Back to Government?: The Pluralistic Deficit in the Decisionmaking Process and Before the Courts

Back to Government?: The Pluralistic Deficit in the Decisionmaking Processes and Before the Courts, Symposium. University of Trento, Italy, June 11-12, 2004

Back to Government?: The Pluralistic Deficit in the Decisionmaking Process and Before the Courts

Back to Government?: The Pluralistic Deficit in the Decisionmaking Processes and Before the Courts, Symposium. University of Trento, Italy, June 11-12, 2004

Economic and social conflicts, integration and constitutionalism in contemporary Europe. LEQS Discussion Paper No. 13/2009 November 2009

Concern for economic and social conflicts remains one of the most defining features of contemporary political and constitutional systems. This is particularly evident in Western democracies where political alignments are traditionally conceived along the left-right divide, a conflict line whose current configuration is reminiscent of the ideological cleavages associated with the 19th and 20th Century class struggles. This type of conflict (hereafter, first type conflicts), alongside playing a crucial role in the shaping of national political identities, has prominently featured in constitutional history as one of the main variables contributing to the rise of constitutional democracy

The first EU measures in response to the economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis

The article examines the first EU response to the economic consequences of the CoViD-19 crisis, consisting in a mix of measures including the loosening of state-aids and budgetary constraints on national economic policies, temporary purchases of national public debt by the European Central Bank, a set of loans assisted by conditionality and transfers of limited amount based on the EU budget. On the basis of this analysis, the article suggests that the CoViD-19 crisis does not seem to have prompted a reconsideration of the structure of the EU economic governance. In particular, the Union appears still structurally unable to develop meaningful forms of transnational solidarit