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(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2023 8(2), 809-851 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. – II. Democracy as a value of EU Law. – II.1. The development of the value of democracy in the European Union – II.2. The value of democracy in art. 2 TEU and the Copenhagen criteria – III. The value of democracy beyond art. 2 TEU. – III.1. Right to vote and to stand as a candidate – III.2. Art. 10 TEU – III.3. Art. 21 TEU – III.4. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU – IV. Enforcing Democracy Beyond Art. 7 TEU. – IV.1. Problematising art. 7 – IV.2. Centralised enforcement – IV.3. Decentralised enforcement – V. Conclusion. | (Abstract) This Article analyses several ways in which democracy as a core value of the European Union can be enforced against member States violating democratic principles. Following the crisis of democratic backsliding in several Member States, no legal action has been taken on the basis of a breach of democracy or democratic principles. A possible explanation is that violations of art. 2 TEU are subject to a specific enforcement procedure (laid down in art. 7 TEU), which is notoriously hard to trigger. Furthermore, since art. 2 TEU refers to abstract values, it is frequently asserted that values such as “democracy” cannot be legally enforced. This Article, however, claims that the value of democracy has a sufficiently clear core legal meaning in EU law to be legally enforceable. Secondly, this Article claims that EU law includes numerous other centralized (at EU level) and decentralized (at Member State level) enforcement mechanisms beyond art. 7 TEU that can be used to enforce democratic principles. The current absence of enforcement action against such Member States, therefore, is largely a political choice instead of a legal requirement.

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Copyright of Orientamenti Pedagogici is the property of Pontificio Ateneo Salesiano (Facoltà di Scienze dell'Educazione dell'Università Pontificia Salesian) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The main objective of the paper is to address and explore a much-debated issue within the evaluation community: the idea of "democratic evaluation". What exactly is meant by this term? When can an evaluation be said to be democratic? Through the adoption of what behaviours should this ideal translate into concrete working practice? The essay aims to contribute to broadening the community's debate on these questions, which are central at a historical-political moment such as the post-emergence from Covid-19 and in the midst of an international crisis, that between Russia and Ukraine, which calls democratic evaluation into question in our country. On a general level, in fact, the situation of uncertainty due to the unpredictable effects of the pandemic, the social and economic crisis in the country and the consequent growing distrust of the citizens towards the administration seem to have increased the demand for accountability, leading to talk, as in the rest of Europe as well, of a "democratic deficit". On the other hand, recent administrative re-centralization, even assisted by current evaluative practices, only aggravates the inefficiency of public administration. Accountability, freedom and democracy are never given, they need to be defended, always regained: evaluation assumes a strategic role to this end; it can help bring citizens closer to public administration. The crisis between Russia and Ukraine is changing geopolitical balances; the effects of the war economy, inflation, the energy crisis, and the possible escalation of the conflict add to the uncertain situation due to the pandemic. New inequalities and an increase in poverty threaten to generate deep rifts in the country's socioeconomic fabric. Systemic shocks add to chronic problems: a demographic collapse, stagnation, job insecurity, and a lag in digitization. At the same time, the political system fails to represent and stabilize consensus over time. Governments also suffer from this instability, with the inability to design and implement structural reforms for the country, including that of the bureaucracy. Social complexity, chronic problems and systemic shocks, require the ability to apply effective public policies. State intervention and the ability of the bureaucracy to be efficient and responsive to social change are central issues for the health of democracy. Public policies move within a framework of very high complexity, in which the role of evaluation emerges, which should tend to the development of democratic accountability, illuminating decision-making choices through its methodological rigor, analytical capacity and scientific knowledge. The essay thus aims to address the potential of a democratic evaluation that can broaden the number of stakeholders, the field of values that are taken into account, the repertoire of research methods, the field of interest of policies, and the very definition of the objects of evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relational and trustful conception of law proposed by the author highlights, in the opinion