Equality, liberty, justice: Bobbio’s democratic vision, between liberalism and socialism *

Abstract

ABSTRACT Bobbio’s democratic vision warrants scrutiny not simply as a theory of procedural democracy, but also for its critical study of political ideologies (historical and contemporary) and its ambition to reconcile some of their driving ideals. This article draws the attention of Anglophone scholars to Bobbio’s life-long endeavour to merge the competing agendas of liberalism and socialism and thus develop a democratic theory capable of merging productively the notions of equality, liberty, and justice. Rather than a cross-eyed theory of democracy, Bobbio’s encapsulated a vigorous attempt to alert rival partisans of both the limits and the potential of their respective projects. He urged socialists to appreciate the importance of liberal institutions and procedures vis-à-vis unconditional celebrations of direct democracy; at the same time, he warned liberals about the ‘broken promises’ of representative democracy and the oligarchic involution of parliamentarism. The article pursues three related goals. It situates Bobbio’s project in its historical context, charting the ways in which the political history of 20th-century Italy and Europe forged his “liberalsocialism”. It examines its similarities and differences with previous attempts to cross-fertilize the liberal and the socialist projects across the Atlantic. It explores its constitutive tensions through the lenses of one of its most perceptive interpreters in the Anglophone world – Perry Anderson. By doing so, the article seeks to provide a nuanced study of Bobbio’s democratic vision and shed light on its persistent relevance for thinking through the challenges of representative democracy in our present.