Il liberalismo di Sartori tra Croce ed Einaudi

The conceptualisation of liberalism represents a crucial element in Giovanni Sartori’s works. In his interpretation, liberalism is understood as both a theory and practice of power control and the protection of individual liberty, primari-ly conceived as negative liberty, and safeguarded through the constitutional state. This conception stands in opposition to Croce’s notion of Liberty, de-fined as an ethical-metaphysical principle and a ‘creative force of history’, which, according to Sartori, detaches liberty from specific political-institutional mechanisms, thereby dissolving liberalism itself. In parallel, Sar-tori addresses the relationship between liberalism and economic liberalism, a central issue in the long-standing debate between Croce and Luigi Einaudi. While Croce denied any intrinsic link between liberalism and the economic sphere, considering it empirical and contingent, Einaudi emphasised the inter-dependence of economic and political liberty, arguing that liberalism cannot survive without a diversified and decentralised economy. Sartori avoids incor-porating the economic dimension into his theory of liberalism, insisting on the autonomy of the political sphere from the economic one.