Revolutionary Constitutions. Charismatic Leadership and the Rule of Law. The Constitution of the Italian Republic: Not Revolution, But Principled Liberation

In his first, masterful and provocative volume on the rise of world constitutionalism, Bruce Ackerman includes Italy among the examples of revolutionary constitutionalism, besides India, South Africa, France, Poland, Israel, and Iran. In his opinion, the Italian Constitution—which entered into force on January 1, 1948—was the outcome of a revolution; after some years, the natural fading of the revolutionary charisma, due to the political change of the revolutionary generation (1953), opened a succession crisis and a legitimacy vacuum, in which the role of the judiciary, and particularly of a strong and independent constitutional court, expanded. This remarkable effort to truly compare constitutions, and their history, leaves some ambiguity for that which concerns Italian constitutional law, which I would like to address: Bruce Ackerman’s four-stage dynamic is not a perfect fit for Italy.