of the commentators, the essential link between law, democracy, trust and persuasion. This paper focuses on these intersections and states explicitly the points of contact with a rhetorical perspective of law, arguing that Aristotelian defence of Rhetoric serves to defend a precise model of polis, of man and law, against the vision of sophistry, which is one of the sign of the modern 'verticalist' conception of relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2021 6(3), 1307-1324 | European Forum Insight of 1 February 2022 | (Table of Contents) I. Climate litigation: a tool to overcome majoritarian paralysis? - I.1. One shared conclusion: politics is failing. - I.2. Different ways leading to a similar conclusion: human rights, tort, policy objectives, national legal obligations, and always international agreements and science. - II. Separation of powers at stake: what role for counter-majoritarian forces? - II.1. Different contexts lead to different separation of powers concerns. - II.2 We cannot exclude (failing) politics despite overwhelming climate science. - III. A research agenda. | (Abstract) The climate crisis is - as far as we can see in 2021 - the greatest challenge of the 21st century. The existence of global warming as a human-made problem and the abstract need of transiting away from fossil energy sources is largely accepted. The question, however, of how to best achieve this transition is a major bone of contention - internationally, within the European Union (EU), and in many EU Member States. However, the issue will only become more pressing and political struggle will only become more forceful as the negative impacts of climate change increasingly affect our lives and livelihoods. Until now, national legislatures and executives have failed to take measures anywhere close to what would be needed to reduce emissions sufficiently to mitigate the climate crisis. The consistent failure of "politics" in different contexts - international, European, and national, or even regional and local - has motivated a growing share of citizens and civil society actors to pursue what is necessary via counter-majoritarian instruments, most prominently through climate litigation. In this Insight, I analyse these growing counter-majoritarian pressures in the context of climate change. My primary focus lies with broader questions of separation of powers, the role of the judiciary in constitutional democracies, and how legally enforceable reduction standards could and should be determined.

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Copyright of Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica is the property of Universita di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Educazione and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Education Sciences & Society is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Luigi Einaudi's economic and political thought is thoroughly valued and studied. However, his contributions to the construction of a European neo-liberal canon in the 1930's and 1940's are often overlooked. This paper aims to shed light on the point, in order to reassert early neo-liberalism's identity as well. We will focus, then, on Einaudi's and European neo-liberals' shared belief in the need to rearrange the framework of free market economy, while criticizing some aspects of contemporary western civilization and facing the challenge of developing a liberal approach to mass democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fabio Ciaramelli's book L'ordine simbolico della legge e il problema del metodo proposes a convincing methodological perspective for legal knowledge in contemporary constitutional democracies. The central claim is that a middle path between strong objectivism and absolute discretion exists. Ciaramelli thinks that the key concept for legal methodology is that of "symbolic order". In this paper I deal with this notion and try to emphasize some features of it from a perspective slightly different from Ciaramelli's one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Aurora: Papeles del Seminario María Zambrano is the property of Seminario Maria Zambrano and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over a short period of time, countries around the world have been facing health and economic risks due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this paper, we use the immune paradigm to interpret the impact and consequences of the pandemic on society, in social relations and especially at the political level, when democratic systems are called to face new challenges. They concern the contrast between protection and security, on the one hand, and securitarian impulses on the other, in order to guarantee fundamental democratic freedoms; the extension of immunity protection as equally as possible, by contrasting the inequalities which in various areas (from health to the economy) have emerged and increased during the pandemic; the capacity to simultaneously guarantee the need for immunization and the drive for solidarity; finally, the propensity for forms of cooperation between States as opposed to forms of national sovereignty in dealing with the risks that arise at a