Il problema della competenza e la rappresentanza democratica: l’«immediatezza» nella gestione di Covid-19

Anno LV, n. 228, maggio-agosto 2020

Covid-19 has brought attention to the opposition between representation and knowledge, which now seemed neutralized by the «ideology of immediacy», that considers the presence of mediators completely superfluous. The aim of this paper is therefore to bring attention back to the constitutive foundations of representative democracy to highlight how the need to respond immediately to the popular will is inherent in its original structure. To proceed in this direction, we will focus on the concept of «immediate democracy» proposed by Pierre Rosanvallon especially in two of his works: La légittimité democratique. Impartialité, réflexivité, proximité (2008) and in the recent Le siècle du populisme. Histoire, théorie, critique (2020). This analysis demonstrates how what appeared unprecedented in the management of Covid-19 is a completely understandable procedure for a representative democracy if we are aware of the developments that have defined its conformation over the last few centuries.