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The crisis of globalisation, the rise of autocratic competitors to the liberal-democratic model, the return of symmetric warfare on European soil, the problem of energy resources and global disparities in accessing them, the consequences of the Anthropocene on the lives of millions of people around the World, are just some of the problematic issues that new generations of scholars and academics are called to answer in the next decades. This impressive conjuncture of critical phenomena reveals the exhaustion of an entire mindset, which belongs to the Twentieth Century and, in particular, to the illusion that the History was over, together with some of the most harmful Nineteenth Century’s legacies: industrial pollution, economic and social inequalities, radical nationalism and imperialism. In other words, it looks like the Utopian visions of the past – and especially the ones related with the Western liberal thought – have come to terms with their limitis which, in their turns, have produced a series of dystopic effects in the real World. Given this general picture, it is not so surprising to note a revival of dystopian narratives in literature, tv series, film-making and a variety of other cultural products. Placed within a broader interdisciplinary research project focused on the penetration of dystopian narratives in the Twenty-First century’s collective imagery (as well as the analysis of the political role played by dystopias in present times) this collective work brings together the thoughts of seven young doctoral students, who read some of the most crucial issues of our times through the lenses of utopia and dystopia, as well as by different disciplinary perspectives. From the challenges related to the natural resources management and the energy transition to the rise of alterative political models to the Western liberal-democracy, each essay accounts for the long term impact of utopian theories and ideas over time and their eventual dystopic effects

A focus on the role of the Crown in the building of an Italian identity between 1878 and 1922

Il Piano per la Ripresa e la Resilienza approvato dal Consiglio europeo del 17-21 luglio 2020, e denominato Next Generation EU, rappresenta una decisione di straordinaria rilevanza nella storia recente dell’integrazione europea: una rilevanza non solo quantitativa, per il complessivo valore del piano, ma anche qualitativa, per la decisione di autorizzare la Commissione a reperire ben 750 miliardi di euro sui mercati internazionali, attraverso l’emissione di titoli di debito europei. È proprio quest’ultima caratteristica del piano ad aver portato molti studiosi, opinionisti e personalità di alto profilo istituzionale a parlare di un “momento hamiltoniano” dell’Europa, con riferimento al processo di integrazione finanziaria e fiscale alle origini dell’esperienza federale statunitense. Prendendo spunto dalla letteratura comparata sui federalismi, con una particolare attenzione agli studi che mettono a confronto il caso statunitense con quello europeo, il presente saggio propone una comparazione diacronica tra le misure finanziarie e fiscali adottate dai patrioti americani per risollevare le sorti della Repubblica nel mezzo della Guerra d’Indipendenza, e le misure europee di contrasto allo shock economico seguito alla pandemia di Covid-19, allo scopo di saggiare la bontà dell’analogia storica che attribuisce alla presente congiuntura europea il titolo di “momento hamiltoniano”. A tal fine, il saggio adotta un approccio interdisciplinare che unisce gli strumenti euristici della storia delle istituzioni a una puntuale analisi del quadro giuridico europeo., The Recovery and Resilience plan approved by the European Council of 17-21 July 2020, known as the Next Generation EU, introduced a decision of extraordinary importance in the recent history of European integration. The aforementioned importance is both quantitative, due to the total amount of money involved in the plan, and qualitative, since it gave the Commission the power to raise up to 750 billion euros on international markets through the issuance of European debt securities. It is precisely this last feature of the plan that has led many academics, opinion leaders and high-profile institutional figures to speak of a “Hamiltonian moment” for Europe, with reference to the process of financial and fiscal integration at the origin of the US federal experience. Building on a well-established comparative scholarship on federalism, with a particular focus on the literature that contrasts the US case with the European one, this essay offers a diachronic comparison between both the fiscal and financial instruments adopted by the American patriots to revive the fortunes of the Republic in the midst of the War of Independence and the European measures to counter the economic shock following the Covid-19 pandemic. By means of a diachronic comparison, this essay will test the validity of the historical analogy that ascribes the title “Hamiltonian moment” to the current European situation. To this end, the essay adopts an interdisciplinary approach that combines the heuristic tools of institutional history with a detailed analysis of the European legal framework.

L’internamento dei militari italiani nei lager nazisti dopo l’8 settembre 1943 pone ancora oggi diverse questioni di analisi storiografica; tra queste, assume particolare rilevanza il tema della pace visto sia come lo strumento attraverso cui i prigionieri hanno contrastato il nazifascismo sia come lo stato interiore raggiunto attraverso la preghiera e l’introspezione spirituale. Parimenti importante, inoltre, il tema della resistenza non armata come fondamento del futuro stato repubblicano., The imprisonment of the Italian soldiers in Nazi lagers after 8th September 1943 still raises various questions of historiographical analysis. Among them, the topic of peace assumes specific relevance and it is seen both as the tool used by prisoners to contrast Nazi fascism and as the inner state achieved through prayer and spiritual introspection. Moreover, it is equally important the topic of non-armed resistance as the foundation of the future Italian republican State.

The chapter tries to outline the political and institutional weight of the House of Savoy during the process of state-building after the unification of 1861 focusing particularly on the foreign affairs, a traditional area of royal jurisdiction. Analysing the firm and decisive behaviours of the three Italian kings, it is evident since the beginning how they exercised a great authority over the foreign policy of the new reign: Victor Emmanuel II not only successfully negotiated the armistice with Austria in 1849, but controlled all the diplomats and the emissaries of the government; Humbert I steered Italy’s destiny through the Triple Alliance and Victor Emmanuel III did the same supporting the decision to enter World War I. To highlight the importance of the role of the Monarchs in this process, the essay also describes the dynamic public activity of the Crown and the many royal trips abroad.

