Cittadini per scelta. Difendere le libertà dalla democrazia

The classical, liberal rights of freedom are threatened by the populistic and authoritarian involution that increasily affects many contemporary representative democracies. The A. briefly remembers the main features of rule of law in modern and contemporary forms of liberal-democratic states: power’s division, proceduralism, individual’s primacy. He stresses also the evolution from classical to social liberal state. Historically, three different ‘roads’ to rights of freddom exist: the english one, the american and the french. With different consequences on the relations between individual and state. The right to vote is one of the main expression of individual freedom in the representative democracy. Today it is in fact threatened and manipulated by the pervasive and instrumental use of social networks, as well shows Jason Brennan in his Against Democracy: to vote is not a right, but a power. And a power without control is always dangerous. The right to vote is an expression and a consequence of the citizenship, which is increasingly a disputed good. Perhaps, only a citizenship founded more on duties than on rights can save modern democracies.