Through the approaches to the analysis of the decision making process developed by H.D. Lasswell and H. Simon, the paper aims at demonstrating how the means and ends of decisions can hardly be distinguished. In the staged sequence of a decision, the same activity can be classified simultaneously as an end or as a means. This "discovery" has a clear value in the analysis of decision-making processes, particularly when technical committees or "technocracies" are operating, as in the case of the management of the emergency for the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy. The technical committee that supported the Italian government took decisions that were not merely instrumental but "finalized", therefore as such they were of political value and they were political decisions. ; Attraverso gli approcci all'analisi del processo decisionale sviluppato da H.D. Lasswell e H. Simon, l'ar-ticolo mira a dimostrare come i mezzi e i fini delle decisioni siano difficilmente distinguibili. Nella se-quenza a stadi di una decisione, la stessa attività può essere classificata contemporaneamente come fine o come mezzo. Questa "scoperta" ha un chiaro valore nell'analisi dei processi decisionali, in particolare quando sono attivi comitati tecnici o "tecnocrazie", come nel caso della gestione dell'emergenza per la pandemia Covid-19 in Italia. Il comitato tecnico che ha sostenuto il governo italiano ha preso decisioni non meramente strumentali ma "finalizzate", quindi come tali di valore politico e scelte politiche
For the first time, many decades after World War II or at least after the fall of the Berlin wall, the matter of democracy received traits of an anthropological and bringing up matter. It is conductive to carry out a full-scale and sincere analysis concerning its aims. The upbringing of the human kind which was a great theme of the seventeenth-century education, becomes a challenge which concerns the foundation of the humanity and asks consciences. The use of education as the factor of the social discrimination made a stand to all revolutions of modern times, and even became a decisive element in the process of secularizing of a society. Beginning from the XVII century rulers and countries, took the place of the Church. In reality, the Churched had the monopoly over education till that time, and in a special way of the high intellectual formation.It is not accidental that the Catholic Church is calling for new humanism today. The humanism which would be able to free man from increase of false humanistic ideology. The Catholic Church is able to face, using also scientific knowledge, the problem of human existence and defence creation. Today Christians should testify, individually and together, that the Church has reached new consciousness when it comes to the value of democracy in the areas which concern creating of people and their critical spirit, and also their abilities to cling to Gospel always in a new way, and with relation to cultures and values which are often opposed to each other. "Meritocracy" as a social temptation is radically different from the democracy of the merit which aims is to build the idea of life. The idea is worth living for because it is democratic. ; For the first time, many decades after World War II or at least after the fall of the Berlin wall, the matter of democracy received traits of an anthropological and bringing up matter. It is conductive to carry out a full-scale and sincere analysis concerning its aims. The upbringing of the human kind which was a great theme of the ...
Woodrow Wilson was elected President of the United States in 1912. His famous program The New Freedom was not focused on foreign policy, however, the years of his presidency were inevitably dominated by international events, ranging from the atrocities of World War I to the Paris Peace Conference. Democratic internationalism, theorized by Wilson in a systematic way towards the end of the Great War, will become a prevalent model in the United States international politics throughout the next century. Wilson's strong commitment to international relations, albeit hoping to devote himself entirely to the resolution of internal problems, makes his presidency still remembered nowadays as the one that consciously and definitively consecrated the American nation to the role of main protagonist of international politics.
