Poliarchie / Polyarchies volume 2 n. 2/2019

This research presents a data set of the terrorist attacks that took place in Western countries between 11th September 2001 and 31st December 2016. The study begins by addressing both the conceptual problem of the definition of terrorism and its political significance, and the historical origins of Islamic or jihadist ter¬rorism. The data set used here is based on the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database, which has been integrated and extended using journalistic sources, scientific journals, and governmental and in¬stitutional websites. The general and specific traits of the terrorist phenomenon are investigated through multidimensional analysis of the data (AMD) and the analysis of their main components (ACP). The analysis throws into relief both the variety of the terrorist attacks and of the terrorist organizations involved, and in particular, how the modus operandi of the cells linked to Al-Qaida differ compared to those attached to other subjects or groups.

Poliarchie/Polyarchies is multi-disciplinary journal which aims at promoting the encounter of the social sciences and humanities, ranging from sociology and political science to history, economics, law and philosophy. The analysis of political and social change can indeed be investigated from different perspectives and with the help of a variety of methodological tools. Poliarche/Polyarchies embraces a range of contemporary issues: processes of supranational integration and democratization in the world; the transformation of contemporary societies under the pressure of immigration and environmental challenges; the crises of “electoral democracy” in Europe and the development of a deliberative model of democracy; the potential “clash of civilizations” and socio-religious conflict; the resurgence of nationalisms and micro-regionalism in Europe and in the world; the integration of policy processes into networks and of communities into new frameworks and governance systems. The journal has an anonymous referee system and two issues per year are expected.

Public employment is an interesting case study because it is one of the few sectors in which unions maintain a strong membership and are able to contrast sector reform policies. In this work, after a theoretical framework and a few words about the attempts to reform proposed by Renzi government, we are dealing with empirical evidence on the socio-demographic transformations of the public over the early 2000s, on the unionization of public sector, on the electoral support in the elections of union representatives, despite the adoption of moderate contractual strategies. The final part of the essay describes the specific italian ‘supply model’, observing that the confederal, pluralistic and multitasking pattern of CGIL, CISL and UIL are the main factors that explain its (relative) success.

After the stormy final phase of Rousseff’s presidency, Brazil has inaugurated a new political phase that is apparently divergent from the previous one. The election of Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency of Brazil on 28th October 2018 not only threatens to alter deeply the political and social balance in contemporary Brazil, but it could also jeopardize irreversibly the democratic institutions of the country. The article aims at outlining Bolsonaro’s character from his first steps on the political stage to the presidential election. The basis for this investigation is provided by an analysis of the basic statements in his political programme, of the conflicts and the cultural involution that his presidency is provoking in Brazilian society, and of the powers and competences that belong to the President within the Brazilian constitutional order.

This article reconstructs the main political tensions inside the Italian Catholic movement during the two pontificates of Pius IX and Pius X, therefore between the end of the nineteenth Century and the beginning of the twentieth Century. The approach outlined is historical and critical-analytical. The main currents of Catholicism, socialism and Italian liberalism are reviewed: social Catholicism, trade unionism, the positions of Luigi Sturzo, Filippo Meda, Arturo Labriola and Benedetto Croce are enlightened. In the conclusion, it is argued that, from the early years of Giovanni Giolitti’s government and of the liberal phase of the Italian post-unification history, the clerical idea of building a state without secularism becomes unreal.

The aim of the contribution is to discuss the methodological issues that emerged from recent studies on diplomatic negotiation, focusing on some useful elements for a comparison between the acquisitions of the social sciences and the historiographical approach. In search of continuity and breaks in the European diplomatic tradition, social sciences show a widespread trend to link current analysis on this topic with the first forms of a ‘negotiation theory’ drawn up between the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries by authors such as Richelieu, Callières, Pecquet. A strong intertwining of tools of sociology and psychology on the one hand, and a historical approach on the other, emerged in particular from the investigations into the context of the face-to-face: to understand what happens in the diplomatic entretien it is necessary - today as in the past -, to decipher aspects such as the communication style, the formulas of courtesy, the forms of behavior of the negotiators and the actors involved.