Galvao de Sousa e la rappresentanza politica

Abstract

This essay proposes an interpretative framework for the book La rappresentanza politica, which was written in 1971 by José Pedro Galvão de Sousa and has recently been published in Italian with an introduction by Giovanni Turco. Its Author, by holding on the classical doctrine of Natural Law as a theoretical frame, aims to clarify some key political issues in Galvão de Sousa’s thought (human being as individual, society as political community, Rule of Law as Natural Order). In the book, representation is firstly defined in a broad sense, and then its political meaning is analysed in three categories: representation “of power”, “in front of power” and “in power”; it is also remarkably focused on the historical evolution of political mandate – from “imperative” to “free” – because of to the rise of Modern Thought. The Author underlines the fallacies of the ideological approach derived from Gnosticism, which corrupted the idea of Power as founded on – and limited by – the Natural Order. This, nevertheless, made possible the replacement of an organic community by the State and the led to the expectable decline into tyranny of the whole political system.