Farsi giustizia da sé: strategie di sopravvivenza e crisi della legalità

Abstract

When achievement of his rights as an individual is neither guaranteed nor possible, the citizen is obliged to adopt measures of self-protection. These assume a non-formai character and can turn into “translegal”, “alegal” or “illegal” behaviour (i.e. behaviour that lies beyond the Law, cleverly avoids the spirit of the Law or simply contravenes the Law). In Italy this need for self-protection is particularly high for three reasons: first, the historical development of our civil and institutional structures; secondly, the perverse occupation of our political and administrative apparatus; thirdly, the perverse character of our law-making. Even the institutions themselves often resort to non-formal means to accomplish their tasks.The typology of this non-formal behaviour, gathered from specialist literature and the analysis of television and press reports, is extensive and diverse. We find non-formal self-protective behaviour in areas that are significant for the poor quality of their civil and social life, such as public safety, work and health. But hardly any area of civil life is free from this phenomenon, so we can point to a huge network of non-formal behaviour that ensures this non-formal achievement of individual rights on a vaste scale. The frequency and the extent of this phenomenon is creating a dangerous trend. Moreover in this non-formal syndrome genuine individual rights that have been forced to adopt legal or illegal means become confused with illicit behaviour that has become so generalized as to be commonplace and habitual. The declining value of legality risks undermining the credentials of democracy and exploding all the contradictions in the relationship between democracy and citizenship in a society that is extremely fragmented and conflictual. The enormous institutional and social crises that ave struck our country are the most visible symptons of this process and, af the sane time, the strongest demonstration that our society needs to come back to the language of “Law” and “Political Ethic”.