In the context of the Covid-19 emergency, the establishment of a Recovery Fund of 750 billion euro - proposed by the European Commission and approved by the European Council in the summer of 2020 - has prompted many scholars and columnists to speak of a European ‘Hamiltonian moment’. This expression refers to the origins of the US political-institutional system and, in particular, to the political insight of the first Federal Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, to build respectively a national debt and banking system, coupled by a national tax system, in order give credibility to the federal project. This brief essay reflects on the main stages of the negotiation that led to the European adoption of the Recovery Fund in the light of the American experiment. The goal is not to identify a perfect analogy between the American Hamiltonian moment and the European debt issue – a risky comparison – rather to use the historical-institutional perspective to relativize this European novelty and its consequences on the inter-state relationships on one hand, as well as between each member states and the Union on the other.

Il saggio ricostruisce il clima storico e gli orientamenti dell'opinione pubblica italiana così come restituiti principalmente dai giornali dell'epoca dopo la caduta del fascismo: in particolare viene analizzata la percezione della figura del re e del ruolo della Corona nelle sue relazioni con il regime fascista e in relazione all'evoluzione del sistema politico e istituzionale italiano., This essay reconstructs the historical climate and the orientations of Italian public opinion principally through articles that appeared in newspapers after the fall of Fascism. In particular, the essay analyses how the king and the Crown were perceived by the Italian people in their relationships with the Fascist regime and in view of the evolution of the Italian political and institutional system.

La storia dell’amministrazione americana concerne, da un lato, le norme e le prassi istituzionali che riguardano direttamente il Presidente e il suo spazio di azione esecutivo e, dall’altro, gli sviluppi storico-istituzionali degli apparati amministrativi in cui si sostanzia la cosiddetta Presidenza. Il rapporto fra Presidente e Presidenza, nel mezzo del quale può intervenire anche l’azione dei rami legislativo e giudiziario, è dunque uno dei nodi cruciali nella comprensione della complessità del sistema costituzionale statunitense. Questo saggio si propone di esaminare il tema attraverso l’analisi della presidenza Reagan e delle riforme amministrative promosse nel corso del suo mandato, con particolare riguardo alla gestione delle politiche ambientali. Nel corso degli anni ‘80, sulla spinta della crisi energetica del decennio precedente, le problematiche relative all’inquinamento atmosferico e all’impatto delle emissioni di carbonio sulla salute dei cittadini entrarono infatti a pieno titolo nell’agenda politica degli stati occidentali, divenendo anche oggetto di specifici accordi internazionali. Anche un Presidente come Ronald Reagan, il cui progetto di rilancio dell’economia nazionale non contemplava alcun obiettivo di natura ecologica, dovette dunque confrontarsi da un lato con la crescente sensibilità internazionale sui temi e, dall’altro, con un già strutturato sistema di apparati amministrativi federali e di vincoli normativi nazionali che avrebbero potuto imbrigliare le proprie iniziative politiche. L’analisi dei rapporti fra Presidente e Presidenza nella gestione delle questioni ambientali, tuttora poco approfondita dalla letteratura, rientra dunque a pieno titolo negli ambiti di indagine utili a constatare l’effettivo spazio di azione discrezionale del Presidente americano alla fine del ‘900., The History of US public administration can be analyzed from two parallel standpoints: on the one hand it is possible to observe the historical development of institutional practices and rules strictly related to the President and his range of executive action; on the other, it is possible to follow the process of administrative reforms that occurred to the apparatuses and bureaucracies belonging to the executive branch, often referred to as Presidency. The institutional relationship between the President and the Presidency is therefore one of the crucial points in understanding the complexity of the US constitutional system, since it may also include the intervention of the two other branches of government, legislative and judiciary. This essay aims at examining the topic of presidential relations within the executive branch by taking into consideration the peculiar case of Ronald Reagan presidency and the administrative reforms carried out during his mandate, with specific regard to the management of environmental policies. During the 1980s, driven by the energy crisis of the previous decade, the problems relating to air pollution and the impact of carbon emissions on health of citizens entered fully into the political agenda of the Western states, becoming eventually the object of specific international agreements. Despite the total absence of environment topics in his reform agenda, mainly focused on the re-launch of the economy and industrial recovery, the conservative-republican President Ronald Reagan was inevitably forced to confront with the raising international awareness on the topic of environmental protection, whilst trying at the same time to resist the web of federal rules and apparatuses addressing the issue, which had the potential to jeopardize his economic plans. The analysis of the relationship between the President and the Presidency in the management of environmental issues, still not thoroughly examined in the literature, may shed light to new

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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 center-periphery 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.

Over the past several years, there has been a renewed scholarly interest in the origins, waging, and consequences of the First World War. This interest has resulted partly from a quirk of timing given that between 2014 and 2019, a series of centennial commemorations kept minds focused on a conflict that many take as the most consequential war the world ever experienced. On the other hand, interest has been stimulated not so much by the past as by the future of international security, with the “return” of the prospect of Great Power war beginning to concentrate minds in ways not experienced for a generation. Since much – but not all – of this renewed interest in Great Power war relates to China’s “rise” assessed through the prism of “power-transition theory”, it is natural to analogise from the events that led to 1914. In this, at least one interesting question remains relatively unexplored: are decisions to join a war already in progress prompted by a different calculus from decisions to go to war at the outset? In particular, does “status anxiety” warrant more attention as a determinant of policy-making than it has heretofore received on the part of late entrants? This analysis argues that it does and makes the case by analysing the decision of one latecomer, Italy, to join the First World War in April 1915. Although the chief focus is on Italy, the conclusion raises the possibility that status anxiety may also have been of importance in the American decision to go to war two Aprils later.