The Political “Lesson” of Gianfranco Miglio

Abstract

The scientific work of Gianfranco Miglio must be placed in the cleavage of ''political realism'', and it must be seen together with the attempt to study political phenomena applying the same methodology of natural science (this is the meaning of the Miglian ''positivism''). What kind of role did he therefore appointed to political thought? To Miglio, the political class – in the way in which Mosca conceived it – needed ideologies to concretely exercise power: in particular, the class of ''helpers'' had the duty to release technical assignments but also to think forms of legitimation of the authority. Persuaded that the end of Cold War meant also the end of an era, started four centuries before with the birth of modern State, Miglio devoted the last years of his life to think new political models, and with them new forms of legitimation of power. Beyond the specific contents of his constitutional proposals and rather than fulfilling a political role strictu sensu, the ''militant'' commitment of Miglio answered to his theoretical need to think post-State political thought and institutions, once perceived the first signs of the «autumn» of the modern State.