Ascesa o decadenza delle società e delle civiltà. Un nodo tra psicologia e politica in alcuni scritti dimenticati

This article explores the emergence of collective psychology at the turn of the twentieth century. It reviews the divergent responses of turn-of-the century scholars to the quest of rise and fall of societies. The paper presents an overview of the analyses proposed by authors as Gabriel Tarde, Cesare Lombroso, Scipio Sighele, Gustave Le Bon and George Sorel around the notion of ‘innovation’ and ‘misoneism’. This complex and fascinating group posed the crucial question of temporal horizon in foundation of political obligation: the same question from which moved, in the eighties of the twentieth century, Gianfranco Miglio’s hypothesis about the ‘psychology of politics’.