The question about education, and about which model of education, belongs to society and moves from it, as well as the answer must go back to society again: education to complexity, critical thinking, responsibility for choices are all possible answers. In other words, we comprehend education as active citizenship, and by citizenship we mean a condition based on respect for oneself, respect for the others and the rules of any community. It is a cultural attitude built on values such as civil and political commitment, and an ethical dimension that implies the conviction that without choice and responsibility there can be no authentic social justice; it is a sense of belonging to democracy and democratic practice as well, where we believe democracy to be the result of opposition first, mediation later. This should be the task of the public School system, and to accomplish this task it is necessary to draw on the cultural richness that comes from its pluralism: this can be done by trained teachers, available to comparison, who know how to dismantle and reassemble disciplinary knowledge and soft skills in an epistemologically correct way, in order to meet the diversified learning needs, providing tools for interaction with reality. This kind of School, therefore, must be considered as an ethical place of education and citizenship, which guides change and transformative processes, inspired by new cultural, social, psycho-pedagogical and organizational models: a School which, as a public service, is already part of a pedagogical and political project. ; La domanda sull'educazione, e su quale modello di educazione, appartiene alla società, è mossa dalla società, così come ad essa deve tornare la risposta: educare alla complessità, al pensiero critico, alla responsabilità delle scelte sono le risposte possibili. In altre parole, consideriamo l'educazione come cittadinanza attiva, intendendo per cittadinanza una condizione definita, fondata sul rispetto di sé, degli altri e delle regole della comunità. Si tratta di un ...
Riconoscere che i concetti di laicità e secolarismo possiedono un'origine e uno sviluppo condizionato dalla cultura occidentale e dal cristianesimo significa prendere in considerazione l'eventualità di un ripensamento della distinzione tra ordine politico, religione e diritto nelle democrazie multiculturali e multireligiose. L'obiettivo di questo lavoro è mettere in discussione una concezione neutralista del secolarismo, alla cui base vi è il convincimento per cui l'esclusione dell'elemento religioso dalla sfera pubblica e normativa sono garanzia di eguaglianza in un contesto caratterizzato dal 'fatto del pluralismo'. Pertanto abbiamo analizzato il pensiero di due fra i più influenti filosofi politici, John Rawls e Jürgen Habermas, portavoci di una visione neutralista del secolarismo, e le critiche a essi rivolte da alcuni teorici del multiculturalismo – Bikhu Parekh e Tariq Modood –, che propongono, invece, l'abbandono della retorica della neutralità nella costruzione della sfera politica e normativa. Di conseguenza questi ultimi si rivolgono con maggiore apertura rispetto alle richieste provenienti dagli individui appartenenti a minoranze religiose e culturali, senza respingerle sulla base della loro natura culturale o religiosa. Al contrario, in particolare quando tali richieste di riconoscimento riguardano aree rilevanti della vita degli individui, come possono essere la famiglia, il matrimonio, le questioni ereditarie ecc., ossia aree in cui la natura culturalmente condizionata di alcune istituzioni è maggiormente visibile, viene presa qui in considerazione la possibilità che esse possano essere regolate e gestite in maniera differente. A tal proposito si è approfondita la proposta di far fronte a queste richieste attraverso l'adozione di sistemi di pluralismo normativo, con una particolare attenzione a un esperimento avviato in Gran Bretagna, che prevede per le comunità religiose la possibilità del risolvere le proprie controversie in materia di diritto di famiglia in tribunali arbitrali religiosi, che tuttavia operano sotto il controllo indiretto delle corti inglesi. La descrizione di questo caso è stata finalizzata a mettere in luce la necessità di ricercare nuovi strumenti coerenti con la visione del secolarismo che abbiamo cercato di proporre, ossia di una laicità che di fronte alle nuove istanze presenti nei contesti culturalmente e religiosamente plurali, piuttosto che arroccarsi dietro la convinzione che si possa garantire uguaglianza solo se si dà una sfera pubblica e normativa neutrale e che vi sia una soluzione razionale ai conflitti tra valori, tenta di accogliere la diversità nei suoi propri termini, andando alla ricerca di nuovi strumenti teorico-politici. Infatti, i canali di partecipazione attraverso i quali i sistemi democratici hanno cercato d'integrare la diversità non sembrano riuscire a far fronte alle richieste provenienti da individui che non si riconoscono a pieno titolo nella cultura della maggioranza. Ciò significa pensare a nuove strategie d'inclusione – di cui il pluralismo normativo può essere un esempio –, se si vogliono garantire proprio quei presupposti di valore che la democrazia promuove, ossia il pluralismo e l'eguale libertà di tutti i cittadini. ; If we recognize