Mattarella and the Neapolitan Enlightenment – at the roots of a civic economy appreciated by enterprises
“A civic economy,” called it Italian President Sergio Mattarella, referring to entrepreneurial association Confindustria’s Assembly, distinguished by an exemplary title: “Impresa, lavoro e democrazia: la strada della Costituzione” (Enterprise, work and democracy: the road to the Constitution”) and convened on a symbolic date, 15 September, the “International Day of Democracy”. He then went on to explain the origins of the civic economy, found in the writings of Neapolitan Enlightenment philosopher Antonio Genovesi, the first person in Europe to hold a Chair in Economics, in 1754.
The civic economy. An economy founded on the notion that the market could contribute to the creation of a freer and more egalitarian world (indeed, Adam Smith saw Genovesi as his master and inspiration) and enhance the value of people – a “relational system built for reciprocity”, informed by both individual interest and social solidarity, with the market as its central space and the common good and civic virtues as its key referents.
This is the meaning of the quote chosen by Mattarella, further corroborated by mentions of other great intellectuals and economists from Italian history (such as Carlo Cattaneo and Luigi Einaudi), in the awareness that “the market, enterprises and economics are in themselves also spaces for friendship, reciprocity, gratuitousness, fraternity” and that therefore “economy is civic in nature and market means communal life, and both are ruled by the same basic law: mutual assistance.”
In his keynote speech, the president of Confindustria Carlo Bonomi defined enterprises as “democratic spaces in which values related to the greater good and social responsibility must concretely unfold, just as it happened during those really tough months of the pandemic” and advocated for an “inclusive” employment market actually enforcing the right to work, especially in terms of women and young people. These sentiments were echoed by the Italian President: “All this leads to the awareness that living spaces, as well as the people and citizens who inhabit them, play an essential role in our aim to attain social cohesion, freedom, rights and democracy in Italy.”
President Mattarella’s address to entrepreneurs was clearly informed by the Italian Constitution, utilitarian ethics and corporate social responsibility, as well as the basic bonds between freedom, economic development and social inclusion. And indeed, he also alluded to another Neapolitan Enlightenment philosopher, the abbot Ferdinando Galiani, admired by French Encyclopedists such as Diderot, Montesquieu and Voltaire: “Tyranny is a government in which only a few are happy at the expense and to the detriment of all the rest, who become unhappy.”
President Mattarella wove the term “happiness” into his speech to the entrepreneurs just as he did in another recent address he made on 25 August at the “Meeting per l’amicizia tra i popoli” (“Meeting for friendship among peoples”) in Rimini. Here it is: “Public debate often mentions the ‘right to happiness’, together with the rights to life and freedom, as in the American Declaration of Independence of 4 July 1776. It is interesting to notice the influence of Italian thinkers on that document. In fact, it was philosopher Gaetano Filangieri who, in an exchange with Benjamin Franklin, suggested replacing the expression “right to property” with “right to happiness”.
Mattarella reiterated that, “We do not have an equivalent definition in the Italian Constitution. Yet, there is little doubt that the Constitution comprises a number of rights, as well as demands of Italy to undertake beneficial actions leading to the achievement of the conditions that make life fulfilling; without presuming, of course, that happiness can be a permanent condition, as life will inevitably bring tribulations at times.”
Genovesi, Galiani, Filangieri – why are they the focus of so much attention? The Neapolitan Enlightenment era, in the middle of the 16th century, was one of the most fertile periods for economics and civic doctrines in Italian history and its impact is international. It harmonised with the thoughts of Milanese philosophers, associated with Il Caffè magazine published by brothers Pietro and Alessandro Verri, as well as with Cesare Beccaria’s teachings, which rejected the death penalty and revolved around the relationships between rights, duties, freedom and responsibility. It represented a peak in the ideology that bound political and social reformism to the needs of economic and social development, preaching governance through good laws and policies and the creation of a solid “social capital” to stimulate a more equitable and balanced progress.
Rereading those philosophers today and reintroducing their precepts into public debate means striving for higher quality both in terms of political efforts and of future values and cultures as shaped by the dedication of economic and social actors. The period between the 19th and 20th centuries saw a revival of the school of civic and economic thought that arose in the late Middle Ages and had its roots in Humanism (such as the 1309 constitution of Siena, praising beauty as a good governance tool, and the moral teachings of L’arte di mercatura (The art of trading) by Benedetto Cotrugli). It was brought about by Cavour and Cattaneo, as well as by the Church’s social doctrine and the socialist reformism of Turati and Treves, and found its way into corporate history, too, through the patronage and philanthropy of the Crespi family, Alessandro Rossi, the Marzotto family, the Zegna family, and the care that entrepreneurs Adriano Olivetti, Alberto and Leopoldo Pirelli showed toward social responsibility, just to mention some names.
