La parabola della rappresentanza. Dal paradigma liberale all’elettore post-moderno

Abstract

Some recent electoral events – the referendum on the so-called Brexit, the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency – have again focused the debate on the validity and strength of universal voting as method of selecting leaders. The liberal-democratic model, based on representation and thus on periodic elections and representatives’ free mandate, is again called into question. The electoral systems often seem inadequate to guarantee an efficacious selection of political leaders as well as to represent the voters. Moreover, the evolution of the electoral systems and campaigns seems to cause an increasing dis-affection of the voters, who often turn to hypothetical solutions of “direct democracy.” These processes also show that the representative system can survive only if it succeeds in representing and organizing the voters’ interests.