In recent years, claims for autonomy & self-government have conditioned the politics of the so-called multinational democracies. In such democracies, national minorities have obtained one form or another of self-government thanks to various kinds of federal frameworks. Such important political processes have significantly contributed toward the renewed interest in federalism. In particular, a number of scholars have pointed out the need to formulate a specific variety of federalism to meet the needs of national minorities: asymmetric federalism. Thus, unlike scholars such as Carl Friedrich, Daniel Elazar, & Kenneth Wheare, who thought that traditional, symmetrical federal institutions could be used to manage nationalist claims thanks to their intrinsic capability of dealing with unity & diversity, many contemporary political scientists (eg, Alfred Stepan, Alain Gagnon, Ferran Requeio, Michael Burgess, & others) have analyzed the relationship between nationalism & federalism through the concept of asymmetric federalism. Focusing on the different dimensions of the concept & analyzing such a literature -- its results, suggestions, & limits, constitute the aim of this paper. 2 Tables, 45 References. Adapted from the source document.
Il saggio muove dalla constatazione che populismo e sovranismo, spesso ritenuti come due facce dello stesso fenomeno e solitamente utilizzati in senso dispregiativo, sono ormai divenuti l'approdo pressoché inevitabile delle ricorrenti riflessioni in tema di crisi della democrazia e di crisi del processo di integrazione europea. Tuttavia proprio l'incertezza definitoria e l'ambiguità che li caratterizza mostra come ben più proficuo che un utilizzo spesso acritico e fuorviante dei due neologismi sia in effetti il tentativo di comprendere cosa si celi dietro la crisi delle democrazie contemporanee e del processo di integrazione europea. In effetti alcuni fenomeni degenerativi oggi facilmente riscontrabili sono segno dell'esigenza di spazio e di ascolto dei "popoli" e dei cittadini europei; dell'impellenza, dunque, di riannodare fili da tempo interrotti del necessario dialogo tra il popolo, con le sue esigenze, e le istituzioni e i partiti, nazionali ed europei, chiamati, dal canto loro, a fornire adeguate risposte. Un dialogo che appare tuttavia carente nell'Unione Europea proprio per alcuni limiti "genetici" che la contraddistinguono e che è possibile realizzare solo ponendo al centro dei processi decisionali i cittadini, sia attraverso la valorizzazione di strumenti partecipativi, sia attraverso valide modifiche istituzionali volte in particolare a ricondurre le decisioni all'interno di sedi caratterizzate da un vincolo di responsabilità nei confronti dei "sovrani". ; The essay starts observing that populism and sovereignism, often considered as two sides of the same phenomenon and usually used in a derogatory sense, have now become the almost inevitable landing place of recurring reflections on the crisis of democracy and the crisis of the European integration process. However, the uncertain definition and the ambiguity that characterizes them shows that it is far more useful, rather than an often uncritical and misleading use of the two neologisms, try to understand what lies behind the crisis of contemporary democracies and of the process of European integration. In fact, some degenerative phenomena, that today are easily visible, are the sign of the need for space and listening to the "peoples" and European citizens and therefore of the urgency to re-establish the long-interrupted threads of a necessary dialogue between the people - with their needs - and institutions and national and european parties, which are asked to provide adequate answers. However, this dialogue, that appears to be lacking in the European Union due to certain "genetic" limits that distinguish it, can be established only by placing citizens at the center of the decision-making processes, both through the enhancement of participatory tools and through valid institutional changes, aimed in particular to bring the decisions back into institutions characterized by accountability towards "sovereigns".
Scopo della presente tesi di dottorato è indagare l'impatto che l'e-democracy sta producendo sull'evoluzione della rappresentanza e della partecipazione politica e, più in generale, sul funzionamento dei sistemi democratici. L'analisi prende le mosse da una ricostruzione dei principali modelli di democrazia che sono stati sperimentati nel corso del tempo, per poi passare ad esaminare il processo di crisi della democrazia rappresentativa e della partecipazione intermediata. In questo contesto si inserisce, con il suo carico di novità, la rivoluzione digitale. Premessa, quindi, una definizione di riferimento della nozione di e-democracy e delineate analogie e differenze con i concetti di e-voting ed e-government, la ricerca analizza le principali applicazioni di democrazia digitale, con il comune obiettivo di comprendere come esse, da angolature differenti e con diversi gradi di intensità, stiano trasformando il legame tra rappresentanti e rappresentati. Oggetto di esame è, anzitutto, la comunicazione politica online, con particolare riferimento alle tecniche di profilazione degli utenti-elettori e al conseguente rischio di manipolazione del consenso. In un secondo momento, l'attenzione si sposta sull'evoluzione che le nuove tecnologie stanno determinando nell'organizzazione dei partiti politici. Successivamente, si analizza l'impatto che la digitalizzazione può determinare sull'esercizio del diritto di voto e sui poteri di iniziativa relativi agli strumenti c.d. di democrazia diretta. Infine, una riflessione è dedicata al tema, posto improvvisamente dalla pandemia da Covid-19, dell'introduzione, in determinate circostanze, di forme di partecipazione e voto da remoto ai lavori parlamentari e, pertanto, della possibilità ed opportunità di immaginare un "Parlamento telematico". ; This doctoral thesis aims to explore the impact of e-democracy on the evolution of representation, political participation and, more generally, the functioning of democratic systems. After giving an overview of the main models of democracy tested over time, the analysis is carried out considering the current crisis of representative democracies and political intermediation. In this setting, the digital revolution arises. Thereafter, a definition of e-democracy is provided and it is compared with the concepts of e-voting and e-government. Then, the research explores the main applications of e-democracy to assess how the relationship between representatives and citizens is changing. Firstly, online political communication is evaluated, focusing on the targeting of social media users and the consequent threats of political manipulation. Secondly, the transformation of political party organization caused by digital revolution is pointed out. Subsequently, the impact of digitalization on voting procedures and direct democracy tools is assessed. Finally, the study focuses on the issue, raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, of introducing, under certain circumstances, electronic remote participation and voting in parliamentary work, in order to reflect on the legitimacy, as well as the opportunity, of a "virtual Parliament".
