Citizenship rights and feasible federalism: a reflection on the Italian Constitution
and the draft of European Constitution
The Italian juridical and economic system, for a not random coincidence, is at
the center of a double flow of pressures: at European level, it takes part in the
constitutive phase of a solid and structured public framework, forerunner of new,
feasible federal schemes; at national level, there is the challenge of actually realizing
the new constitutional scheme based on the idea of a fiscal federalism. In this
paper, the author firstly examines the matters to be faced at the internal level. In
particular, the ties between the constitutional innovations (introduced with the
new Title V) and the remaining part of the Constitution. Two aspects are investigated
in-depth: first, the issue of the essential levels of civil and social benefits to
be guaranteed on the whole national territory. Secondly, the way in which the
equalisation system should be implemented. The domestic analysis is then projected
at the European level, to show the essential knots which seem to be settled
at this level in the perspective of a reinforcement of the core fiscal powers of the
European Union. Between the two contexts, the author identifies a precise link:
the idea of political citizenship and democratic participation which lives as much
as fed and supported by solidarity and equalisation duties, as shown by the theory
and the practice of fiscal and budget literature.