Equality enriches democracy. A chat with Ernesto Maria Ruffini

“Equality is the yardstick by which to evaluate a democracy,” he tells us Ernesto Maria Ruffini speaking of his “Equal by Constitution” (Feltrinelli) and immediately some liberal defensive reflections ignite, at least to ask to define the concept of equality in more depth. But there is no need to act as liberal sentinels, just look at the text and we immediately find the words with which to frame, delimit and at the same time strengthen the scope of equality as a tool and as a constitutional aim. The definition that puts everything in order, even in the eyes of those who consider the affirmation of freedom and liberties as equally important, can be found right at the beginning of the text. “Equality – writes Ruffini – is everyone’s right to be different from everyone else and not to be discriminated against for their diversity”. They are the first lines of the introduction and open up to a particularly fruitful analysis of the political and social application of equality and serve to reinforce article 3 of the Constitution placed outside the text, first of all, as a header of this essay , followed byintroduction signed by Sergio Mattarella.

Ruffini has carried with him from the years of his first studies the passion for the Constitution and for the historical and political process with which it took shape. “There was then an extraordinary ruling class, characterized by a careful use of words and capable of implementing the principle of equality even in the course of the constituent debate, through mutual respect and reciprocal recognition of each one’s function and role, because each one was bearer of a position and we also confronted each other in a heated way, but never with the intention of making one position prevail over another in a brutal way and always with the aim of reaching a point of equilibrium, a common understanding, and this way of working marked the extraordinary nature of that season”.

However, the debate also took place before the eyes of the world, if only because Italy, no longer fascist, thanks to the resistance, had the opportunity to freely write its own republican constitution. Free yes, but also special observers. “There was a desire to leave behind a terrible page of our history and therefore to assert itself in a new way on the international scene and also to trust citizens, one thing that fascinates about that period is that Italian voters went to to vote on June 2, 1946 as a people of subjects only to find themselves, a few hours later, as a people of citizens. We now perhaps no longer realize, because fortunately we take it for granted, how much the difference between being a subject and a citizen can condition everyone’s life and the way in which personal decisions are made. All this was brought about by a group of people who had lived their lives as subjects, inhabitants of a kingdom and under a dictatorship, or as exiles and who in an admirable way managed to maintain, during the darkest years, the ability to form as the ruling class of a free and democratic country. One thing that moved me is the awareness, in many of them, that they are writing rules for a country in which they would have lived only a very short part of their lives and this is the height of generosity”.

All very well, true, but it is also true that equality, even in the wonderful spirit of the constituents, was a different thing for a communist, a Christian Democrat, a liberal, and in the end, in the text of the Constitution, a truly capable synthesis emerges to improve all starting points. “That miracle – Ruffini tells us – was also born as a response to the experience of the previous 20 years. The principle of equality shines through in many points, not only in the articles that expressly mention it. For example, in the recognition that each of us can and must contribute to the material and spiritual progress of society, therefore equality is the appreciation of differences, because wealth and therefore progress arise precisely from differences, with the awareness that, in social interaction, the result of the combination of the various personal contributions is greater than a simple sum”.
In the text we find a continuous updating of this way of operating of the equality algorithm, to use a fashionable expression, through the various legislative interventions with which, based on constitutional principles, the field of rights has been extended and has been enriched democratic participation in public activity. “Yes, because the recognition that each of us in his individuality can give leads to results that none of us, at the beginning of the game, could have imagined. That is why the recognition and protection of diversity in our Constitution and in any healthy democracy are so important.”

And over the years in Italy laws have come from the Constitution that have guaranteed rights for citizens and their associations and greater functioning of the institutions, or at least, there has been an attempt to do so and certainly the way in which equality is defined it has created the political conscience with which rules are also asked for the parties. “It is still extraordinary that men and women who had not lived the life of parties and the clear articulation of public opinion into parties were able to recognize the need for it for the life of a country, with that perfect definition in which establishes the democratic method as a rule of functioning of all the articulations of politics biased and this is a strong point in favor of equality of positions within the parties, with the protection of minorities”.

