LIBRI DI GIORGIO CARNEVALI

The essay’s intent is that of bringing back the notion of federalism to its original meaning which, in recent years (particularly in Italy) has undergone an ideological distortion. There is no doubt that federalism historically originated to provide a convincing solution of the problem of war; it can also be asserted that this political synthesis is far from Carl Schmitt’s theory. Moreover federalism finds his strenght in the fact that it has the ability of overcoming political boundaries while preserving the diversities: and this is an unquestioning quality in the globalization age.

The essay discusses the supremacy of the United States of America in the international system: is it definable as hegemony? Going back to the classical meaning of the term, we can argue that American primacy hasn’t the features of a world hegemonic regime. Hegemony requires consent, but the terrorist attack on September 11th shows that United States are far from obtaining it in the international arena. Furthermore, in spite of recent international literature, American rule in world affairs can’t be compared to the Roman Empire: no doubt American policy isn’t universalistic at all.

The article discusses a Bonanate’s essay («Teoria politica», n. 1, 2001) in which he maintains that the classical perspectives of Political Science and International Relations are unable to give reasonable explanations of the recent tranformations the world has undergone. Since at present it is impossible to distinguish between domestic and international politics, an effort of both disciplines is required to work out a new paradigm. Finally, since international democracy and human rights are at stake, the author argues that political theory cannot any longer ignore normative issues.