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Bobbio was born inTurin on 18 October 1909 to Luigi and Rosa Caviglia. The middle-class status of his family (his father was a doctor) allowed Bobbio to have a comfortable childhood. He wrote verses and loved Bach and Verdi's operaLa traviata. Later, he would develop an unknown illness that caused tiredness and malaise.[2] The feeling worsened with age but became an important part of his intellectual growth.
In 1942, under the Fascist regime ofBenito Mussolini and duringWorld War II, Bobbio joined thePartito d'Azione ("Party of Action"), illegal at the time, and was imprisoned in 1943 and 1944. He was a candidate in the 1946Constituent Assembly of Italy elections, but failed to win a seat. With the party's failure in a post-war Italy dominated by theChristian Democrats, Bobbio left electoral politics and returned his focus to academia.[4]
He was one of the major exponents ofleft-right political distinctions, arguing that the Left believes in attempting to eradicatesocial inequality, while the Right regards most social inequality as the result of ineradicable natural inequalities, and sees attempts to enforce social equality as utopian or authoritarian.[5]
A strong advocate of therule of law, theseparation of powers, and the limitation of powers, he was a socialist, but opposed to what he perceived as the anti-democratic, authoritarian elements in most ofMarxism. He was a strong partisan of theHistoric Compromise between theItalian Communist Party and the Christian Democrats, and a fierce critic ofSilvio Berlusconi. Bobbio died in Turin, the same city in which he was born and lived most of his life.
Bobbio studied philosophy of law withGioele Solari [it]; he later taught this subject inCamerino,Siena,Padua, and ultimately back inTurin as Solari's successor in 1948; from 1972 to 1984, he was a professor of political science in Turin.[6]
He was a National Associate of theLincean Academy and longtime co-director of theRivista di Filosofia. He became a Corresponding Associate of theBritish Academy in 1966; in 1984, he was nominated asSenator-for-life by Italian PresidentSandro Pertini.[7]
To celebrate the centenary of Norberto Bobbio's birth, a committee was established, constituted by more than a hundred Italian and international public institutions and intellectual figures, which formulated a wide-ranging programme of activities to promote dialogue and reflection on the thought and figure of Bobbio, and on the future of democracy, culture and civilisation.[12] Celebrations were officially opened on 10 January 2009 at theUniversity of Turin.
According to Richard Bellamy, Bobbio was a public intellectual and throughout his life worked on several causes, including the defence of social democracy and supporting nuclear disarmament.[13]
Bobbio's first book wasThe Phenomenological Turn in Social and Legal Philosophy (1934). It was followed byThe Use of Analogy in Legal Logic (1938) andThe Philosophy of Decadence (1944).
Next, Bobbio sought to elaborate a general theory of law, a project that was influenced byHans Kelsen's work. This research led to the publication ofA Theory of Judicial Norms (1958) andA Theory of the Legal Order (1960).
Coinciding with his new position as chair in Politics at Turin in 1972, Bobbio turned his attention from a pure theory of law to more political issues. He wrote on Hobbes, Mosca, and Pareto.[14]
Publications from this period that address the rule of law, rights, and democracy include:Which Socialism? (1976);The Future of Democracy: A Defense of the Rules of the Game (1984);State, Government and Society (1985);The Age of Rights (1990).
Liberalism and Democracy (1985) explores the relationship between liberalism and democracy, highlighting tensions and complementarities. Other works includeThe Problem of War and the Roads to Peace (1979);The Absent Third (1989); andA Just War? (1991).[15]
Bobbio defended the view that "the only way a meaningful discussion of democracy, as distinct from all forms of autocratic government, ... is to consider it as characterized by a set of rules (primary or basic) which establishwho is authorised to take collective decisions and whichprocedures are to be applied. Every social group needs to take decisions binding on all members of the group so as to ensure its own survival."[16]
^«la sensazione della fatica di vivere, di una permanente e invincibile stanchezza» Bobbio continued: «[Fui] esonerato, per mia vergogna, dalle ore di ginnastica per una malattia infantile restata, almeno per me, misteriosa». (Norberto Bobbio, De senectute, Einaudi, Torino 1996, pp. 27, 31 e passim)
^Bellamy, Richard, "Norberto Bobbio," in James Wright (ed.),International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2015. p. 714.
^Bellamy, Richard, "Norberto Bobbio," in James Wright (ed.),International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2015. p. 714.
^Bellamy, Richard, "Norberto Bobbio," in James Wright (ed.),International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2015. p. 714.
^Bellamy, Richard, "Norberto Bobbio," in James Wright (ed.),International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2015. p. 714.
^Bellamy, Richard, "Norberto Bobbio," in James Wright (ed.),International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2015. p. 714.
^Bellamy, Richard, "Norberto Bobbio," in James Wright (ed.),International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2015. p. 715.
^Bellamy, Richard, "Norberto Bobbio," in James Wright (ed.),International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2015. p. 715-16.
^Norberto Bobbio,The Future of Democracy: A Defense of the Rules of the Game. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1987, p. 24.
Anderson, Perry, "The Affinities of Norberto Bobbio," New Left Review 170 (July–August 1988): 3–36.
Bellamy, Richard, "The legacy of Norberto Bobbio: Assessments and Recollections," Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 7(3) (2004): 67–83
Bellamy, Richard, "Norberto Bobbio," in James Wright (ed.), International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2nd ed., Elsevier, 2015. Available at SSRN:https://ssrn.com/abstract=2371294
Chataway, Teresa, "Norberto Bobbio (1909–2004) and Law: A Centennial Tribute," Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 55 (2011): 173–202.[1]
Leone, Giuseppe, "Destra e Sinistra, una distinzione che non c'è più? – Un saggio appassionato per dire se l'uomo conti ancora", su "Ricorditi di me..." in Lecco 2000, Lecco 1999
Tosel, André (October–December 1994). "La philosophie politique de Norberto Bobbio ou un social-libéralisme tragique".Les Études philosophiques.4 (4):555–568.JSTOR20848889.
Pasquino, Gianfranco, Bobbio y Sartori. Comprender y cambiar la política. Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 2022.
Yturbe, Corina. “On Norberto Bobbio’s Theory of Democracy.” Political Theory 25(3): 1997: 377–400.[2]
