SEARCH RESULTS

In this article an attempt is made of presenting the deontological feature of A Theory of Justice under a new light. Through an exploration of the meaning of the priority of the good over the right and of the significance and function of the argument of the congruence between justice and individual good, the differences between teleology and deontology are displayed. Deontology seems to have several advantages: a) it allows for pluralism of values and a richer and deeper understanding of practical reason, b) is rooted in a very compelling account of agency, c) points towards an attractive conception of value. Besides, once it is properly understood that the normative content of justice as fairness is to be applied strictly only to an ideal situation and cannot be taken as straightforwardly action-guiding in the real world, we are led to an understanding of deontology that parts from ethical absolutism, makes room for a proper consideration of consequences and avoids the stiffness often imputed to deontological theories. Finally it is suggested that the development of a normative conception of character along Rawlsian lines offers promising prospects towards a proper balancing between an ethic of conviction and an ethic of responsibility.

The essay discusses the issue of the relationship between justice and law in Rawls, questioning the reasons of his inadequate theoretical consideration of the ÇjuridicalÈ. Law for Rawls is a substantially practical dimension, in which criteria of justice are applied that belong and are discussed elsewhere, on the basis of pure rationalistic moral philosophy, separated and self-sufficient. From this point derives the misrecognition of the original and conditioning logical-conceptual value of modern legitimate power and formal law. In Diritto dei popoli some quite disputable theoretical assumptions attract the attention: the fact that the domestic analogy is not considered problematic in itself, the fact that the effectivity principle is put on one side, the use of ambiguous notions such as Çdecent peoplesÈ, Çrogue-statesÈ. Rawls does not take into consideration the fact that the issue in international politics in not that of the Just, but the absence of a Third party. Or better: that the definition of what is politically ÇjustÈ and as such deserving to be realized is possible only once the problem of the Third is solved, a solution which can come only through an institutional response. Otherwise, in the name of ÇjusticeÈ, feeding that self contraddiction of universalism which simmetrically produces totalitarian, belligerent and ethnocentric drifts, we run the risk to legitimize an asimmetrical and antijurical globalism.

This essay tries to point out the most original aspects of the contribution made by John Rawls to democratic theory. Rawlsian reflection on democracy has not had as much resonance as other aspects of his political thought, even if some of his last writings have started a reflection on the prospects of renewal of the ÇoldÈ liberal-democratic tradition from a deliberative point of view. To this end it will turn out to be useful to compare the conception of democracy developed in A Theory of Justice with the one which comes out from his writings of the Eighties and Nineties. The results of the proposals put forward most recently are still uncertain, but itÕs interesting anyhow to stress the considerable evolution of Rawlsian ideas on this issue. The point is to show what has changed and to explain why it has.

The author offers a strongly critical interpretation of RawlsÕ last book, Il diritto dei popoli, in four points which correspond, in his opinion, to the main flaws and limits of the book itself, that is 1) an inadequate knowledge of the bimillenarian discussion on ius gentium, inadequacy which is the source of all the conceptual confusions that the book shows; 2) la claim of an implausible Kantian origin of the analysis and the proposal put forward; 3) the incoherence of the typology of Çfive national societiesÈ which derives from the showy confusion between the two concepts of ÇpeopleÈ and ÇstateÈ; 4) the liberal position which hinders a thorough analysis of the planetÕs true big economic, political and strategic problems.

The essay looks at the philosophical aspects of some particularly relevant phenomena of present day: globalization, American Çendless warÈ strategy, fundamentalist terrorism. The thesis put forward is that such phenomena share a theoretical and latu sensu cultural root (nichilism, fundamentalism, messianism, the refusal of dialectics an so on). Only by showing and criticizing such root it will be possible a positive way out from present dramas. The essay, in which some of the most relevant present thinkers, such as Baudrillard, Glucksmann, Severino, Levinas and Gadamer, are considered, points out the coming task of thought and action which should be a refounding of politics, the only alternative to the remnants of the totalitarian era: terrorism and pre-emptive war.

Quo vadis Europa? The question seems to be an ever-green one, as the nature of this political system is deeply interlinked with its direction, its telos. The initial telos of the Union was constructed around a set of common values: democracy, solidarity, economic growth were tools to construct a more secure environment in post World War II Europe. An institution that has developed around this founding ideas could not but produce a conception of policy, even included foreign policy, that contains this aspiration. It is most of all for this reason that the Union had developed a mainly ÇstructuralÈ foreign policy, aimed to tackle the deep causes of conflict more than its manifestations. It is equally for this reason that we frequently assist to a call for Europe which has a stabilising effect in contemporary world politics, and which adopts an ethics of responsibility in its external relations. However, the credibility of a structural power depends also on its ability to defend its values with other means when structural foreign policy fails. Therefore, the realization of an international actor that balances between structural and traditional foreign policy is functional to the full realization of the Union as a full-fledged political system.

