TRA CLASSICAL LIBERALISM E LIBERTARIANISM: RIFLESSIONI SUL LIBERALISMO ʻRADICALEʼ DI BRUNO LEONI

Bruno Leoni was among the most original thinkers of post-war Italian liberalism. At the core of his work lies the paradigm of exchange, which he extends from economics to law and politics. For Leoni, what is decisive in these domains is not coercion but cooperation: individuals exchange goods in economics, claims in law, and powers in politics. From this perspective, he develops a radical critique of legislation and representative democracy, while laying the groundwork for conceiving politics beyond the State. This article focuses on three main directions of his reflection: the critique of legislation, the critique of the State, and the critique of representative democracy. My argument is that, despite the depth of these analyses and his emphasis on the ʻexternalʼ costs of collective decisions, it remains challenging to envision what practicable alternatives to the State and representative democracy might be.