global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Sciences & Society is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to consider a series of political, identitarian, and dyspian aspects of the Netflix's series, Squid Game. More specifically, the analysis of the TV series implies different considerations related to the theme of merit. Sociological and philosophical debate recently focused on this political topic. Three different concepts (i.e. game, merit, and money) are herein introduced to further contextualize the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2020 5(1), 237-253 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. The paradox of the European rule of law. - II. The rule of law in the modern State and in the European legal order. - III. The genetic heritage of the rule of law in the European legal order. - IV. Technocratic legitimacy and the progressive construction of a living constitution. - V. Administrative law and constitutional law in the European legal order. - VI. Reconnecting citizens to the European institutions: the role of law in Europe. - VII. The rule of law in action from the administrative law standpoint. | (Abstract) This Article aims to outline three problematic aspects arising from the peculiar, composite nature of the European legal system considering its many asymmetries. The first element is of a cultural-historical nature, and the goal is to highlight that, in terms of scientific and methodological ascendancy, the European order came into being with a different genetic heritage from that of modern States. The second aspect concerns the relationship between economics and law and the growing process of "juridification" of economic rules. The aim is to show how this process may have altered the traditional concept of the rule of law as it has taken shape in democracies. The third part explores the idea that this may have affected the diversified and asymmetric development of administrative and constitutional law in the European legal order. It then looks at how this asymmetry may have contributed to the aforementioned disconnect between citizens and institutions. The Article concludes by arguing that the attempt to reconnect European citizens and Institutions needs to start from a non-infrastructural and non-instrumental concept of law and from a consistent balance in the relationship between administrative and constitutional law.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2020 5(1), 691-695 | European Forum Highlight of 10 April 2020 | (Abstract) National flags and celebrations of a fictional independence were on prominent display on the official "Brexit day" of 31 January 2020. The normative constitution of the European Union and the political project of European integration were rejected by the United Kingdom during its nationalist hour. But ninety seven years ago, Coudenhove-Kalergi's "Pan-Europe" project and book had excluded "Britain", because it "had grown out of Europe". The similarities between "then" and "now" are striking as nationalism collides with the philosophy and vision of democratic cosmopolitanism.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2016 1(1), 29-54 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. An historical legacy. - III. Lawmaking in the European Union: A delegated function? - III.1. Sub-delegation. - III.2. The tools of output legitimacy: "Better Regulation". - III.3. Expertise and output legitimacy. - III.4. Lawmaking by committee. - III.5. The Lisbon reforms. - IV. Pushing for democratic input. - IV.1 Lawmaking and representation. - IV.2. Transparency as a tin-opener. - IV.3. Citizen input and participation. - V. Towards legitimation? | (Abstract) This paper uses the concepts of output and input legitimacy to examine the formal lawmaking processes of the European Union. It argues that the traditional distinction between laws, which are legitimated through the democratic concept of representativeness, and subordinate legislation, which is normally justified in terms of output values of efficiency and effectiveness, need to be modified in the European Union. The paper argues that the need for democratic input values requires all formal lawmaking processes to make space for popular access to the policy- and rulemaking processes.

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The article focuses on Hegel's theory of the state in order to assess its relevance nowadays. As Rosanvallon points out, we face with the emergence of a «negative sovereignty»: a problematic field which concerns the process of depoliticisation as well as the weakening of social and political mediation in favour of an aggregate of individuals holding rights and enjoying freedoms. The purpose of the essay is to highlight that certain issues, such as the risk of confusing people with society and political disaffection, have been already argued by Hegel in the Elements of the Philosophy of Right. In that book he stresses the dangers of potentially seditious individualism and, consequently, the erosion of citizens' trust in political institutions. The first part of this paper goes through the Hegelian critique of democracy: identified with the reign of