The Moral Values of the Political Tradition on the Question of Dictatorship

Among the many ill-fated effects of the ineptitude displayed by parliament and the government, from the continual unrest and the civilian guerilla warfare between parties and armed organizations, perhaps the most calamitous is that of having made one particular word popular among a considerable proportion of the public, namely, the word ‘dictatorship’. There is extensive talk today of dictatorship as the only salvation from the disorder and profound crisis into which we have been plunged. When afflicted by a plethora of troubles, men are keen to find a simple, precise and definitive remedy for their ills. Government by the many, government by the parties, government by those who blether on in the halls of Montecitorio, puffed up with ambition, strikes people as such a disgusting spectacle, so vain and powerless, that the idea of dictatorship has little by little ended up shedding that fog of terror and tyranny which used to envelop it. A widespread belief has increasingly taken hold: that a strong man, a wise man will be able to pull the country back from the verge of ruination. What we need, so the argument goes, is to put just one man in place of fifteen ministers coming from opposing political parties who neutralize one another and who are constantly at the mercy of an uncertain political vote, powerless to conceive any plan for the future and even less capable of implementing it, forced to do favours to the electors and the elected in order to stagger through their daily life.