El poder y la política no son lo mismo

We live in a historical juncture that is asking us to rethink the relationships between politics and power. Political life is one more possibility of shared life and it takes place in certain conditions. That is why there has been and there may be societies without politics, where what is acting are relationships of force, deceit, systematic instrumentalisation, demagogy, etc. In Italy, and not only in Italy, we are going in this direction. It is possible to oppose this downward slope, as long as we realise that is is not, essentially, a question of democracy: to limit ourselves to the defence of democracy is a mistake that is making not a few people of good will waste their time. The matter is more serious, since it affects the life of politics. Amongst the things that threaten the quality of political life, I place the growing confusion between politics and power.