GIORGIO CAMPANINI

Il popolarismo come dottrina politica

N. 150

Summary — In a collection of works published in 1923, Riforma statale e indirizzi politici, Luigi Sturzo defined "popularism" as a political doctrine. And actually popularism is also (though not only) a comprehensive vision of State and of society and therefore it represents an important moment of the elaboration of the political thought of the Catholics of the twentieth century

The foundations of this "doctrine" can be referred to two fundamental categories, those of laicism and of pluralism.

As regards laicism, it expresses itself not only as vindication of the autonomy of Catholics active in politics, but also as a distinction between the sphere of religion and the one of politics. The historical controversy between State and Church can be settled, in Sturzo’s opinion, only with the acceptance, from both sides. of the substantial laicism of politics. But for the Sicilian thinker, laicism does not mean that ethics has abandoned politics of which, on the contrary, is reaffirmed the profound moral nature.

Concerning pluralism, even though holding until the end of his life to a rooted distrust in respect of this term (which he attributed mainly to the socialist tradition, from Laski to Gurvitch) Sturzo accepts its substance and indeed develops his thought as a sort of an articulated re-reading of pluralism through the categories, typically Sturzian, of "diarchy" and of "dualism", within a general vision of State based on the recognition and on the promotion of autonomies.

Laicism and pluralism offer then the interpretative coordinates for the comprehension of the general significance of popularism as a political doctrine and not only as a social and political movement.