BRUNO LEONI: UN IRREGOLARE DEL LIBERALISMO ITALIANO

Bruno Leoni was one of the most original thinkers of Italian Liberalism and a protagonist of the international debate that set the stage for the rebirth of Classical Liberalism. In Scambio dei poteri e stato delle pretese Raimondo Cubeddu deals with various themes: the criticism of kelsenian normativism and the reduction of the law to legislation; Leoni’s link with the Austrian School and his innovative approach to social science; the criticism of democracy and political representation. This reconstruction shows how Leoni’s reflections about political power and the state can be interpreted as a transition point between Classical Liberalism and Anarco-Libertarianism. While convinced of the impossibility of avoiding collective choices, Leoni has in fact laid the foundations for thinking politics beyond the state. Even though the pars destruens of Leoni’s thought does not match an equally effective pars construens, Cubeddu argues that investigating the possibility of a non-coercive political order remains an unavoidable task for political philosophers.