Abstract
Autore:
Piana Daniela
Titolo:
"Il costituzionalismo visto da vicino. Uffici giudiziari come unità di analisi a partire dal caso studio di Torino"
The concept of constitutionalism is widely known and used in political theory. Much less easily it is used to describe political phenomena and to carry on empirically oriented political research. This paper envisages a way to give the concept an empirical meaning that could be detected and monitored by observing social and institutional reality. It claims first the existence of a substantive link between the constitutionalism – as a phenomenon – and the mechanisms by means of which actors who exercise the power are held answerable to those who are affected by their exercise of power. It unpack the concept of accountability in five dimensions and shows that with this analytical lenses it is possible to cast light on the system of justice administration as a pillar of a constitutional political system. The paper has two points of originality. The first is the empirically oriented analysis of the constitutionalism. The second is the idea of conducting such analysis at the local level, meaning by “local” the level at which the interactions among actors and social networks can be detected. The author offers an overview of the different instruments used in the judicial district of Turin to hold judicial actors accountable. The conclusion drawn is not normative – the case of Turin is not taken as a template – rather it is mostly epistemic and cognitive – that is to say that the case study shows the heuristically profitable character of the analytical grid based on the multi-dimensional conception of accountability.
