Parlamentarismo, liberalismo, democrazia. Per una rilettura della filosofia politica kelseniana
Revistas
Teoria Politica
Teoria Politica 2014
Parlamentarismo, liberalismo, democrazia. Per una rilettura della filosofia politica kelseniana
Parlamentarismo, liberalismo, democrazia. Per una rilettura della filosofia politica kelseniana
Ficha técnica
This essay stems from the idea that, almost one century after its first reception in Italy, Kelsen's democratic theory can still provide thought-provoking insights regarding what makes liberal, parliamentary democracy a unique form of government, and an invaluable philosophical universe despite its many frailties. Through a comparative analysis of the three most significant works Kelsen's political theory —namely, Vom Wesen und Wert der Demokratie (1920), Das Problem des Parlamentarismus (1925) and Foundations of Democracy (1955)— the essay critically engages with the philosophical and political questions that inspire Kelsen's theory of democracy: the tension between liberty and equality within democratic societies; the fiction of popular sovereignty as a precondition for the preservation of liberty; the antithesis, both epistemological and political, between autocratic and democratic regimes; the dynamic relation between minority and majority and the pivotal role of compromise within the everyday practice of democratic politics; the involution of political representation and the need for substantial reforms for strengthening both the accountability and the transparency of political parties and representative institutions. Such a critical and comparative analysis will finally allow to understand the main feature of parliamentary democracy in the eyes of Kelsen: liberalism grounds democratic politics on a philosophical relativism that entails the equal right of all opinions to partake in the creation of popular will and to claim for their right to be represented. At this level —Kelsen argued— parliamentarism does not constitute the legitimation of bargaining among social and corporate interests, as claimed by the anti-parliamentary reading of democracy; rather, it is the institutional and political framework of a broader Weltanschauung, that is, a distinctive philosophical understanding of the relation between truth and opinion, power and consent, liberty and equality. This is exactly what makes liberal democracy a fragile, yet unique, reality vis-à-vis the resurgence of political theologies and autocratic regimes in inter-war Europe. According to Kelsen, liberal, democratic societies acknowledge the fallibility of human politics but constantly appeal to the exercise of critical judgment by both their rulers and citizens and the respect of impartial procedures as a precondition for a never-ending process of self-strengthening.