particularity, democracy ends up conflating state and civil society, reducing the people to the mass and confusing the citizen with the bourgeois. Subsequently, the article focuses on civil society as a moment marked by naturalness and competitive struggle, whereas the state accomplishes the task of defending the society from itself. Behind the criticism of democracy and the rejection of a global civil society lies a precise conception of the state: it goes hand in hand with the distancing from an atomistic conception, incapable neither of producing an order within the internal conflicts of the system of needs nor of generating the political disposition necessary for individuals to develop the ethos of citizenship. Hence, in spite of the limits of the constitutional monarchy model, the topicality of the Hegelian concept of the state lies in its emphasis on the inescapable role of politics: given that the people always tend to be multitude, politics proves to be the only point of conjunction between anomic and conflicting forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with a particular typology of populism, which develops in the "society of spectacle", described by Guy Debord nearly 50 years ago in his still relevant book. Populism means the claim of a broader political space by people and is linked with a deep distrust in the political elite perceived as the origin of any social hardship. The "Society of spectacle", where the social life is subsumed by technology and images, leads to a personalization of politics and the political leaders are replaced by their simulacra. When populism involves a strong political leader, who is a simulacrum, new issues emerge. The paper analyzes and illuminates these phenomena, showing the growing dangers they represent for democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2018 3(3), 1378-1399 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. Revisiting the admissibility test. - II.1. Possibility of partial registration. - II.2. Possibility of influencing ongoing negotiations. - III. Managing expectations at the post-registration stage. - III.1. False expectations in case of partially inadmissible initiatives. - III.2. Difficulty of influencing ongoing procedures. - IV. Brexit-related initiatives as a case study. - IV.1. Towards a more flexible admissibility test. - IV.2. Shortcomings at the post-registration stage. - V. Conclusion. | (Abstract) In the era of Brexit negotiations, which will determine the future of citizens' rights in terms of the bilateral relations between the UK and the EU, EU citizens from different Member States have used the instrument of the European citizens' initiative in order to bring forward their claim for retaining the same rights also in the post-Brexit era. The present Article analyses the current legal framework for European citizens' initiatives against the benchmark of general principles of EU law, in particular the principles of good administration, legal certainty and legitimate expectations. On the basis of this analysis, the Brexit-related citizens' initiatives are used as a case study marking a change in the Commission's administrative practice, towards more openness and cooperative spirit in the phase of the admissibility check. However, this new approach bears the risk of creating false expectations to organisers and signatories as to the real prospect of an initiative. The Article concludes that, in order to enable the full potential of citizens' initiatives, the Commission should strengthen the cooperation mechanisms when registering initiatives in line with the principle of good administration.

After the Second World War, Europe faced the question of what kind of political future to choose. Exactly five years after the end of the war, Robert Schuman proposed a declaration that opened the way for European integration: the European Community, later renamed the European Union, was created. This paper presents the circumstances of the creation of the Schuman Declaration and the vision that led him and other founding fathers to the realization of a completely new way of connecting European states. Three of the founding fathers of the European Community, Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer and Alcide de Gasperi, were devout Christians. In the paper, we show their understanding of the relationship between democracy, European integration and Christianity. According to Schuman, European institutions need a spirit, Europe needs a soul. What does this mean and how is it that only a few of the later European political leaders paid attention to this aspect? The last part of the article regards the efforts of Pope Francis to make Europe a place of peace and economic development, and furthermore, to strengthen the essence of its identity, encourage creativity and recognize its responsibility to its own nations and citizens, as well as responsibility to others in a globally connected world. The series of speeches by Pope Francis on Europe, including in the European Parliament, shows his closeness to the vision of Schuman and the founding fathers of the European Union on the one hand, and on the other hand, he directs attention to the present and the future.