The essay concerns he transformations of the political space and the changes of the State functions in the globalization process, focusing particularly on the recent debate about the Çempire-formÈ. Used in the International Relations research to describe the new role of Usa in the global political system after the Cold War, the ÇempireÈ idea has been recently at the center of a complex reflexion about the new sovereignty paradigm. The paper illustrates the attempt to overcome the limits of the old marxist State-debate and the imagine of a irreversible victory of the ÇmarketÈ over the State which has dominated the theorical reflexion in the last two decades. The study shows that the thesis of a definitive fulfilment of the Çwork-marketÈ Ñ Çuntil the end of the worldÈ Ñ introduces in the analisys a strong determinism, vanishing the efforts of theorical revewal.

The study of the Internet as a potential public sphere, as a place of citizensÕ empowerment, calls for a critical awareness of democratic theory. We have to account for the democratic values we apply to designs of public spheres on the Internet. In the last decade, deliberative democracy has been very popular among scholars of the Internet. In democratic theory, this model is usually contrasted with two other models, i.e., the republican and the liberal. In this paper, I will argue that democratic theorists have systematically neglected a fourth model of democracy. By analyzing Jon ElsterÕs three varieties of political theory and Seyla BenhabibÕs three models of public space, I shall demonstrate this blind spot. Furthermore, I will argue that this blind spot is detrimental in research on the Internet as a public sphere. In its basic values, this fourth model, which I call complex democracy, is diametrically opposed to the deliberative model of democracy. Therefore, in arguing its adequacy, I will provide a substantive critique of deliberative democracy. This seems highly relevant, since theories of digital democracy are biased towards deliberative democracy. I conclude by sketching a complex model of digital democracy.

Formal or Substantial Democracy? Inasmuch as it depends on a value-option, the dilemma cannot be solved. What is democracy for some, is not for others. Surely the dilemma can be used in an historical perspective. Born in the West as procedural democracy, the latter has evolved to become substantial as well. Over the last quarter of the century, though, the trend seems to be going in the opposite direction: substantial democracy, that is welfare policies, tends to become more and more a purely procedural democracy. The effects of this evolution are such that this should better be thought of as an involution: inequalities grow bigger, citizens dislike politics and care less about it, money becomes more and more important, movements appear which are quite worrying from a democratic point of view, politics suffers from a growing lack of legitimacy. For some people everything is still fine: democracy has to be in this way, it is the only way that the situation allows. This model of democracy, though is extremely thin, a sort of anorexic variant of it, which cannot promise much for the future. In closing, author puts out a final doubt: to what extent the present situation is due to mistakes of evaluation, wrong choices, superficiality, arrogance by the democratic ruling?

The article surveys recent work on global governance and proposes a conceptual framework for thinking about supranational and transnational governance arrangements. It discusses the sources of scepticism about the idea of governance beyond the state and examines the contribution of institutionalist theories of international regimes to the study of global governance. The article shows that much recent research departs from the state-centric approach of regime theory by focusing on the contribution of nonstate actors to the management of global issues. What emerges from this body of research is a mixed picture of the actual influence of nongovernmental organizations, business actors and supranational bureacracies. However, scholars studying global governance can no longer afford to neglect the role of these actors in global policy making. The article suggests a typology of governance structures that is sensitive to the complexity of global governance in this and other key dimensions.

The essay is made of two parts. The first criticizes the ethnical and nationalist interpretations of cultural community present in contemporary debate. To this end the Author introduces the notion of Çimagined communityÈ put forward by Benedict Anderson suggesting, with A. Appadurai, to delink it from the nation. In the globalization era, in fact, the whole world or at least large parts of it, can be thought of as an Çimagined communityÈ. The second part analyzes the paradoxidal survival and proliferation of Çlocal imagined communitiesÈ, next to global ones, a fact explained recurring to the three types of arguments based on the concepts of security, recognition, freedom.

In the first part of the essay the author puts forward a rather demanding model of constitutional democracy, stressing the problems which derive from the tensions arising between the elements of the liberal tradition Ñ the limits to be imposed on political power, and more generally on any kind of power Ñ and those belonging to the democratic tradition, based on the distribution of the same power in equal quota among citizens and on the sovereignty of the legislative body which represents them. In the second part, after stressing the need of some social rights, next to civil and political rights, as preconditions of the model, the author tries to test the ÇuniversalÈ viability of such model at the light of economic and financial globalization.

