Lezioni di storia. I volti del potere

Power has a dual effect. It has united or divided human beings; it has married justice or showed itself in its brutal form. Power has gone through history in the most diverse forms, materializing in a small number of people, who today represent eternal symbols. In the past as well today, the power does not personify itself just in the actions of some astute liars, crowd pleasers or cruel dictators: numerous are its faces and the instruments to exercise it. Six big historians will tell us what happened over the centuries.

ALBERTO MARIO BANTI
NAPOLEONE, IL POTERE DELLE IDEE

It is with Napoleon that the first “democratic” dictatorship – formally ratified by a popular plebiscite – appeared. He is the one who for the first time declared himself “Emperor”. Napoleon, by giving power to his relatives seems re-confirming the hereditary value of blood…  All this made by the same man who for years – before each war – had been motivating his soldiers by exerting leverage on the universal power of the egalitarian ideas of the Revolution.