PATERNALISM. - Any policy directed from above (emperor, king, lord) that takes account of the needs of the "subjects" is called paternalistic: whether in classical antiquity, in the Middle Ages, or in the Renaissance, the myth of the good ruler of the State, understanding and "fatherly," took shape. In the age of the Counter-Reformation the problem returns to the forefront with the theorists of reason of state (v.); among others, Bellarmine sets down precise formulations on the necessity princes have of loving all their subjects with "serving" "fatherly" charity so that they may not be unjustly burdened (cf. De officio principis christiani, Rome 1619).
Taking into account the differences from earlier theories and practical applications, the eighteenth-century movement of enlightened despotism must also be regarded as paternalistic. Enlightened despotism was born and grew stronger in the broader climate of the "Enlightenment," both through a movement from below determined by the economic and social strengthening of the middle class, and through the vast host of reforming writers who expressed the new ideological demands at the level of public opinion. Despotism and Enlightenment in their essence are not mutually exclusive: in enlightened despotism the element that prevails is still the despotic one, but it is "enlightened," that is, subjected to the law of Raison in the political-administrative and economic-social sphere. The reforming princes were in favor of physiocracy, of fiscal and customs reformism, of jurisdictionalism. Naturally not all theories were applied rigorously or comprehensively in practice: Maria Theresa of Austria stood for economic reforms; her son Joseph II cared more for jurisdictionalism and for religious reform itself; Frederick II of Prussia was in practice more "sovereign" than man of the "Enlightenment" (or at least he was an Enlightenment thinker in criminal law, in religious toleration, in culture, but not in military absolutism); Catherine II of Russia leaned toward economic reformism; Leopold I of Tuscany toward physiocracy and jurisdictionalism; Charles III of Bourbon toward social reformism and jurisdictionalism, and so on. Eighteenth-century paternalism was a movement so broad that in certain sectors it also affected the Republic of Venice, that of Genoa, and the Papal State itself.
After the 18th century the word paternalism was sometimes used "from above" to mask or justify political movements or the activities of rulers with a substantially conservative, reactionary, or dictatorial background.