THE ITALIAN REFERENDUM EVOLUTION IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Keywords:
Italy, direct democracy, referendum, people’s initiative, quorumAbstract
The paper proposes a review on the nature and the role of referendum in representative democracies and it develops a comparative study of the constitutional bases of this tool in Italy. Then, the essay focuses on the effectiveness of the use of the referendum tool on heated debated bioethical and moral issues in the States taken into consideration. Among the different ‘tools of democracy’, direct democracy (i.e. referendums and initiatives) and participative/deliberative democracy are gained increasing popularity. They are increasingly being used address problematic and complex issues that affect the citizenship rights, as well as the status of minorities. Lastly, the future referendum perspectives are attempts to reinvigorate the functioning of the Italian representative institutions through the direct democracy tools with a people’s initiative for a proactive referendum.Downloads
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