There has never been pluralism without decentralised and subsidiary bodies. Nisbet’s lesson in a book published in Rimini

In a book published more than sixty years ago, "The Quest for Community" (1953), the American sociologist Robert Nisbet focused on a theme that remains relevant today: that of the uprooting of communities due to the erosion of intermediate bodies. The work’s analytical focus was, in particular, on one aspect: the emergence of the (modern) state as a political entity that does not tolerate the existence of pre-political communities that challenge its authority or, at the very least, jeopardise its sovereignty. Yet, as Nisbet observed, the individual – or rather, the human person – finds it extremely difficult to find a place and a sense of purpose in the world in which they live when left to their own devices. In other words, when they lack the support of those intermediate bodies that help to shape their personality, character and outlook.

The state, by its very nature, tends to be monistic, that is to say, it claims to absorb the whole of society into itself, whereas society pre-exists the state and is characterised by a principle of the opposite kind: pluralism. Luigi Sturzo warned in this regard that ‘what must instead be absolutely rejected is the state’s claim to ethical superiority, the monist conception of its sociological nature, its consequent and absurd totalitarianism; in a word: the forced unification of society within the state and the submersion of the human personality within it’. It was precisely on this point that Nisbet urged us to envisage a different kind of state entity – one that is decentralised and subsidiary – recognising that the vital energies of society are crucial for human development and for the freedom of the individual: a state, therefore, that is “intrinsically pluralist”, whose power must be “limited by associations” and “whose plurality of demands on their respective members represents the measure of those members’ freedom from any monopoly of power in society”.

This awareness has given rise to a major research project recently published by Il Mulino under the auspices of the CNEL, which will be presented on Sunday at 5 pm at the Rimini Meeting: "Corpi intermedi, società civile ed economia sociale. Per un governo delle transizioni". The book, edited by President Renato Brunetta alongside Leonardo Becchetti, Flavio Felice, Enrico Giovannini and Giorgio Vittadini, involved four think tanks, each bringing a different perspective, yet united by the aim of demonstrating the importance of intermediary bodies for individual freedom, sustainability, social inclusion and the centrality of the anthropological principle of subsidiarity: Tocqueville-Acton Centre for Studies and Research, the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development – ASviS, NeXt New Economy for All and the Foundation for Subsidiarity. Brunetta writes that the CNEL, a body of constitutional significance provided for under Article 99 of the Constitution, demonstrates through this work its mission, namely to serve as the ‘home of intermediary bodies’. It is difficult to imagine an open, dynamic society centred on human dignity without such social organisations.