Meekness as a political virtue

The virtue of mildness, which is the subject of this essay, takes several somewhat different forms, although these are linked by a clear "family resemblance". They are similar in the sense that they constitute a specific form of what is generally understood as kindness and understanding. The first of these forms is mildness as a strictly political or public virtue (clementia in Seneca’s classical treatise with that title), which can refer to punishments imposed by a judge, a criminal legal system in its entirety (here it is not so much a virtues as a feature of that system), and to a manner of exercising authority in a political system of "domination" (in which there is, thus, a lack of individual, or more precisely, republican freedom). The second form is mildness as a private virtue, which is thoroughly examined by Norberto Bobbio in his essay "Elogio della mitezza" (In Praise of Meekness), in which he argues that there is no place for it in political life. While agreeing with Bobbio that the primary field of "operation" of this second form of mildness is the private sphere, one can justifiably maintain that it may become a desirable feature in a politician, if only the understanding of politics is given a somewhat more elevated meaning. In this article the conceptual relations between the two forms of mildness are also analyzed.