The Common Good at the End of Modernity

Enrico Berti and the New Political Society

Abstract

In a 1997 article, Enrico Berti proposed a new conception of political society that would emerge because of the crisis of national states. According to Berti, the new political society should reach supranational dimensions and should be a federation governed by the principle of subsidiarity.
This essay analyses Berti’s predictive and normative theses, suggesting – for some problems of his proposal – solutions inspired by Aristotle’s concept of of politeia, which Berti analysed in other works. The argument contends that a political society flourishes to the extent that it is representative and it aims at the common good, i.e., the fulfilment of all and each ; in order to achieve that, a political society must be articulated down to its foundations, individuals united in natural social relationships.