that the concept of secularism originates and develops from the influence of Western culture and Christianity, we must take into account the possibility to rethink the distinction between politics, religion and law in multicultural and multireligious democracies. The aim of this work is to question the neutralist conception of secularism, which is characterized by the belief that the exclusion of religious elements from public sphere and legislation to guarantee of equality in a context characterized by religious pluralism. At this aim, I analyze the thought of two of the most influential political philosophers, John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas, who represent the neutralist view of secularism, as well as the criticism addressed to them by multiculturalist theorists – Bhikhu Parekh and Tariq Modood –, who suggest giving up the abandon of the rhetoric of neutrality in the construction of the political sphere and regulations, to pay more attention to the demands coming from individuals belonging to religious and cultural minorities. Indeed, particularly when these issues involve significant areas where the culturally conditioned nature of some institutions is more visible – family, marriage, hereditary issues – the possibility that they can be regulated in a different way is also taken into account. Therefore, a detailed analysis of the proposal is given to adopt a system of legal pluralism, with a special attention to an experiment started in the UK, which provides religious communities the possibility to go to religious arbitration tribunals, operating under the indirect control of the English courts, related to family law. The description of this case aims at emphasizing the need to seek for new consistent means with the idea of secularism I have tried to suggest. Such a secularism is based upon the belief that only a neutral public sphere and legislation can guarantee equality, but tries to embrace diversity and to suggest new political theories. As matter of fact, the channels of participation through which democratic systems have tried to integrate diversity do not seem to be able to face the requests from individuals who do not fully identify into the majority culture, which means thinking about new strategies of inclusion – for example legal pluralism – so to ensure the very value assumptions promoted by democracy, that is to say pluralism and equal liberty. ; Dottorato di ricerca in Relazioni e processi interculturali (XXV ciclo)
International audience ; Electronic democracy represents a new communication space consisting of a set of tools and tecnological models aimed at increasing citizens participation in the decision making moments of public action. It supports participation in more properly political democratic processes and thedetermination of public choices.
A central theme of social pedagogy, socio-political commitment is one of the fundamental issues when it comes to democracy and participation. The social dimension of education does not neglect issues of a political nature, the ancient relationship between pedagogy and politics, a dialogue that in our time holds various and many other aspects within from the economy to work, from sustainability to the strong contrast between wide- learning and educational poverty. The school, as a training ground for democracy and participation, is a place for the exercise of humanity. A context in which to grasp the possibility of carrying out participation exercises throughout the entire training course, through community educational work that develops from the particular (the school context) to the general (the life context). In the perspective of a real participatory democracy, a new frontier and ultimate goal of education in politics. ; Tema centrale della pedagogia sociale, l'impegno sociopolitico rappresenta una delle questioni fondanti quando si parla di democrazia e di partecipazione. La dimensione sociale dell'educazione non tralascia questioni di natura politica, l'antico rapporto tra pedagogia e politica, un dialogo che nel nostro tempo tiene dentro diversi e molteplici altri aspetti: dall'economia al lavoro, dalla sostenibilità al contrasto forte tra wide-learning e povertà educative. La scuola, come palestra di democrazia e di partecipazione, è luogo di esercizio di umanità. Un contesto in cui cogliere la possibilità di realizzare lungo l'intero percorso formativo esercizi di partecipazione, attraverso un lavoro educativo di comunità che si sviluppa dal particolare (il contesto scuola) al generale (il contesto di vita). Nella prospettiva di una democrazia partecipativa reale, nuova frontiera e fine ultimo dell'educazione alla politica.
John Dewey's pedagogical reflection on the promotion of democracy as an ever-evolving educational process is, in the School of today, very importantin order to promote an intercultural didactics that aims to encourage the development of convivial, dialogical, autonomous, critical and creative minds. ; La riflessione pedagogica di John Dewey in merito alla promozione della democrazia in quanto processo educativo sempre in divenire, è oggi di notevole impulso per una didattica interculturale che si proponga di incoraggiare lo sviluppo di menti conviviali, dialogiche, autonome, critiche e creative.