Ruffini tells how from 1 January 1948, with the entry into force of the Constitution, the principle of equality begins to erode the foundations of a law inherited from previous seasons and how the formulation of the constituents is capable of withstanding the passage of time, continuing to produce changes and to overwhelm legislative systems. A clear case is the development of family law. “The attribution of the equal role between spouses dates back to 1975, almost thirty years after the entry into force of the Constitution, and always with that reform the first definition of equal rights also among children is given. But we need to get to 2012 for there to be full equalization of all children and the elimination of the terms natural child and legitimate child. And in the book I also mention the news, these very recent ones, on the transmission of surnames. But it took a declaration of unconstitutionality, for example, to overcome the rule that prevented women from participating in certain public competitions. Things that have also happened thanks to individuals who, outside Parliament and organized political life, have made their own battles for equality. As with the end of the shotgun wedding, it was the strength of the principle of equality in the Constitution that gave support to Franca Viola’s determination, with her extraordinary testimony of courage and ability to exert influence on the political debate, almost guiding the institutions towards the repeal of that horrendous law. And the same can be said for the great transformation of Italian psychiatry brought about by Franco Basaglia. But even in his case, while the principle of equality did his job, it took people’s commitment to implement it. And it is significant of the effort required that the last Italian psychiatric hospital to be closed and transformed was that of Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto in 2015”.

In short, in the historical development of Italy, has the drive towards equality of the desire for freedom had more weight, to be a bit crude in the definitions? “We could say that freedom has been the engine, but the principle of equality has been the ground on which to measure and implement progress in the field of rights. But the advantage of equality is in its legal operation. The case of the choice made in the treatment of religious confessions is very indicative for understanding how freedom and equality work, so to speak, together. It has not been said that they are equal, but that they are equally free. In the secular context it means that we must be aware of the responsibility that each of us has in protecting our individuality and in bringing our own difference to the progress of society, and this is the best way to honor equality. Opinions are all free and, moreover, they must be, and the list of what is not admitted as an exercise of the right of opinion, such as the apology of fascism, denial, the ‘anti-Semitism, racism’.

Where do you see room for further progress of this collaboration between freedom and equality? “Certainly in family law, also on the impetus of the new generations. And, to touch on an aspect on which there is perhaps less immediate consensus, also in the internal life of the parties, because the constituent legislator tried to maintain a necessary distance, writing in the aftermath of a period in which the parties, indeed the party, he had been remote-controlled by the dictatorship. However, the importance of guaranteeing democratic life within a party so that citizens are offered the awareness of being able to reach the institutions and contribute to the democratic debate through the parties. There should be more study and more discussion to understand how to make the diaphragm work better between citizens and institutions”. Ruffini also read the theme of free enterprise in the light of the principle of equality, the essay gives an account of the development of information and publishing in Italy also on the basis of the well-known sentences and laws on radio and TV, because the the objective to be protected was the guarantee of plurality of information and there, in that wealth of voices, lay the application of equality, with the possibility of not imposing a dominant position to allow citizens to be informed”.

The part on taxation is obviously very interesting, with an in-depth account of reforms, it must be said, all half-failed or only partially implemented and with little adherence to the original intent. But progress has undeniably been there. “Equality in the relationship with the tax authorities is above all – Ruffini tells us – in the recognition of everyone’s duty to contribute to the common home. But I deal with equality, in the chapter on taxation, also from another point of view, i.e. in the duty of the legislator to be clear, because the legislative confusion and the normative stratification, the labyrinth of laws, in addition to creating confusion and favoring, in fact, evasion, are also an expression of something opposite to equality, because a complex system allows only those who have the possibility to be assisted in translating a language and mechanisms for initiates, thus creating inequalities. While the taxman is at the basis of the democratic pact. We need more information and easier access to data, because when I give up part of my income I need to know why I’m doing it”.

The stories of migrants show that the principle of equality still has many areas of application. “I fully understand the work that politics must do on this issue, also because it took us years just to realize, as an Italian society, the existence of the migratory phenomenon. But there is an episode from the 1980s that can illustrate how the principle of equality operates, once again thanks to the commitment of a courageous person who becomes the ruling class. This is the tragic case of Jerry Masslo, who fled from South African apartheid and sought asylum in Italy. But, with the norms of the time, his condition was not recognized as sufficient for acceptance. And it was his long legal battle, always with equality as a constitutional basis, that led to a review of the rules on immigration ”.