ABSTRACT: For Ernesto Rossi, the "blarney" of the title is the "ideological discussions" held within and among the parties.

"In a democratic state a modern party is a group of men who want the same things in more or less the same way", according to Guido Calogero's (2) definition which Rossi adheres to.

"The general principles of the new Radical Party", Rossi writes, "are sufficiently clear from the first manifesto launched by the group promoting it". Only a few objectives on which the meagre resources of men and means will be focused. For his part, Rossi would give priority to those problems which best characterise the party in the present situation, including the international situation: foreign policy (the Atlantic Pact after the end of the E.D.C. [European Defence Community, ed.], the "re-launching of Europe", Somalia, etc.); Church-State relations; citizen-State relations; the efficiency of the public administration; the problems of the technical and cultural education of youth; the fight against monopolies; dismantling corporative privileges; social assistance for the poorest; etc. This list of problems does not pretend to be exhaustive but only to give an idea of the difficulties of choosing a programme that the new party will have to make.

(IL MONDO, February 7, 1956)

" »Little by little as the preliminary questions of living together in a democratic society, in the life of the political parties the importance of traditions and ideal values diminishes, and that of a concrete programme increases, Ignazio Silone (3) wrote. In a democratic state a modern party is a group of men who want the same things in more or less the same way". Thus Guido Calogero in »Il Mondo two weeks ago returned to the question, expressing the wish that the Radical Party might become a truly modern party in this sense.

I am in complete agreement with these two friends.

In politics what counts is to know what men want and if they really want what they think they want. It hardly matters if one knows why they want it. Starting off from the same ideological affirmations and basing their thinking on the same sacred texts (Rousseau, Mazzini, Marx, Leo XIII, Lenin, Croce), individuals with differing "formae mentis" and differing life experiences can and often do, in perfectly good faith, end up supporting opposite practical solutions.

Rather than clarifying ideas, ideological discussions are only a lot of blarney. As long as the rank and file remain enchanted by the beautiful words about freedom, democracy solidarity and the sunny future, party leaders do not have to make any precise commitments on thorny problems in which the defence of the collective interests threaten to shut off the most generous sources of financing and lose the support of those parasite groups that are the easiest to organise for the elections. Only by avoiding to make commitments of this sort can party leaders maintain their greatest freedom of maneuvering for power and then of sating and doing the things that for their part they consider the most advantageous in order to keep the post of minister or under-secretary.

When they do not serve to distract from concrete problems, ideological discussions within the party serve to sublimate with abstract words the personal conflicts and the desire of getting the upper hand by different groups and different clienteles for quite crude practical purposes. Instead of saying "Tom made me look bad and he is therefore a scoundrel", or "Dick is a rat because he robbed me of my constituency", one demonstrates that "Tom does not know the Gospel according to St. Matthew" or "Harry is a petit bourgeois deviationist".

On the other hand, experience teaches us that political discussions on first principles generally do not help get anyone to first base. When they are held among reasonable people, such discussions may easily lead to the recognition that particular means are or are not suitable to certain ends we have in mind, but they cannot persuade anyone that these ends are good or bad. In "The Significance Of The Economic Science", Lionel Robbins acutely observes: "If you put around a table a commission composed of Mr. Hawtry as the Secretary, Bentham, Buddha, Lenin and the head of the U.S. Steel Corporation to decide on the morality or immorality of a loan made for interest, it is very unlikely that they will come to any agreement. But if you gave the same commission the task of objectively establishing what consequences can be expected from having the government regulate interest rates, it ought not to be beyond human possibility to reach a unanimous, or at least a majority, decision with perhaps Lenin abstaining

".

The general principles of the Radical Party are sufficiently clear from the first manifesto launched by the group promoting it. If we do not want to be a doormat for incompetent politicians or waste our time placating the whims and resentments of "prima donnas", we must avoid ideological discussions as much as possible and try to formulate concrete programmes with the greatest possible clarity.

To achieve something good we must not bite off more than we can chew. It is advisable for us to concentrate our weak forces (in both men and means) on a very few problems, seriously study the solutions we wish to give to these problems and then shape the agreements, the alliances, and the campaigns in such a way as to bring about our solutions.

To choose a few points for a party programme is certainly no easy thing. All the problems of public life are interrelated and any general problem can be articulated into an infinite number of specific problems whose importance differs according to the angle from which we see them. Therefore it seems to me that the first thing to do is reach an agreement about the criteria on which to base a scale of preferences.

