The distant mirror: what Rome sees in Washington

When foreign commentators invoke ancient Rome to explain contemporary American politics, they are not merely reaching for metaphor. They are asking whether republics can fail in the same way twice—whether the patterns that weakened classical institutions might repeat in modern ones. For Italy, this question is not academic. The Italian state emerged from fascism and civil war into a republic designed to prevent the concentration of power. Seventy years of coalition governments, constitutional courts, and divided sovereignty reflect a deep historical anxiety about what happens when rulers choose extraction over stewardship.

The Italian press has largely ignored the Project Syndicate essay, but the foreign wires have not. Reuters, the Guardian, and other outlets covering Italy regularly note the country's struggle to maintain tax compliance and public trust in institutions—a struggle that mirrors, in miniature, what commentators fear for the United States. When citizens doubt that their money funds the common good, they withdraw consent. Tax evasion rises. The informal economy expands. The state, starved of revenue, cuts services, which further erodes legitimacy. Italy has lived this cycle. It knows where it leads.

What distinguishes Italy's current position is that it has, slowly, begun to reverse the cycle. The European Union's fiscal rules, whatever their rigours, have forced a degree of transparency and accountability that strengthens rather than weakens the state's moral authority. Italians may grumble about Brussels, but they do not believe Brussels is stealing from them for personal enrichment. The same cannot be said for every citizen's view of Rome, or Washington, or any capital where power concentrates and the line between public office and private gain blurs.

The classical metaphor cuts both ways. It reminds us that republics are fragile, and that the choice between shearing and skinning is real. It also reminds us that the choice is not inevitable. A state can choose to restore legitimacy, to invest in the common good, to make taxation a bargain rather than a burden. Italy is trying. The question the world is asking, watching America, is whether democracies can still make that choice when the pressure to choose the knife is greatest.