Realism and idealism in the Italian constitutional culture

This chapter explores what impact idealism and realism have on Italian constitutional law, both with regard to constitution-making and constitutional review. This is a new question, new at least to the extent that Italian constitutional lawyers do not frequently use these concepts. They do have normative ideas of what a good constitution should entail and a minimum of morals in constitutionalism, which implies a trend towards idealism. Furthermore, they have views on what is the effective state of the constitution, which is a claim for realism. Simplifying, we could say that idealists consider the human world as generated and driven by principles or values and faiths produced in human reasoning and conscience. Realists, on the other side, hold that there is an objective existence generated and conditioned by place, time and anthropological, social or economic necessity, quite independent from (or contrary to) subjective ideologies. When dealing with constitutional law and politics, lawyers and politicians are always working with both, the ideal and the real. The bridging happens when political and legal ideas get ‘realized’ in positive law and justice and when political and legal facts get ‘idealized’ in good order(s) and values, customs and conventions. If idealism and realism are potentially competing and conflicting, their relationship might differ from time to time and from country to country, and even from one constitution to a subsequent one. Universal ideals coexist with particular realities, ideal symmetries in rights with real asymmetries in powers. If the written constitution is a good and ‘living’ one, both are optimized; if it is by no means realized or if it just idealizes a reality of a power without common ideals, there is a lack of constitutionalism. The international dialogue helps us understand whether the idealism/realism divide matters for the still-existing national differences in constitutionalism and constitutional cultures. This chapter can of course offer only some insight into the circulation of constitutional ideas and in the particular constitutional identity of Italy. There have been more realist and more idealist moments in the Italian path to constitutionalism and, therefore, a country study has to be very much aware of history and narrative. In order to focus the Italian case, we need first to remember the long traditions of idealism and realism in national history and to measure their impact on political and legal philosophy.