These are also themes that resound throughout Pope Francis‘s speeches preaching a “just” and “circular” economy, and can be found in the vast body of economics writings that appeared once the era of global finance marked by a fierce laissez-faire and ‘greed is good’ attitude (the motto of the unscrupulous protagonist of Wall Street, directed by Oliver Stone) was over. Writings that reinterpreted liberalism in modern key and were distinguished by John Maynard Keynes‘s powerful liberal socialism (Federico Caffé was one of his most fertile exponents), as well as by the Code of Camaldoli, inspired by Catholic tenets (“Individuals are, by their own nature, social beings: that is, there exists, amongst individuals, a natural sense of solidarity, fellowship and complementarity through which the needs of single individuals can only be entirely fulfilled by society” – a quote that President Mattarella recast as, “Both the individual and the community are the foundations of a legislative system that should not be intrusive, but aimed at enhancing pluralism and freedom.”).
And here, indeed, we find the civic economy, reinterpreted and updated through the ethics of Stefano Zamagni and Luigino Bruni, as well as the decisions made by those Italian enterprises that have embraced sustainability, the green economy, culture and social solidarity not as empty marketing ruses but as genuine assets for growth and competitiveness.
Underlying it all is the spirit of the Italian Constitution as, to borrow the words of Confindustria president Bonomi, “it expresses the spirit of Italian businesses.” And, further, also because “the tenets of the Constitution were not written to instigate a plundering capitalism. Its principles are not aimed at amassing wealth, but at propagating it.
They are neither aimed at interventionism nor at protectionism, which, as history teaches, typically mark regressive paths leading to authoritarianism. And we should not be tempted to stoke fear for the future. Rather, we should be aware that “enterprises are means for growth, innovation, education, culture and integration, with widespread impact and engendering soft power. They are agents for freedom, too.” Indeed, “generating wealth is a significant social function. It is one of the main social responsibilities of enterprises. Though, of course, not to the detriment of other individual or collective wealth.” Let’s have one more quote, from the latest book by Martin Wolf: “Democracy and market share a principle of equality and both strive to implement it.”
Social function and responsibility when doing business – or, the civic economy.
(photo: Getty Images)
“A civic economy,” called it Italian President Sergio Mattarella, referring to entrepreneurial association Confindustria’s Assembly, distinguished by an exemplary title: “Impresa, lavoro e democrazia: la strada della Costituzione” (Enterprise, work and democracy: the road to the Constitution”) and convened on a symbolic date, 15 September, the “International Day of Democracy”. He then went on to explain the origins of the civic economy, found in the writings of Neapolitan Enlightenment philosopher Antonio Genovesi, the first person in Europe to hold a Chair in Economics, in 1754.
The civic economy. An economy founded on the notion that the market could contribute to the creation of a freer and more egalitarian world (indeed, Adam Smith saw Genovesi as his master and inspiration) and enhance the value of people – a “relational system built for reciprocity”, informed by both individual interest and social solidarity, with the market as its central space and the common good and civic virtues as its key referents.
This is the meaning of the quote chosen by Mattarella, further corroborated by mentions of other great intellectuals and economists from Italian history (such as Carlo Cattaneo and Luigi Einaudi), in the awareness that “the market, enterprises and economics are in themselves also spaces for friendship, reciprocity, gratuitousness, fraternity” and that therefore “economy is civic in nature and market means communal life, and both are ruled by the same basic law: mutual assistance.”
In his keynote speech, the president of Confindustria Carlo Bonomi defined enterprises as “democratic spaces in which values related to the greater good and social responsibility must concretely unfold, just as it happened during those really tough months of the pandemic” and advocated for an “inclusive” employment market actually enforcing the right to work, especially in terms of women and young people. These sentiments were echoed by the Italian President: “All this leads to the awareness that living spaces, as well as the people and citizens who inhabit them, play an essential role in our aim to attain social cohesion, freedom, rights and democracy in Italy.”
President Mattarella’s address to entrepreneurs was clearly informed by the Italian Constitution, utilitarian ethics and corporate social responsibility, as well as the basic bonds between freedom, economic development and social inclusion. And indeed, he also alluded to another Neapolitan Enlightenment philosopher, the abbot Ferdinando Galiani, admired by French Encyclopedists such as Diderot, Montesquieu and Voltaire: “Tyranny is a government in which only a few are happy at the expense and to the detriment of all the rest, who become unhappy.”
