Oltre lo specchio. Trumpy-Dumpty e la crisi del Rule of Law

Abstract

Beyond the Looking Glass: Trumpty Dumpty and the Crisis of the Rule of Law  - The first year of Trump’s second term has been widely described as a grave sign of crisis for American democracy—and beyond—and as a dangerous authoritarian turn in the rule of law. The muscular use of executive orders, in particular, appears to signal a constitutional derailment. Yet, to grasp the problem in depth, one must ask what deeper forces have enabled Trump’s rise, and whether he represents the cause of the current turmoil or rather the symptom of a broader crisis within Western liberalism. These developments must be situated within a longer-term transformation marked by the expansion of executive power and the normalization of emergency governance, as well as by growing identity-based polarization that has eroded constitutional fairness. The article argues that the future of American liberalism depends on our ability to distinguish between a contingent deviation and a systemic crisis, and on the reconstruction of a sustainable balance among rights, limits on power, and democratic legitimacy.

Keywords: Constitutionalism; Liberalism; Rule of Law; Democratic Crisis; Trump