The present essay explores Carl Schmitt’s interpretation of Rousseau’s Contrat social in his early works. The essay aims at investigating the role of concepts such as dictatorship, democracy, general will and homogeneity of the people in Carl Schmitt’s political theory. In particular, the essay will be focused on three texts: Diktatur und Belagerungszustand (1916), Die Diktatur (1921) and Die geistesgeschichtliche Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus (1923), where Rousseau’s theory is vigorously discussed by Schmitt, although in a partial and sometimes ideological way. In the end of the paper, some critical remarks on Schmitt’s interpretation and his problematic theory of “identitarian” democracy are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages liberal-democratic constitutionalism by focusing on its fundamental characters and definitions; the implications of populism and illiberal turns will be investigated as well, especially in the second part of the essay. The first section of this paper addresses the critical and interpretative paradigms of contemporary constitutional theory, by illustrating the dichotomy between dualist and monist understandings of democracy. Conversely, the second section addresses the relationship between populism and constitutionalism to illustrate the paradigm of the so-called populist constitutionalism as an illiberal form of constitutional democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2018 3(1), 121-125 | Overview | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. An Assembly fitted with the multifunctional nature of legislatures. - III. An insurance against free-riding. - IV. A fair share for the European Parliament. - V. The devil is in the details. - VI. Conclusions. | (Abstract) A new assembly proposed for the Eurozone can be qualified as realistic utopia. Indeed, the Overview supports the view that the draft Treaty on the Democratization of the Governance of the Euro area (T-Dem) offers a coherent proposal given past lessons from legislative and EU studies. This is particularly the case regarding: a) the multidimensional functions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Euro area proposed; b) the fact that this assembly would have important and open decisions to make; c) the provision of 80 percent of national Members of the Parliaments within it; d) the high level of detail regarding the membership of the assembly. Yet, the provisions of the treaty call for some changes or precisions regarding basic features of the parliamentary matrix, notably: pluralism, transparency and permanency.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2018 3(1), 83-91 | Overview | (Table of Contents) I. A crucial European debate. - II. The nature of the democratic problems of the European Union and the Eurozone. - III. Five limits of the proposed new Parliamentary Assembly. | (Abstract) The Overview aims to analyze merits and limits of the book Pour un traité de démocratisation de l'Europe (Seuil, Paris, 2017). In the first section, the author argues, in agreement with the theses presented in the first part of the book, that the facile formula of the "democratic deficit" is a misrepresentation of the real democratic problems of the EU institutional system. In the second part, the author takes issue with the proposal to establish a new parliamentary assembly for the Eurozone, composed of four fifth of national MPs delegated by national parliaments from the Eurozone and of one fifth of MEPs, formulated in a new "Draft treaty on the democratization of the governance of the Euro area" (T-Dem), and expounded in the second part of the book.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2018 3(1), 45-57 | Overview | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. An intergovernmental parliamentarisation of the Euro area. - III. A new economic Constitution. - IV. Two sets of practical issues. - V. Conclusion: dark matters and alternative paths. | (Abstract) The T-Dem is both important and welcome as it is more important than ever for scholars to engage with political debates, in a perspective that constructively puts forward both specific and ambitious reform proposals, designed to meet the acute challenges the EU is facing. We welcome that the four scholars take this seriously enough to propose an actual draft treaty. This gives some fresh air to the debate on the future of the EU and reminds us that treaties are not set in stone. The main thrust of the present commentary argues that the T-Dem goes far beyond its - admittedly central - proposal for the creation of an Assembly of the Euro area composed of national MPs. We argue that the T-Dem envisions a new parliamentary-intergovernmental political order, as well as a new economic constitution for the European Monetary Union composed of 19 of the 27 EU Member States. We try to assess the practical issues involved in the T-Dem especially in relation with the composition of the proposed new Assembly and the ratification process of the treaty. We try to anticipate the unintended but expected effects of the creation of a parliamentary assembly of the Euro area. We identify where the T-Dem could be further elaborated (the economic constitution dimension) and its main problem area (the relation between the new assembly and the European Parliament). Given the difficulties identified, we finally claim that the alternative consisting in empowering the European Parliament, is preferable.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2018 3(1), 19-31 | Overview | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. The diagnosis. - II.1. A sometimes contradictory diagnosis. - II.2. A partially convergent one. - II.2.1. The EMU as a "meta-policy". - II.2.2. The normative power of the market. - III. The solutions. - III.1. Relevant solutions. - III.2. Insufficient solutions. | (Abstract) T-Dem is not fully convincing, but it is a good start. Writing it has forced us to think in terms of the solution rather than in terms of the problem. But, in order to come up with the right answer, a good diagnosis needs to be made. In this Overview, I argue that the drafters of T-Dem have formulated an accurate diagnosis: economic governance is run by an opaque jumble of administrations, but fails to see that it is the result of the transformation of the Economic and Monetary Union into a meta-policy, reducing national political space for the benefit of transnational technocratic institutions. As this meta-policy is transnational by nature, a transnational assembly is a relevant solution. But the power vested in it are insufficient. Without any real political powers, the Parliamentary Assembly cannot reach the core of this meta-policy.