For my part, I would give priority to those problems that best characterise the Radical Party in comparison to the other parties, and which - in the present international situation, given the balance of the political forces involved - can best be confronted with the greatest possibility of success within the next four or five years:

- problems of foreign policy which can be said to influence the solution of all the biggest domestic problems. (Italy's position in the Atlantic Pact after the abandoning of the idea of a European federal union; the attitude to take with regard to the "European re launching"; Italy's withdrawal from Somalia and the policy of running our national household against all the proposals for increasing financial outlays for prestige that benefit the ambassadors and the generals, etc.);

- problems regarding the Church-State relationship. (Defence of the state against all forms of religious interference; effective equality of all citizens before the law; abolition of the system of putting all schools on a par with state schools for the granting of licenses, diplomas and degrees; a completely lay education on all levels of the public schools; freedom of propaganda for birth control; divorce regulated according to the norms in effect in the most civilised countries, etc.);

- problems of the relationship between citizen and State. (Abolition of all the institutions and regulations we have inherited from the Fascist police state);

- problems of the efficiency of the public administration on which depends the possibility of truly realising any policy one may want to propose to the democratic state. (Examinations and competitions for being admitted to a government job; the elimination of superfluous bodies and excessive employees; the abolition of "contingent rights", of bonuses unauthorised by law and the other special retributions given to civil servants without their having done extra work; elimination of the "controlled supervisors", of earmarked taxes (4) of management expenditures not included in the budget; the reduction to the minimum of the bureaucracy's discretional powers; rearranging the controls on public expenditures; reorganising the industrial holdings of the state under a single management, etc.);

- problems of the cultural and technical education of youth. (A serious fight against illiteracy, beginning with the construction of the elementary schools that are lacking; teaching reforms according to the ideas of Guido Calogero; admission to the high schools only on the basis of competitions and with the availability of generous scholarships to allow the most deserving to complete their studies independently of their families' economic conditions, etc.);

- problems of the fight against monopolies and the concentration of economic power in only the hands of a few. (Complete liberalisation of international exchange, in the dollar area as well; action by the municipalities against speculation on building sites; the nationalisation of electricity and the other public utilities; the banning of holding companies; the obligation for companies quoted on the stock market to publish a global budget on standard forms, etc.);

- problems of dismantling the privileges arising from corporative structures. (Abolition of licenses for the opening of new shops; elimination of; elimination of the cuts received by private groups at the points of obligatory passage, when merchandise is unloaded in the ports, when animals pass through the slaughter houses, when products are brought to the central markets; abolition of stock-piling, of obligatory trademarks of registers for "normal operators", of minimum prices for export; reform of the Federconsorzi (5) so as to relieve them of all public functions; abolition of the Hemp Consortium, of the Rice Agency, of the Cellulose and Paper Agency, of the Silk Agency, of the Sulphurs Agency, of the Cotton Institute, of the Banana Monopoly, etc.);

- problems of assistance to members of the lowest social classes who, not being susceptible to organisation on the political or union level, are today almost completely deprived of all economic and juridical protection. (The creation of conditions to eliminate mass unemployment; the limiting of social security to insurance against infirmity, old age, and accidents at work; gradual extension of free public services, beginning with hospitalisation, to all those who request them; penitentiary reforms to provide work for all convicts; abrogation of the Law of April 9, 1931, no. 358 for regulating internal migrations and of the Law of July 6, 1939, no. 1092 against urbanisation, etc.).

With this long list I do not pretend to have exhausted the problems that should be given consideration as possible points to be included in the Radical Party programme. My intention has only been to give an idea of the difficulty of this preliminary job so that no one may think it is to be taken lightly.

If we want to create a truly modern party, the time we dedicate to this task will not be wasted, because the political activity of the party will have to be a result of the programme. Not vice versa.

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TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

1) Rossi, Ernesto - (Caserta 1897 - Rome 1967) - Italian statesman and journalist. Leader of »Giustizia e Libertà [an anti-Fascist movement, ed.] arrested in 1930 and jailed or kept in confinement by the Fascists until the end of the war. Co-author with A. Spinelli of the »Ventotene Manifesto and a leader of European Federalist Movement and the fight for a united Europe. One of the founders of the Radical Party. As an essayist and journalist he promoted lively campaigns from the pages of »Il Mondo [a lay-oriented weekly review, ed.] against clerical interference in politics, against economic potentates, against industrial and agrarian protectionism, the concentration of private and public power, etc. His articles were collected into famous books (among them »I padroni del vapore etc.) After the dissolution of the Radical Party in 1962 and the consequent rupture with the owner of »Il Mondo , M. Pannunzio, he founded the review »L'Astrolabio from which he continued his polemics. During his last years he

made up with and enrolled in the "new" Radical Party, collaborating with it in launching the "Anti-Clerical Year" in 1967.

2) Calogero, Guido - (Rome 1904 - 1986) - Italian philosopher. He developed a moral philosophy characterised by a strong civic commitment based on the principle of "dialogue". Among his major works: »Lezioni di filosofia (1946-47), »Logo e dialogo (1950) and many articles published in the weekly review »Il Mondo . He was among the founders of the Radical Party.

3) Silone, Ignazio. Pseudonym of Tranquilli, Secondo - (Pescina dei Marsi 1900 - Geneva 1978) - Writer and one of the founders of the Communist Party which he quit in 1930. Among his most important works: »Fontamara , »Pane e vino (Bread and Wine), and »L'avventura di un povero cristiano (The Adventure of a Poor Christian).

4) Earmarked taxes, a translation of the Italian "imposte di scopo" which refers to tax funds which are not merged with other income into a general budget fund, but which must be set aside and used only for special pre-determined purposes.

5) Federconsorzi - A syndicate of agricultural producers.