La turbolenta navigazione della democrazia: sussidiarietà, corpi intermedi e rappresentanza politica

In the scenario of great transformation that democracy – and political representation in particular – is undergoing, intermediary bodies are on the one hand considered obsolete in the age of disintermediation, and on the other hand they are considered indispensable for the protection and guarantee of political pluralism. This is a dangerous polarization that democratic theory analyzes in its many aspects, especially in relation to the principle of subsidiarity. The aim of this paper is to enrich this perspective. Therefore, after an introduction devoted to geometric analyses of power, the challenges posed by the “ideology of immediacy” to liberal representative democracy, and in particular to the system of political representation, will be described in detail; then, the various definitions of intermediary bodies will be recalled and considerations on their “return” after a partial eclipse will be put forward; the conclusions will be devoted to the role that intermediary bodies can play in defining a new balance between participation and representation, which is indispensable for democracy to continue serenely navigating the paths of history.