Maurizio viroli republicanism in the constitution

The noble purpose of Mr. Viroli's brief text is to revitalize the idea of classical republicanism, in particular to "strengthen the civic consciousness of my country's [Italy's] political leaders and citizens." But the sad reality is that it's hard to imagine much of anyone outside of American conservatism taking him seriously.

That he is making an essentially conservative argument is obvious when he states the case for republicanism as follows:

Unlike a natural science, political science proceeds not by inventing new theories to replace old ones but by rediscovering and refining forgotten ideas and themes; and sometimes the work of rediscovery helps actual political practice.

It is with this in mind that I am proposing this consideration of republicanism, written from an Italian perspective for English-speaking readers.

Republicanism in its classical version, which I ident