The essay analyzes the topic of the relationships between democracy and constitutionalism from both an historical and theoretical point of view. Once analyzed the different types of constitutionalism which derive from the different ways the following three characteristics combine: constitutional rigidity, constitutional review and supremacy principle, the Author discusses the reasons in favour and against constitutionalism. The theses put forward by Jeremy Waldram, who wants representative bodies democratically elected to have the last say on the interpretation of constitutional rights, are only partially shared by the Author, who is in favour of a form of weak constitutionalism, which provides for the possibility that the Parliament reforms the constitution with not particularly large qualified majorities.

The application of the vocabulary of rights to children is a fairly recent historical phenomenon, which is now growing steadily, not only within specialized juridical culture and law terminology, but in the public opinion in which making reference to children rights is often the most immediate and emotional answer to frequent episodes of child abuse. Moving from the saying Çthe rethoric of rights goes much faster than their theoretical definitionÈ, this essay sets out to focus on some strongly debated points which characterize the relationship between ÇrightsÈ and ÇchildrenÈ, first of all the one pertaining the possibility to recognize that children can be entitled to rights. Children, in fact, do not have the same characteristic of the adult and rational moral agent. After showing the way in which, up to Neil MacCormick, childrenÕs rights are an important test-case for theories of rights in general, the essay reviews the debate on this point which has taken place recently in anglo-saxon philosophical-juridical culture. The plurality of meanings, the ambiguities and the ideological connotation of much reflexion on children rights are, in such a way, pointed out.

In this essay the Author puts forward an interpretation of immigration as a global (for its planetary dimension), complex (for its eterogeneous and plural character) and integral (as it is a Çtotal social phenonenonÈ). A normative part follows the interpretative one, whose aim is to establish the conditions of rationality and legitimacy of immigration policies. Having criticized UE and Spanish policies in this domain, which exemplify a merely instrumental and defensive attitude toward migrations, inspired by a Schmittian conception of politics, the Author offers an alternative image of immigration and a dif-ferent model of regulation for this phenomenon, which guarantees the universal human right to free movement reflecting a model of inclusive and pluralist democracy.

Alcune considerazioni sulla possibilità di garantire la validità del coto vedado a livello internazionale (di Ernesto Garzon Valdés) - ABSTRACT- Having defined codo vedado (forbidden land) as a constitutionally protected sphere, which removes some given issues to ordinary political decisions and protects individual privacy, the Author questions himself on the possibility to guarantee the validity of coto vedado at the international level. In fact, the prohibition to interfere in StatesÕ domestic politics, guaranteed by international law, may be conceived as corresponding to the limit States must respect when interfering in citizensÕ private life. The Author demonstrates that the analogy is misleading because of the intrinsic differences between human beings and States, the use of the force within the domestic sphere and in the international arena, domestic and international law. Concluding the Author puts forward the thesis that the main difficulty in guaranteeing coto vedado at the international level derives from the lack of a free association of democratic States.

Cesare Chiodi (Milan, 1885-1969) graduated in 1908 as a civil engineer. Thanks to his experience as administrator of public works for Milan Government (1922-1925), he began working in the fields of town planning and systematic studies. His continuous research in town planning turned into the development of several activities. He was the founder and professor of the first Italian class in Town planning techniques (1929-1955) at Milan Polytechnic and for this purpose he published the manual titled La città moderna: tecnica urbanistica (1935; 2nd edition in 1945). Chiodi took part in many planning competitions, first as candidate then as member of the board of judges (1926-1948) and, in the meantime, he participated in different national and international planning conventions. Moreover, Chiodi was an active member of several important cultural associations, like the Touring Club Italiano (1946-1964). Today, the documents which make up Cesare Chiodi’s archive supply material for the development of further projects, not only about architecture and town planning, but also about historical techniques and culture between XIX and XX centuries.

There are essential features in modern Las Vegas that call for an analysis of frontier impulses in the city. Going through the elements of the historical and imaginary Old West in real and fictional Las Vegas, the intention of the essay is to show that facts and underlying psychology of residents and visitors on the one hand, and fictional characters on the other, make Las Vegas a successor of the old frontier. After having traced the history of Las Vegas, the essay analyses the increase in casino construction and the growth of the population residents and visitors that doubled in the past 14 years. From 1989 on, modern Las Vegas has really turned into a city of show business and has explored new frontiers in architecture, service industry, experience culture, and tourist infrastructure. This caused the city to deny its natural setting, avoiding the outdoor experience and concentrating entirely on the desires and dreams of the visitors that lie in the main tourist area the Strip one of the urban spaces best protected by police world wide.