«Superare la democrazia con la stessa democrazia» Potere esecutivo, unanimismo e popolo nell’Europa tra le due guerre

The essay aims to interpret the crisis of the liberal-democratic model in Europe after the First World War not only as the result of a clash between opposing worlds, but also as a collapse within democracy, defeated by its historical enemies who in the age of the masses learn to master its own tools and languages, to use them for an opposite purpose. Assuming democracy not as a regime between regimes but as a dimension of contemporary politics, three crucial issues of this internal struggle are analysed: the superfetation of the power of government over the other powers of the State; the impulse to reach abroad consensus between the masses, the last link in the European genealogy of plebiscites; the decisive role of the people as a legal actor.