The paper reflects on the contribution that pedagogy can, and must, make to politics to reaffirm the values of peace and democracy: this is a particularly urgent task at the present time and for future scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Education Sciences & Society is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cittadinanza Europea is the property of FrancoAngeli srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The triumph of liberal democracy coincides with its progressive vulnerability, visible in the economic and social inequalities, in the global expansion of populist language and communication. This paper explores some causes, reflecting on the impact of the digital revolution on human beings. In fact, the breathlessness of liberal democracies is the mirror of a lack of perspective, especially political, that even individuals are experiencing in the digital age. To see and feel in perspective and depth, when everything is lost in the details, in the shower of images and information, the individual must do exercises of political imagination. Without imagination, politics loses the ability to observe reality from different points of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2016 1(3), 1033-1040 | Dialogue | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. A Missing Piece: Throughput Legitimacy. - III. Issues of Representation. | (Abstract) Carol Harlow provides us with a nuanced and sophisticated assessment of the development of the EU's formal lawmaking processes and their legitimacy implications. She places particular emphasis on the important notion of executive legislation. That naturally puts the focus on delegation and principal/agent theory, which is discussed in relation to the EU in general. With regard to legitimacy, Harlow discusses both the input and output dimensions. The article brings in some of the crises-driven changes or mutations that the EU is presently experiencing. In this contribution I focus on some of the core notions in the analytical framework that Harlow constructs, with particular emphasis on legitimacy, representation and democracy.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2016 1(3), 783-790 | Overview | (Abstract) Since 2009, austerity and the pressure for decreasing public spending in Europe have strongly targeted welfare services such as transport, healthcare, social services, culture and education, etc. In order to understand the current situation of welfare services in Europe today, one must take a step back and look at the broader development what has been the role of the EU in the marketization of public services? And to what extent has contestation mattered in that regard? From an institutionalist point of view, the EU has exhibited a bias towards negative integration, that is policies relying on competition and marketization. This is explained by the building the Single Market through liberalization directives and the institutional strength of competition law. Yet, legal and institutional factors (including case law) do not have a deterministic, mechanic effect on policy making. One needs to look at the political battles surrounding welfare services, and especially mobilization of left wing political actors (including radical left or social democratic parties, trade unions, and associations from the global justice movement) against marketization policies. Main contentious episodes have included protest against the EU Services directive, the campaign calling for an EU Framework directive on welfare services, and the global mobilization against the General Agreement on Trade in Services. The study of politicization through coalition formation and discourse provides evidence that politicization could occasionally able to slow down or hamper marketization. Yet, the EU has consistently acted as a catalyser for the marketization of welfare and continues to do so. Today, in the aftermath of the Eurozone crisis, austerity and marketization are two sides of the same coin.

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This paper develops the theme of youth education and training by following at least three fields of analysis, which are mutually interrelated. The training process, the role of educational agencies, and pedagogy will be investigated in light of a new interpretation of the image of young people and of the one of youth that is free from rhetoric and clichés. A close look will be taken to the characteristics of current anthropology trends, focusing on the impact that such categories as fear and risk exert on training processes. The ultimate aim of this investigation will be to outline the main traits of youth crisis from a pedagogical perspective in terms of a crisis of personal development and human fulfilment, which is even more important than professional fulfilment, and of the transformations affecting rational and non-rational dimensions of the person. By referring to the social condition and to the range of interpretive paradigms inherent in current epistemologies, the paper is aimed to find the source of the demand that young people directly and indirectly express today also through non-verbal languages, alternative “signs” and “images” that do not fall within the traditional pedagogical canon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The movement for the commons has emerged in the past decade in opposition to neoliberal policies of privatization of resources and services. It claims the right to occupy publicly- and privately-owned spaces and to use them according to the principles of self-government and direct democracy. In the Southern European context, the movement for