Francesco Mercadante's thought – which recognizes its debts with Rousseau, Paine, Vico, Rosmini, Capograssi – focuses on democracy, equality, critique of contemporary society which bases its opulence on the renunciation of procreation. Mercadante reaches a morally high definition: person isn't a 'fictio iuris' and «equality is equality between values which each man, in his uniqueness, represents». Minors' equality seeks its aknowledgement and its enforcement by means of the 'double representation' exercised by their parents.