This work deals with lobbying from a legal point of view, and in particular legal-constitutional (comparative): it analyzes that is how this practice, whose impact on the democratic process is very high and constantly growing, is regulated, and above all which both the constitutional framework in which this regulation moves, and what this tells us about the legal system as a whole in some particularly significant systems: USA, Europe (EU and Council of Europe) and Italy.
The article analyses the fundamental traits of Italian liberalism in the second half of the 19th century. Based on the unique understanding and welding together of different theoretical models (English, French, German), Italian liberalism has been building a "politics of mediation", directly connected to the new parameters of the political-social sciences. The main goal is that of neutralising political conflict, in its more extreme manifestations, with respect to a liberal order that seeks to preserve and defend itself from any risk that might creep into the fabric of democracy.
Di fronte ai profondi mutamenti in atto, ha ancora senso parlare di "crisi della rappresentanza parlamentare"? Non siamo piuttosto di fronte ad uno snodo cruciale della storia del nostro sistema istituzionale, che impone di prendere atto della nuova veste che il "rappresentante politico" è chiamato a ricoprire? Il problema – ciclico – della crisi della rappresentanza pone l'esigenza di ripensare le forme tradizionali del modello rappresentativo liberaldemocratico alla luce delle nuove modalità di partecipazione politica della c.d. "società dell'informazione". Il progressivo impiego delle tecnologie dell'informazione, infatti, ha trasformato profondamente l'organizzazione della società ed ha influito sullo stesso circuito della rappresentanza politica, creando nuovi canali di partecipazione democratica, modificando la comunicazione politica ed il processo di formazione dell'opinione pubblica. Il presente lavoro si prefigge l'obiettivo di analizzare l'impatto degli strumenti di e-democracy sulle dinamiche dei moderni sistemi democratici e, in particolare, sulle forme della c.d. democrazia rappresentativa. Sullo sfondo, resta il quesito circa la portata – potenzialmente rivoluzionaria – dei cambiamenti introdotti dalla c.d. "democrazia digitale". Le possibilità offerte dagli strumenti dell'e-democracy fanno nascere la tentazione di meditare il superamento dell'attuale sistema costituzionale – incentrato prevalentemente sulle forme della democrazia rappresentativa – e di inaugurare un'inedita "agorà digitale", riconoscendo più ampio spazio agli strumenti della democrazia diretta e, perfino, immaginando una loro – rinnovata – centralità. In definitiva, l'alternativa che si pone, è se l'e-democracy stia gettando le basi per il decisivo eclissamento della rappresentanza politica o se, piuttosto, costituisca una risorsa a servizio della stessa democrazia rappresentativa, contribuendo a rinnovare i canali tradizionali del circuito rappresentativo, ormai da tempo interessati da una crisi sistemica. ; Faced with the profound changes taking place, does it still make sense to speak of a "crisis of parliamentary representation"? Are we not perhaps facing a crucial juncture in the history of our institutional system, which requires us to take note of the new role that the "political representative" is called to play? The cyclical problem of the crisis of representation raises the need to rethink the traditional forms of the liberal democratic representative model in the light of the new modalities of political participation in the c.d. "Information Society". The progressive use of information technology, in fact, has profoundly transformed the organization of society and has influenced the same circuit of political representation, creating new channels for democratic participation, modifying political communication and the process of forming public opinion. The present work aims to study the impact of electronic democracy on the dynamics of modern democratic systems and, in particular, on the forms of the c.d. representative democracy. In the background, the question remains about the scope - a revolutionary alternative - of the changes introduced by the c.d. "Digital democracy". The possibilities offered by the e-democracy instruments give rise to the temptation to meditate on the overcoming of the current constitutional system - focusing on the forms of representative democracy - and to inaugurate a new "digital agora", recognizing more ample space for the instruments of direct democracy and , even, imagining their - renewed - centrality. Ultimately, the alternative that arises, is if e-democracy is becoming fundamental for the decisive eclipse of political representation, rather, constitutes a resource a service of the same representative democracy, helping to renew the traditional channels of the representative circuit, now for some time affected by a systemic crisis.
Economists have widely investigated the framework of politics and politicians, its mechanisms and its results. We collect some works, both theoretical and empirical, that describe some typical behaviour of politicians. In particular we focus on the following topics: political accountability, through the electoral systems and the role of citizens, the function of bureaucracy, the issue of multitasking. Finally we present a dynamic model that focuses on the degree of trust among voters.
