When: Wednesday, April 27, 2022, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PMWhere: Online
Please note, this event has been postponed. An new date will be announced in due course.
The Centre for Law, Democracy, and Society (CLDS) is delighted to host a series of talks themed on 'Authoritarian Constitutions'.
This talk is on 'Authoritarian Constitutions and the Cost of Freedom', presented by Professor Fabrizio Sciacca, University of Catania (Italy).
Traditionally, constitutional democracy is based on protecting the freedom of citizens against the government. In contrast, so-called constitutional authoritarianism is based on protecting the people against the elites. So constitutional authoritarianism is a form of populism and a degeneration of constitutional democracy. Government leaders disguise a direct form of imposition by passing it off as a kind of direct democracy or popular will. The constitutional rights of liberty are thus seen not as guarantees for each individual but as the enemies of a section of the ‘vulnerable’ population, which authoritarian leaders would like to protect from the elites in the name of a misinterpreted conception of social rights. Recently, this authoritarian drift seems to be gaining ground even in constitutional democracies.
Fabrizio Sciacca is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Catania. He is a member of the board committee of the Italian Society of Political Philosophy (SIFP).
He is the Director of the Doctoral Programme (PhD) in Political Sciences at the University of Catania. He is a member of the board committee of the Department of Analysis of the Political, Social and Institutional Processes (DAPPSI) at the University of Catania.
He is a member of many scientific associations, and a member of the advisory board of “Storia e Politica”. He is a member of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR).
**Please note this is an online event and that all registrants will be sent joining details on the day.