L’intervento dei privati nei processi decisionali di rilevanza politica: la necessità democratica di una legge sull’attività di lobbying

Mass political parties, to which Article 49 of the Italian Constitution recognizes absolute centrality, have long been the answer to the organization of the political system. The ongoing crisis of representative democracy suggests investigating further ways of expressing political participation through which political representation can be supplemented and the quality of public decision-making processes enhanced. In this essay, we will focus on lobbying activities, already significant in practice but invisible in terms of regulation, in order to support the democratic necessity of a law aimed at conferring recognition and specific regulation on the activity of representing private interests. Mass political parties, to which Article 49 of the Italian Constitution recognizes absolute centrality, have long been the answer to the organization of the political system. The ongoing crisis of representative democracy suggests investigating further ways of expressing political participation through which political representation can be supplemented and the quality of public decision-making processes enhanced. In this essay, we will focus on lobbying activities, already significant in practice but invisible in terms of regulation, in order to support the democratic necessity of a law aimed at conferring recognition and specific regulation on the activity of representing private interests.

La risposta al quesito organizzativo del sistema politico è stata fornita per lungo tempo dai partiti di massa ai quali l’art. 49 Cost. riconosce assoluta centralità. La perdurante crisi della democrazia rappresentativa suggerisce di indagare attraverso quali ulteriori forme di estrinsecazione della partecipazione politica si possa ipotizzare integrare e sostenere la rappresentanza e innalzare la qualità dei processi decisionali pubblici. Il presente saggio si sofferma sull’analisi dell’attività di lobbying, già rilevante nella prassi ma invisibile sul piano normativo, al fine di sostenere la necessità democratica di una legge volta a conferire riconoscimento e disciplina specifica all’attività di rappresentanza di interessi particolari.