POLITICAL RIGHTS, CONSTITUTIONALISM AND SEPARATION OF POWERS

In recent years, the literature on democracy did not pay much attention to the relationship between political rights and separation of powers, probably because of the influence of rights-constitutionalism which has preferred the anti-majoritarian view. The aim of this article is to point out several transformations that determine a radical change in the conditions of exercise of political rights and are associated with the decline of separation of powers in contemporary constitutional systems. This analysis is based on the conceptual tools developed by Luigi Ferrajoli in Principia Iuris and, particularly, on the distinction between functions of government and functions of guarantee. The final suggestion is that the epistemic distinction between political judgment and knowledge is essential in any form of representative democracy but relies on pragmatic rules about distribution of epistemic authority that became extremely unstable in contemporary societies.