With the undisputed victory of the Italian centre-right coalition in September 2022, we are left with a series of clues about the possibility of putting an end to Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s iconic framing in The Leopard: “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” So often, a new political era opens with hope that quickly returns to frustration when citizens realize that little or nothing has changed from the previous status quo.
The Italian government faces the challenge of restructuring the administrative machinery of the state and its entrenched managers inherited from previous administrations who are a historical remnant of political parties’ compromises. Is it possible to replace the obsequious and servile for qualified managers? Is it possible to do away with the ‘bureaucratic caste’ of the state and replace it with positions of merit filled with qualified people? Answering these questions and solving these problems are among the challenges facing a conservative government.
The ruling class comes largely from left-wing or progressive parties. It not only occupies key, relevant, and powerful positions in public administration, but also in the fields of culture, education, and communication. As the Italian philosopher Marcello Veneziani argues, a new centre-right government that seeks to change the course set by the politically-correct agenda and the totalitarian single-mindedness of progressivism, has not only the right but also the obligation to replace this ruling class—out of respect for the will of the people who voted them into office.
To face the challenge of restoring common sense and the necessary sanity into politics, demanded by the marginalised and silenced citizens who do not accept or share the principles of the ruling caste, requires the will and courage to break a vicious cycle. The right wing must cease it efforts to mollify, please, or win the sympathy of those who will never be mollified, pleased, or sympathetic to them.
When in a European nation, as in this case Italy, a coalition of political forces opposed to the Left comes into government with full legitimacy, it must choose from among the best to occupy the positions of responsibility of the state. It must promote the most capable and demonstrate in deeds that its coalition is an alternative to the progressive Left. This broad definition, which reflects and contains conservatives, liberals, sovereigntists, patriots, and reformists alike, must demonstrate that it is viable.
The Right must promote merit with clear and concrete actions aimed at recovering the culture of work in order to promote the common good. Its aim must be a genuine transformation of society by recovering and maintaining the values of effort, sacrifice, and self-improvement to achieve personal goals in harmony with the community’s goals. The Right must offer opportunities to the capable and deserving, and it must encourage social advancement among those excluded by the failed demagogic policies of left-wing elites. The key to such a transformation is that it must not only be in the institutional and administrative sphere, it must also be in business, labour, education, the arts and culture, and civil society.
Promotion of merit does not have to be at odds with social justice—quite the contrary. Merit as an action, as an attitude that culminates in the right to recognition, results in putting those who can offer the best of themselves at the service of all in the right places.
The Meloni government has taken steps in this direction, starting with the formation of the Council of Ministers and with the election of its working teams of competent, experienced, and qualified people in the relevant ministerial areas. Italy can be an example to other Western democracies. In this first stage of government, in its first hundred days, it has taken courageous measures in line with electoral commitments, despite internal and external economic and social difficulties in the context of a complex international situation.
The political forces of the broad centre-right, without losing their identities and without renouncing their origins and principles, have managed to agree on a common and patriotic project to come to power. They have put aside their differences and focused on what they share, on what they have in common, and on the needs and urgencies of the Italian people. Some of these measures have been economic, such as complying with the requirements of the European Recovery Funds, which are fundamental for the reactivation of investments and the recovery of the national economy, and the progressive suppression of the ‘Reddito di cittadinanza’ (citizenship income), the controversial unemployment benefit promoted demagogically by the Left which has done nothing more than discourage the necessary culture of work and effort. It is also worth highlighting the revision of the tax system aimed at supporting the sectors most economically disadvantaged by the crisis, and the gradual economic growth reflected in the rise in the stock market, the drop in the risk premium together with the favourable international reports and the positive forecast of the Bank of Italy.
For the time being, and despite the pressures of supranational powers, the economic crisis, and the general international situation, the Italian government has been courageous and determined as it aims to transform the country by taking into account these meritocratic principles that should never have been lost.
The paradox expressed by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change” can only be dismantled through an awareness of the necessary priorities and a meritocratic determination to stop things staying as they are, without changing who we are at our core. And the Right should start to realise this.
