INIZIATIVA (LEGISLATIVA) POPOLARE TRA DIRITTO COSTITUZIONALE EUROPEO E PROFILI DI DIRITTO INTERNO

The increased use of instruments of direct democracy in the world can be described as the "new progressivism". In particular citizens’ initiative serves as a catalyst for reform of the political system and to improve democracy. Scholars, legislators and political activists increasingly recognize that the initiative process is an important place for defining the policies. The research aims to highlight the constitutional development of the popular legislative initiative as a democratic tool through which citizens can express themselves directly on both the national and European policy. The right of legislative initiative is not an outdated argument but rather revived. The popular legislative initiative represents a constituent of "bottom-up" participation to the national decision making process but also to the process of European integration, enriching the meanings of the institute of European citizenship. In this sense, the research proposed to contextualize the Italian regulatory framework in the evolutionary path and make a thorough examination of the legislation of other legal systems, in order to assess the ability of the European Commission with respect to a novelty which, at least in systematic manner, appears likely to (re)activate the interest of citizens.