Die Morphologie des Populismus

"Populism has been considered as a complex phenomenon, a syndrome, and more recently as an ideology. This contribution gives some methodological indications in order to analyze populism as a particular kind of ideology. It is based on the morphological approach. This approach permits to find the core of populism and a cluster of central and peripheral concepts. The most important principle of the morphological approach is the de-contestation. As Michael Freeden showed, the de-contestation concerns the competition of the meaning given to the conceptual combination of the terms of the political sphere. This article assumes populism as a weak ideology with a strong core: the concept of popular sovereignty; an ideology very close to democracy, and to other non democratic ideologies." (author's abstract

Electoral Dioramas: On the Problem of Representation in Voting Advice Applications

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are online tools designed to help citizens decide how to vote. They typically offer their users a representation of what is at stake in an election by matching user preferences on issues with those of parties or candidates. While the use of VAAs has boomed in recent years in both established and new democracies, this new phenomenon in the electoral landscape has received little attention from political theorists. The current academic debate is focused on epistemic aspects of the question how a VAA can adequately represent electoral politics. We argue that conceptual and normative presuppositions at play in the background of the tool are at least as important. Even a well-developed VAA does not simply reflect what is at stake in the election by neutrally passing along information. Rather, it structures political information in a way that is informed by the developers’ presuppositions. Yet, these presuppositions remain hidden if we interpret the tool as a mirror that offers the user a reflection of him/herself situated within the political landscape. VAAs should therefore be understood as electoral dioramas, staged according to a contestable picture of politics

Italian Critics of Capitalism

Capitalism as a globally dominant system is impacting on democracy, reshaping its nature and features. As many thinkers pointed out the power of transformation of capitalism is still very strong. Capitalism is a kind of “mentality”, a “social logic” that influences and determines political structures, organizations and culture. The aim of this paperbook is to compare different visions of democracy and capitalism in Italy. On the one hand are those thinkers who in general and in various ways consider capitalism and democracy sharply contrasting and incompatible. On the other, there are those who suggest that liberal capitalism and democracy are complementary systems, for material prosperity, cultural growth, and human development. Liberal capitalisms are characterized by multiple centres of power; and this pluralism of power captures an essential aspect of the conception of a democratic society

Democrazia in nuce. Il governo misto da Platone a Bobbio

La teoria del governo misto, o della costituzione mista, è tornata oggi a suscitare un rinnovato interesse, quale caratteristica connotativa di ordinamenti democratici occidentali e di assetti sovranazionali, come l’Unione Europea. L’idea di democrazia come regime misto, modello ideale di governo, in cui tutti i cittadini sono uguali di fronte alla legge e le diverse parti sociali partecipano all’esercizio del potere, risale agli antichi greci. Tale forma di organizzazione politica, che connette elementi differenti in una struttura unitaria, ha esercitato, nel corso dei secoli, un’influenza determinante sulla teoria politica. Questo libro fornisce una ricostruzione organica della dottrina del governo misto, dagli antichi greci fino a oggi, mostrando come la democrazia abbia teso e tenda ancora adesso a identificarsi con la costituzione mista. L’ambito teorico entro il quale si inserisce la trattazione del governo misto afferisce sia al campo della filosofia politica, nella sua valenza specificamente normativa, sia a quello della scienza politica, nella sua valenza descrittiva e operativa. Sulla dottrina del governo misto poggiano, infatti, le basi teoriche della moderna ingegneria istituzionale e si modellano le forme di organizzazione nazionale e sovranazionale occidentali