President Mattarella wove the term “happiness” into his speech to the entrepreneurs just as he did in another recent address he made on 25 August at the “Meeting per l’amicizia tra i popoli” (“Meeting for friendship among peoples”) in Rimini. Here it is: “Public debate often mentions the ‘right to happiness’, together with the rights to life and freedom, as in the American Declaration of Independence of 4 July 1776. It is interesting to notice the influence of Italian thinkers on that document. In fact, it was philosopher Gaetano Filangieri who, in an exchange with Benjamin Franklin, suggested replacing the expression “right to property” with “right to happiness”.
Mattarella reiterated that, “We do not have an equivalent definition in the Italian Constitution. Yet, there is little doubt that the Constitution comprises a number of rights, as well as demands of Italy to undertake beneficial actions leading to the achievement of the conditions that make life fulfilling; without presuming, of course, that happiness can be a permanent condition, as life will inevitably bring tribulations at times.”
Genovesi, Galiani, Filangieri – why are they the focus of so much attention? The Neapolitan Enlightenment era, in the middle of the 16th century, was one of the most fertile periods for economics and civic doctrines in Italian history and its impact is international. It harmonised with the thoughts of Milanese philosophers, associated with Il Caffè magazine published by brothers Pietro and Alessandro Verri, as well as with Cesare Beccaria’s teachings, which rejected the death penalty and revolved around the relationships between rights, duties, freedom and responsibility. It represented a peak in the ideology that bound political and social reformism to the needs of economic and social development, preaching governance through good laws and policies and the creation of a solid “social capital” to stimulate a more equitable and balanced progress.
Rereading those philosophers today and reintroducing their precepts into public debate means striving for higher quality both in terms of political efforts and of future values and cultures as shaped by the dedication of economic and social actors. The period between the 19th and 20th centuries saw a revival of the school of civic and economic thought that arose in the late Middle Ages and had its roots in Humanism (such as the 1309 constitution of Siena, praising beauty as a good governance tool, and the moral teachings of L’arte di mercatura (The art of trading) by Benedetto Cotrugli). It was brought about by Cavour and Cattaneo, as well as by the Church’s social doctrine and the socialist reformism of Turati and Treves, and found its way into corporate history, too, through the patronage and philanthropy of the Crespi family, Alessandro Rossi, the Marzotto family, the Zegna family, and the care that entrepreneurs Adriano Olivetti, Alberto and Leopoldo Pirelli showed toward social responsibility, just to mention some names.
These are also themes that resound throughout Pope Francis‘s speeches preaching a “just” and “circular” economy, and can be found in the vast body of economics writings that appeared once the era of global finance marked by a fierce laissez-faire and ‘greed is good’ attitude (the motto of the unscrupulous protagonist of Wall Street, directed by Oliver Stone) was over. Writings that reinterpreted liberalism in modern key and were distinguished by John Maynard Keynes‘s powerful liberal socialism (Federico Caffé was one of his most fertile exponents), as well as by the Code of Camaldoli, inspired by Catholic tenets (“Individuals are, by their own nature, social beings: that is, there exists, amongst individuals, a natural sense of solidarity, fellowship and complementarity through which the needs of single individuals can only be entirely fulfilled by society” – a quote that President Mattarella recast as, “Both the individual and the community are the foundations of a legislative system that should not be intrusive, but aimed at enhancing pluralism and freedom.”).
And here, indeed, we find the civic economy, reinterpreted and updated through the ethics of Stefano Zamagni and Luigino Bruni, as well as the decisions made by those Italian enterprises that have embraced sustainability, the green economy, culture and social solidarity not as empty marketing ruses but as genuine assets for growth and competitiveness.
Underlying it all is the spirit of the Italian Constitution as, to borrow the words of Confindustria president Bonomi, “it expresses the spirit of Italian businesses.” And, further, also because “the tenets of the Constitution were not written to instigate a plundering capitalism. Its principles are not aimed at amassing wealth, but at propagating it.
They are neither aimed at interventionism nor at protectionism, which, as history teaches, typically mark regressive paths leading to authoritarianism. And we should not be tempted to stoke fear for the future. Rather, we should be aware that “enterprises are means for growth, innovation, education, culture and integration, with widespread impact and engendering soft power. They are agents for freedom, too.” Indeed, “generating wealth is a significant social function. It is one of the main social responsibilities of enterprises. Though, of course, not to the detriment of other individual or collective wealth.” Let’s have one more quote, from the latest book by Martin Wolf: “Democracy and market share a principle of equality and both strive to implement it.”
Social function and responsibility when doing business – or, the civic economy.
(photo: Getty Images)