded the Prix Europen de lEssai by the Charles Veillon Foundation. In this essay, the metaphor of the two sides of the coin rst appears.
6

The 10 classical authors listed by Bobbio are: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Cattaneo, Croce, Pareto, Weber e Kelsen. Bobbio focused on each of them in numerous essays. At least the systematical essays on Locke (Bobbio 1963) and Kant (Bobbio 1969) ought to be mentioned along with the essay collections on Hegel (Bobbio 1981) and Kelsen (Bobbio 1992).

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The third guideline deals with the topic of values and ideologies. It addresses the three highest principles of liberty, equality, and justice, with their ambiguity and different interpretations. At the same time, it focuses on the idealistic movements and currents that set forth and supported these principles. As far as the rst aspect is concerned, I would mention the book Eguaglianza e libert (1995a) that includes two lengthy encyclopedia entries written some years before. However, I would also like to refer to the famous essay La libert dei moderni comparata a quella dei posteri, written in 1954 as a contribution to the discussion with communist intellectuals, and subsequently included in Politica e cultura (2005). As far as the second aspect is concerned, I would like to indicate the well received little book entitled Quale socialismo? (1976b; 1987a) and the essay Liberalismo e democrazia, initially conceived as a part in a collection with various authors, but nally published on its own (1985b; 1990b). In this connection, I cannot neglect the numerous essays on liberal socialism. The last one in this sequence, published in 1994, is to be found in TGP. The theoretical (and not only historical) essays on fascism and on the ideology of the Resistenzamost of them are collected in Dal fascismo alla democrazia (1997b)belongs to this set of books as well. The fourth guideline concerns the theory of governmental forms, an issue that Bobbio lectured on over a two-year period. With minor changes the lectures were published, as we have already mentioned, in 1976. Together with these lectures, we might also list the theory of democracy, as if it was not the same issue but more of a deviation, or a kind of furrow. More than any other, this is indeed the topic to which the fame of Bobbios work is connected. The specic topic of democracy is considered from a twofold viewpoint: the technical and the principled perspective. It would be too obvious here to mention the essay collection entitled Il futuro della democrazia (1995b; 1987b). But it should not be forgotten that Bobbio wrote extensively on democracy, its principles, and procedures. TGP includes two previously unpublished essays, written respectively in 1986 and 1987, about Bobbios denition of democracy as public government in public and the connection between democratic ideology and the procedural universals, i.e., the rules of the game. The fth guideline examines the issues peace and human rights. For Bobbio, these intersecting issues form the triad of his ideals, along with democracy. On the one hand, the best known contributions are collected in the volume Let dei diritti (1997a; 1996c). But I would also like to recall an essay published in 1963, included in TGP, which analyses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, the major emphasis should be laid on the book entitled Il problema della guerra e le vie della pace (1979b), republished in various editions with slight changes. In this book, the labyrinth metaphor appears for the rst time. No less signicant is the essay collection Il terzo assente (1989b).
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The sixth guideline brings to an end the overall exploration. It focuses on the issue political changes and philosophy of history, considering also the antithesis between reform and revolution that was the focal point of Bobbios lectures, still unpublished, of his last academic year, as well as a certain number of essays, some collected in TGP, as, for example, Cattaneo e le riforme from 1974 (1999g). This guideline also includes the pondering upon the sense of human action, the problem of evil, the tragedy of communism, revisionism in history, the gap between moral and scientic progress. These considerations are to be found in a large number of writings, some of them included in TGP. I nd it tempting to add a seventh guideline that I did not account for in the TGP plan, concerning history, cultural critique and the relations between culture and politics. This guideline is twofold as well. On the one hand, I would list the theoretical essays on the problem of intellectuals and their relation to power. Almost all of these were put together in the volume Il dubbio e la scelta (1993b), but some are included in the aforementioned Politica e cultura. On the other hand, I would mention the four collections of intellectual portraits, besides the several times republished (with slight variations) Prolo ideologico del Novecento (1990a; 1995c). The four collections are: Italia civile (1986a), Maestri e compagni (1984b), Italia fedele, il mondo di Gobetti (1986b), and nally La mia Italia (2000a). Along with these writings I would also list the autobiographical pieces collected in De senectute (1996a; 2001), and obviously Autobiograa (1997c, 2002), even though, as an extreme paradox, Bobbio did not write it. 5. To explore a labyrinth so complex as the one emerging from Bobbios work easily provokes dismay. It may lead to bewilderment. Yet all Bobbios readers know that his way of analysing and dealing with problems usually produces the opposite effect: a sense of condent orientation in a neat and denite horizon. I would claim that Bobbios work consisted, metaphorically, in crafting crystal-clear lenses through which to observe a world of complexity, and take action in it, the rst aim being to dissipate misunderstandings and dispel confusion. Bobbio was a tireless builder of conceptual models for the analysis, comprehension, and evaluation of human life. His analysis is always free from prejudice and often disenchanted, and his judgments are mostly severe. His realism, or rather, his pessimism has become almost proverbial. Perhaps too much so, because the stereotyped image of Bobbios pessimism tends to obscure, or to leave at a secondary level, the normative and projecting dimension of his thought, the ideal thrust of his work. In an attempt to give an outline description, I would claim that Bobbio is certainly a realist. Yet, without inconsistency, he is an idealist too, obvi Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005.

