Ruolo della giustizia e crisi del potere politico

Abstract

The recent successful action of the judiciary against the mafia and political corruption in Italy is explained by the new model for relations between political and judicial power, which has both long term and short term origins. A first part of the essay outlines past phases in the history of the Italian political system when the judicial power was dependent from the political government - during the liberal and fascist regimes - and more recent phases when it was at least formally independent - in the republican regime A second part of the essay explains how in the eighties the magistrates were heavily conditioned in their action by the governing political parties and a few successful trials against mafia and corruption were vanished. A third part describes present strong action and the roots of its success in the current crisis of transition to new political institutions that lets wide autonomy to courts. The risks of a direct popular legitimation of the judicial power and the need to exit from this exceptional contingency into an actual regime of independence of the judicial power are outlined in the conclusion.