Is Italian democracy sick?
Michael the Great's Notepad
Is Italian democracy sick? Let's say that, like its foundation (the separation of powers), it is not doing well: “The government has become legislator. Parliament has become administrator. The judges exercise administrative functions, occupying the offices of the Ministry of Justice, and the legislative function with their presence in the ministerial cabinets" (Sabino Cassese ). On the other hand, the transition that began with the referendum on single preference (1991) never ended. The battle against the degenerations of parliamentarism took on a palingenetic and even moral meaning, by virtue of an analysis that attributed to proportionalism the responsibility of party politics, the source of all corruption, clientelism and backwardness, as well as the unsustainable public debt. A justicialist opinion movement was thus established, which identified electoral referendums as the decisive lever with which to move from "party democracy" to "decisive democracy", guaranteed precisely by the majoritarian system and by a bipolar coalition.
The result was that every trivial government crisis was transformed into a systemic crisis. Reason why the political forces, when they were not busy challenging each other on the electoral law, did so on the reform of the Constitution, where every attempt at broad agreement, from the "D'Alema Bicameral" (1997) to the "Renzi referendum" (2016), it has sparked sensational protests, with civil war tones, which have always decreed its failure. Lastly: the facts say that the season of the majority was stingy with results not only in terms of means (governability), but also in terms of ends (structural reforms, as they were once called, economic, social and institutional ).
In an unpublished (and prophetic) text from 2005, Giovanni Sartori wrote: “[…] It is not true that the people are always right. He is often wrong. The principle of democracy is that it (the people, of course) has the right to make mistakes. But if he gets it wrong too much and too often, then democracy is in trouble. Troubles that today are aggravated by the incompetence of those in charge. Democracy was supposed to be an ideocracy and, as such, it must be understood. Instead it is increasingly a republic of braying donkeys. And a democracy explained and guided by braying donkeys cannot work. For now, we are saved by the principle of legitimacy. But until when?” (“Political representation”, Senate Library). Twenty years later, the question is still the same: for how long?
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Sabino Cassese has been supporting the need to make the regulations issued by the government and Parliament legible for a lifetime. With poor results, unfortunately. But if the legislator continues to legislate with obscure language, bordering on the grotesque and incomprehensible to most, it is the few, or rather the very few, who benefit. And this is a big problem, in fact, for a functioning democracy. Try, for example, reading paragraph 6 of article 9-bis of legislative decree no. 69 (here the matter it regulates is of little importance), converted by the Senate and now being examined by the Chamber:
“In order to ensure the balance between the needs of continuity of production activity and those of safeguarding employment and protecting safety in the workplace, health, the environment, public safety and urban safety, it is permitted the adoption of the measures referred to in article 217 of the consolidated text of the health laws, referred to in the royal decree of 27 July 1934, n.1265, or in articles 50, paragraph 5, and 54, paragraph 4, of the consolidated text of the laws on the organization of local authorities, referred to in Legislative Decree 18 August 2000, n.267, incidents on the operation of industrial establishments or parts thereof declared to be of national strategic interest pursuant to Article 1 of the Legislative Decree 3 December 2012, n.207, converted, with amendments, by law 24 December 2012, n.231, in relation to which an integrated environmental authorization has been issued pursuant to article 29-sexies of legislative decree 3 April 2006, n.152, exclusively when the conditions referred to in Article 29-decies, paragraph 10, of the same Legislative Decree no. 152 of 2006 apply or in the presence of dangerous situations in addition to those ordinarily connected to carrying out the activity in compliance with the integrated authorization environmental. The provisions referred to in the first period also apply in the event of review and renewal of the integrated environmental authorization pursuant to article 29-octies of the aforementioned legislative decree no. 152 of 2006 and continuation of the activity pursuant to paragraph 11 of the same article 29-octies".
I conclude: a fundamental democratic principle is that of "communicative loyalty". Writing clear laws consolidates the pact between citizens and their political representatives; increases the confidence of the judiciary; promotes the efficiency of public administration. When that principle is consistently and sometimes knowingly violated, the rule of law is at risk.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/democrazia-italiana-malata/ on Sat, 30 Dec 2023 05:55:47 +0000.