Fascicolo 20 | 2021
Questo numero segna una tappa importante nella vita della rivista: dieci anni dall’inizio delle pubblicazioni e venti numeri pubblicati.
Massimo de Leonardis, Introduzione
Massimo de Leonardis, Ottavio Barié: Maestro di studi storici e gentiluomo
Abstract – One of the consequences of the Anglican schism was the interruption of the diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Kingdom of En-gland. The necessary contacts were kept through unofficial agents. In particu-lar, the period of the Stuart monarchs witnessed the short re-establishment of official diplomatic relations, which on the contrary became impossible when after the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688/89 the Pope continued to recognize as Kings de jure the Catholics James II and his son James Edward. In 1766 Pope Clemente XIII ceased to consider the Stuart as the legitimate kings and this permitted to resume contacts, which were favoured by the outbreak of the French revolution, opposed both by Rome and London. The article is the draft introductory chapter of a volume in preparation on the diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1982.
Abstract – The article aims at assessing how and to what extent the Trump administration has affected trade relations between the United States (US) and the European Union (EU). In order to do so, and taking into account the general framing of virtually every Trump-related political issue in terms of a “break” from business as usual, the article identifies the Trump administration’s consistencies with and deviations from the more traditional course of America’s trade policy,
including the setting off of infamous “trade wars”. After providing an insight of the US and the US trade policy governance system, the article continues pointing out the regulatory divergence between US and the EU as a relatively overlooked yet critical aspect of their mutual trade relationship – one where the effects of the Trump administration can be argued to be especially significant, both in economic and political terms. Finally, regulatory divergence is further explored focusing on the different main rationales – science-based evidence and precautionary principle
– underpinning US and the EU respective systems of protection against the risks connected to goods and services’ production and exchange.
Abstract – In this paper we analyse the documents of two prominent international financial institutions (IFIs), the IMF and the World Bank, in order to shed light on how these institutions conceived of the role of the State since the 1990s, and legitimated the reform of State institutions. By paying particular attention to the question of State reform, we argue that IFIs played a strategic role in providing for a “global” framework to guide and legitimate
the transformations of the State at national level. On more empirical grounds, we perform a diachronic analysis of IFIs’ discourse on the State, by comparing three junctures: (a) the 1990s, i.e. the crucial decade of the ‘globalization project’, (b) the global financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath, and (c) the current Covid-19 crisis. Through the development of a detailed account how IFIs conceive the State and its role, the paper aims to make sense of the State– market relations on a more pragmatic way, and in the light of both junctures of economic expansion and crisis. In the final section, through a preliminary analysis of the documents produced during the Covid-19 pandemic, we highlight also some possible innovations in State discourse compared to the previous phases. In the light of the empirical analysis, the main argument of the paper is that IFIs conceived the State as key to the long-term development and preservation of market economy.
Abstract – Twenty years have passed since the attacks of September 11, 2001, a date that represents one of the most dramatic moments in our recent history. The chronicle is well known: on a late summer morning a perfectly coordinated terrorist commando launches a devastating attack to the heart of the United States of America. Two planes hit the World Trade Center Towers, one the Pentagon and a fourth aircraft crashes in a Pennsylvania field, after the passenger rebellion. All in less than two hours. A time so short, but enough to plunge millions of people into a nightmare, that will lead in few months to international conflicts, financial crises and social effects in some cases irreversible. The purpose of this essay is to analyse the main consequences of the 9/11 attacks, especially in the United States of America but also in the “Western world”, to better understand the real effects of this event, with a focus on the political, legal, social and economic areas.
Abstract – The complex relations between central and local governments have always been under the lens of the academic analysis, from both a juridical perspective as well as a political and institutional perspective. The present state of global sanitary emergency, with its deep impact on the delicate balances among the main constitutional bodies, has revived in many countries the centereriphery dichotomy, extremely evident in the decision-making process related to the sanitary containtment’s measures. In Italy, the need of granting the health protection as one of the fundamental principles of the Republican Constitution of 1948, has brought the central government to resort frequently to the Decrees of the President of the Council of Ministers (DPCM). A purely administrative tool adapted to the State of emergency, the DPCM – especially the first ones – represent a form of high discretionary decision-power exercised by the Council of Ministers and, ultimately, by the President of this governmental collegial body. By imposing a series of sanitary measures which impacted primarily on the individual liberty as well as on the right to work and, ultimately, on the entire national economic system, the introduction of DPCM unleashed a heated political debate about the correct distribution of competences between center and periphery – considered, especially that, since the constitutional reform of 2001 all the regional governments enjoy a substantial autonomy in the management of the public health system. Given these premises, the aim of this essay is to show how this bitter partitical confrontation about center-periphery relations in a state of sanitary emergency is nothing but
another evidence of both the missed fulfillment of the regionalist project contained in the Italian Constitution, and, consequently, a serious systemic Italian problem in overcoming the centralist model of government.
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