Sulla relazione sicurezza-libertà nei regimi democratici. Analisi teorica e ipotesi di ricerca

The article analyses the relations between security, freedom and democratic quality at a conceptual and theoretical level. In the first part of the article some preliminary definitions and conceptual clarifications are given. In the second part, the article reviews explanatory hypotheses, dwelling on the problems that each explanation leaves unsettled. The balance between security and freedom is one of the essential conditions of he quality of democratic regimes. State security calls without exception for the discouragement and repression of crime as essential functions of those holding legal power, which in democracy is exercised within a rule of law framework. A serious interpretative problem arises from a theoretical perspective if we consider the tensions existing between security and freedom in contemporary democratic regimes. Up to what point can democracies accept the suppression, temporary or lasting, of some forms of freedom, to raise their level of internal security? In the third part of the article there is a discussion on whether democratic quality may be obtained balancing security and freedom. To this end, an interpretative hypothesis is introduced that deepens the most consolidated explanations and opens up new perspectives for research