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ously not in a metaphysical sense, but rather in the meaning of a builder of normative guidelines, with an ideal orientation towards a more civilised and human world (in his words). But as he believes that aspiration towards a better world should necessarily ground itself in the rational and objective analysis of harsh reality, Bobbio is surely, rst and foremost, a realist, that is, a disillusioned observer of human action. However, he stops at the pessimistic diagnosis and the impropitious prognosis of the evils aficting the world. He continuously advocates a reection on the possible therapies of the constant ills of political life, a reection guided by a triad of ideals, similar to three polar stars: peace, democracy, and human rights. Human rights, democracy, and peace are the three essential components of the same historic movement, as he wrote in October 1990 in the introduction to The Age of Rights (1996c, vii). The nature of this necessary relation trois was illustrated by him on several occasions with a dense web of arguments. I will try to sum them up in an essential scheme: Without fundamental rights that are universally recognised and protected, democracy turns into a void illusion and peace into a deceitful disguise of the rule of the strongest, which is always exposed to the perhaps even violent rebellion of those who are not treated as persons. Without democracy, the minimum conditions for peaceful resolution of political and social conicts crumble and fundamental rights remain at the mercy of arbitrary powers. Without peace, in conditions of actual or potential war, fundamental rights may be suspended, abolished, or easily violated, and democracy stiffened or falsied by demagogical thrust. During the Balkan War, on 15 May 1999, Bobbio sent a message to the team, at the Fiera del libro in Turin, who were designing the website about his work. Among other things this message states:
As an inveterate intellectual, I have always been more an observer than a man of action. Even in these days in which our tragic century is coming to a tragic end, I do not have the illusion that the next century will be happier. In spite of preaching against war and violence, man has so far not found any cure for violence other than violence. We are now seeing a war justied by the protection of human rights, but these rights are defended by systematic infringement of the most elementary rights of the people that the war intends to save.

The life and work of Bobbio coincided almost exactly with the course of the tragic twentieth century. When his correspondence, which amounts to about 30,000 letters, is published, an impressive quantity of images of this tragic century will emerge from it. I would saylowering my voice even though he no longer hears methat the signicance and value of Bobbios work goes well beyond the century which he lived almost entirely and quite intensively, just like the work of those classic authors he never stopped recommending us to study.
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Michelangelo Bovero University of Turin Faculty of Political Science Department of Political Studies Via Giolitti, 33 Torino Italy

References
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