The Case of Italy: Conservatives and the Challenge of Merit
“Study of five grotesque heads” (ca. 1494), a 261 x 206 cm pen and ink on paper by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
With the undisputed victory of the Italian centre-right coalition in September 2022, we are left with a series of clues about the possibility of putting an end to Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s iconic framing in The Leopard: “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” So often, a new political era opens with hope that quickly returns to frustration when citizens realize that little or nothing has changed from the previous status quo.
The Italian government faces the challenge of restructuring the administrative machinery of the state and its entrenched managers inherited from previous administrations who are a historical remnant of political parties’ compromises. Is it possible to replace the obsequious and servile for qualified managers? Is it possible to do away with the ‘bureaucratic caste’ of the state and replace it with positions of merit filled with qualified people? Answering these questions and solving these problems are among the challenges facing a conservative government.
The ruling class comes largely from left-wing or progressive parties. It not only occupies key, relevant, and powerful positions in public administration, but also in the fields of culture, education, and communication. As the Italian philosopher Marcello Veneziani argues, a new centre-right government that seeks to change the course set by the politically-correct agenda and the totalitarian single-mindedness of progressivism, has not only the right but also the obligation to replace this ruling class—out of respect for the will of the people who voted them into office.
To face the challenge of restoring common sense and the necessary sanity into politics, demanded by the marginalised and silenced citizens who do not accept or share the principles of the ruling caste, requires the will and courage to break a vicious cycle. The right wing must cease it efforts to mollify, please, or win the sympathy of those who will never be mollified, pleased, or sympathetic to them.
When in a European nation, as in this case Italy, a coalition of political forces opposed to the Left comes into government with full legitimacy, it must choose from among the best to occupy the positions of responsibility of the state. It must promote the most capable and demonstrate in deeds that its coalition is an alternative to the progressive Left. This broad definition, which reflects and contains conservatives, liberals, sovereigntists, patriots, and reformists alike, must demonstrate that it is viable.
The Right must promote merit with clear and concrete actions aimed at recovering the culture of work in order to promote the common good. Its aim must be a genuine transformation of society by recovering and maintaining the values of effort, sacrifice, and self-improvement to achieve personal goals in harmony with the community’s goals. The Right must offer opportunities to the capable and deserving, and it must encourage social advancement among those excluded by the failed demagogic policies of left-wing elites. The key to such a transformation is that it must not only be in the institutional and administrative sphere, it must also be in business, labour, education, the arts and culture, and civil society.
Promotion of merit does not have to be at odds with social justice—quite the contrary. Merit as an action, as an attitude that culminates in the right to recognition, results in putting those who can offer the best of themselves at the service of all in the right places.
The Meloni government has taken steps in this direction, starting with the formation of the Council of Ministers and with the election of its working teams of competent, experienced, and qualified people in the relevant ministerial areas. Italy can be an example to other Western democracies. In this first stage of government, in its first hundred days, it has taken courageous measures in line with electoral commitments, despite internal and external economic and social difficulties in the context of a complex international situation.
The political forces of the broad centre-right, without losing their identities and without renouncing their origins and principles, have managed to agree on a common and patriotic project to come to power. They have put aside their differences and focused on what they share, on what they have in common, and on the needs and urgencies of the Italian people. Some of these measures have been economic, such as complying with the requirements of the European Recovery Funds, which are fundamental for the reactivation of investments and the recovery of the national economy, and the progressive suppression of the ‘Reddito di cittadinanza’ (citizenship income), the controversial unemployment benefit promoted demagogically by the Left which has done nothing more than discourage the necessary culture of work and effort. It is also worth highlighting the revision of the tax system aimed at supporting the sectors most economically disadvantaged by the crisis, and the gradual economic growth reflected in the rise in the stock market, the drop in the risk premium together with the favourable international reports and the positive forecast of the Bank of Italy.
For the time being, and despite the pressures of supranational powers, the economic crisis, and the general international situation, the Italian government has been courageous and determined as it aims to transform the country by taking into account these meritocratic principles that should never have been lost.
The paradox expressed by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change” can only be dismantled through an awareness of the necessary priorities and a meritocratic determination to stop things staying as they are, without changing who we are at our core. And the Right should start to realise this.
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