When did you discover that there is something badly wrong with democracy?
At the meeting, I found myself sitting in the audience in a debate about nuclear energy. The year before, Silvio Berlusconi’s party, “the people of freedom,” had won the national elections. Almost immediately afterward, the new government had announced that Italy was going to return to nuclear energy after a moratorium that had started in 1987, and that four new nuclear plants would be built. So, the debate was supposed to be about that.
The experts on the panel were divided between those who were enthusiastically favorable to nuclear energy and those who were mildly favorable. The audience listened in silence, somewhat awed. Then, there came the time for questions and answers. Someone rose up and expressed the opinion that the government should have promoted a national debate before taking a decision on nuclear energy.
The answer came from a functionary of the newly elected government and it provided for me a new understanding of the concept of “glee.” Wearing an elegant double-breasted suit, this man addressed the person in the audience more or less as a Medieval lord would address one of the peasants of his feud.
“My good man,” the functionary said, “there will be no national debate on nuclear energy. We have been elected by the people on a program that said that we would have Italy return to nuclear energy and that gives us the authority to do just that. So, we decided to start building the new plants and that’s what we will do.
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