Constitutional democracy

Destiny of a theoretical model and its positive translations

Abstract

The essay will focus on the analysis of the relationship between constitution and democracy, first of all from a theoretical point of view, reconstructing the model of constitutional democracy according to some of the most authoritative lines of thought of contemporary constitutionalism. The nature of constitutional democracy is, in fact, as we will try to argue, above all conceptual, and designates a theoretical model that in part provides elements for an analytical knowledge, in part gives normative indications to the positive democratic constitutions of contemporary political regimes and to the embryos of constitutions democratic institutions of supranational political institutions such as the European Union and the United Nations. The essay will be divided into two parts. The first will be devoted to the reconstruction of the theoretical model of constitutional democracy, as has been said following some of the most authoritative lines of thought of contemporary constitutionalism: specifically, retracing and summarizing the theories of Norberto Bobbio and Luigi Ferrajoli. The second part will be devoted to the historical-empirical observation of the 'deontic divarication' (Ferrajoli) between the theoretical model and reality, ie the distance that can be observed between the theoretical model and the formal and 'material' constitutions of political regimes founded on this model. Without obviously asking for an exhaustive analysis at all, we will try to trace an evolutionary line (or involution?) In the time span that goes from the birth of constitutional democracies with rigid constitution and democratic form of government (substantially therefore from the end of the Second World War ) in our days.