the commons has focused on the grassroots restructuring of public services otherwise eroded by austerity policies. This paper investigates the trajectory of the movement for the commons in Palermo and highlights how a social mobilization with a critical approach towards private property and socioeconomic inequalities has been partially co-opted by the public administration through an institutional rhetoric promoting legality and participation in public spaces. From the legal point of view, this process translated into the negotiation of a top-down administrative, regulation establishing that the commons should be managed through a public-private partnership. The risk is both the political weakening of the movement for the commons and the social marginalization of vulnerable subjects inhabiting the city centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Aurora: Papeles del Seminario María Zambrano is the property of Seminario Maria Zambrano and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Aurora: Papeles del Seminario María Zambrano is the property of Seminario Maria Zambrano and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this paper is to examine the greek squares as the possible icons of a democracy's renaissance in Europe. Places as Syntagma square or Klafthmonos square played an important role since the rise of the anti-austerity movement in Greece and during the last election campaign. The images of the greek squares seem to suggest the idea of a postmodern incarnation of the ancient Athenian agora and are strictly linked to the success of Syriza and Alexis Tsipras. In this report the author (who has been in Athens during the days of the last elections) will try to focalize the attention on the representation of social conflict in Greece in the last five years and on the role played by the squares images in the semiotic battle between supporters and critics of austerity and in the Syriza rising to power. Trying to enlighten the relation between icons and politics this paper will focus the distinguishing feature of the new agorà symbolised by greek squares and the link between squares and political parties like Syriza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Democracy, or what everyone is worth (Thuc. II 37, 1) The paper addresses two exegetical problems in a passage from the speech of Pericles (Thuc. II 37, 1). It is argued that the word μέρος probably means «rotation» rather than «class-affiliation», since in this way three successive phrases, instead of being tautological, form an elegant system of affirmations, each of which is precising the previous one. The words ἀξίωσις and ἀξίωμα are opposed as signifying the process of acknowledgment of ἀρετή and the result of it (be it gaining authority, recognition of merits, appointment to a post, or simply approval of a proposal in an assembly). If ἀξιώματος depends from κεκώλυται and not from ἀφανείᾳ, ἀφάνεια need not have the meaning «absence», which seems not characteristic of it.

The paper focuses on the lectures given by Piero Calamandrei in 1952 at the University of Mexico, which were collected in the famous volume Processo e democrazia published by Cedam in 1954. The volume, translated in China in 2005, has aroused lively interest among Chinese scholars. The Author expresses his appreciation for the scholarly tradition stemming from Calamandrei and, in particular, he emphasises the profile of judiciary’s autonomy and independence, which distinguishes liberal and democratic systems from authoritarian ones. Lastly, the Author dwells on the relationship between judges and lawyers, which should take place in a climate of active and mutual trust.

The paper analyses the genesis of social rights in the Italian legal system and examines the complex debate on the social question, which was animated by different awareness. The debate was inspired by Santi Romano’s crucial reflections in the early 1900s and continued throughout the century thanks to the contribution of important jurists, including Piero Calamandrei. The Florentine jurist is credited with having clearly outlined the different legal structure and political function of social rights compared to the traditional rights of freedom. A special attention is therefore paid to Calamandrei’s interventions during the Constituent Assembly debates, which resulted in the full recognition of social rights in the 1948 Republican Constitution.

The paper focuses on the emergence of the European Federalist Movement between the two World Wars up to the establishment of the Association of European Federalists in 1944. The Author pays particular attention to Piero Calamandrei’s significant contribution to European federalism. The Florentine jurist envisioned federalism as closely linked to regionalism and peace, in an international context marked by a world divided into two opposing blocs by the Cold War.

Copyright of Annali di Storia delle Università Italiane is the property of CISUI: Centro Interuniversitario per la Storia delle Universita Italiane and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role that the notion of political obligation has in the thought of the Italian philosopher of politics and law Alessandro Passerin d’Entrèves (1902 - 1985), especially in its relationship with the democratic regime and forms of resistance on the part of citizens. By analyzing the author’s main arguments in this regard, it seeks to demonstrate the flexibility of the author’s concept of State, and the importance of philosophy as a point of intersection between morality and law, constituting itself as an instrument of phenomenological approach to the forms of human association.