The paper deals with the analysis of the theme of power in Giorgio Agamben's philosophy. In The Kingdom and the Glory Agamben interprets Glory as the fundamental apparatus of power languages, an empty center around which the western governamental machine works. The Glory is the transcendental of power, the device by which auctoritas and potestas are articulated. Therefore, Glory is the foundation of modern consensual democracies. In this sense mass-media are modern devices of power glorification. To deconstruct western governamental machine is necessary to show the role of Glory as a practice of legitimateness of power.
A review essay on books by (1) R. Dalton & M. Wattenberg (Eds), Parties without Partisans. Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2000); (2) R. Gunther, J. Linz, & J. R. Montero (Eds), Political Parties. Old Concepts, New Challenges (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2002); (3) L. Diamond & R. Gunther, Parties and Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U Press, 2001); (4) P. Mair, W. Muller, & F. Plasser (Eds), Political Parties and Electoral Change (Oxford: Oxford U Presss, 2004); & (5) R. Dalton, Democratic Challenges. Democratic Choices (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2004).
This essay analyses the normative sources that outline the right to the truth and considers the case law on the subject. By looking first at the Inter-American system, specific attention is paid to the perspective adopted by the Strasbourg Court in reading the search for truth within the framework of the ECHR system. Moreover, the essay investigates the potential of this right as a catalyst of institutional trust in mature democracies. The paper concludes by welcoming the attitude of the European Court of Human Rights.
Migrations reveal several features of the social, political, cultural and symbolical reality of the globalized world. From a purely political point-of-view they touch a raw nerve of liberal democracies: the tension existing between the adherence to the universal values of liberalism and the democratic sovereign's discretion concerning admission policies.Such tension seems to make any commitment in favour of migrant's human rights unrealistic.The present article supports the argument that only the harmonization of migration policies that implies a cooperative and multilateral approach between the involved states can make the mobility practices carried out by they who try to cross their boundaries less dramatic.
To what extent the legitimate aspiration of the States to prevent terrorist attacks can go further? This is one of the main issues that modern democracies must face. In this scenario, this PhD thesis proposes a comparative study on preventive counter-terrorism measures targeted on suspected terrorists within a human rights' approach, in the searching of the "sustainable prevention". After the study of Italian preventive counter-terrorism law from different perspectives, a small "field research" and the analysis of the UK counter-terrorism system, the Author uses the proportionality principle to suggest some corrective mechanisms for a more sustainable balance between freedom and security.
Today virtually all liberal democracies protect, in formal legal documents as well as in actual practice, both freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The peculiar history and culture of each nation is very important in order to understand different approaches to similar problems and to build a cross-cultural normative critique. This doctoral thesis is mainly concerned with the US approach to classical freedom of speech issues, such as advocacy to commit an offence: the first part of the work aims to describe the most influential pronounces of the US Supreme Court in this field; the second part is concerned with the definition of the constitutional core of democratic speech.
O presente artigo problematiza a sacralização das categorias essenciais do Constitucionalismo moderno, do qual derivou o sistema de democracia constitucional. Tentou-se elaborar uma crítica, a fim de se incentivar a busca de novos modos de pensar os paradoxos causados pela adoção cega e inflacionária das categorias da democracia constitucional. Em seguida, pretendeu-se revelar as dimensões da violência injustificada simbólica e física exercidas pelos Estados justificadas por esse arcabouço no âmbito internacional e no âmbito doméstico. Particularmente, elegeu-se como objeto de estudos o caso do Estado brasileiro em sua dimensão legislativa e punitiva, a fim de revelar as dimensões da violência injustificada que, aliás, levaram o Supremo Tribunal Federal a julgar o processo de ADPF 347 (set. 2015) acerca do «estado de coisas inconstitucional» no sistema penitenciário. This article envisages to problematize the sacralization of the fundamental concepts of the modern Constitutionalism, from which the system of constitutional democracies derives. We aim at criticizing this system, while seeking ways to rethink the paradoxes caused by the blind and inflationary use of its supporting ideas as a means of domination.We propose to reveal some dimensions of 'unjustified' violence, whether concrete or symbolic violence, held by constitutional democracies at the internatonal level and at the national level. Then, we focus on the legislative and punitive facets of the Brazilian constitucional democracy, by highlighting domestic 'unjustified' violence, since the endemic violation of human rights inside the country's prison system has recently inspired a judicial innovation: the rulling of the 'unconstitutional state of affairs' by the Supreme Court.
The review article analyzes some of the most recent developments in political communication with particular concern for those processes involving the notions and the practices of citizenship in contemporary democracies. Some of the contributions taken into consideration can be regarded as seminal books supporting the view that popular media, infotainment and new media are all new channels of political information and, notwithstanding their oversimplification, may be useful to extend citizens' political knowledge. The review aims also at offering some insights on specific features of political communication in Italy through the analysis of contributions dealing with the processes of personalization and popularization of politics as well as with the increasing role of internet in Italian politics. Adapted from the source document.
