Il concetto di sicurezza e le politiche per la sicurezza

In their introductory remarks of their article dealing with the concept of security and the security policies Eugenio Pizzimenti and Alberto Vannucci point out that the most important function of modern states is the guarantee of citizens’ security. They consider security as a collective problem: the institutions dictate prescriptions about the behaviors (or states of the world) which are prescribed, forbidden or permitted, providing a behavior model of conduct which is supported by a set of coherent expectations about the future actions of other persons. Whenever one or more social actors perceive that some of their rights are being seriously challenged by an external actor who assumes the intensity of an existential defy, securitization sets in, which is, among other things, a symptom of the potential failure of the ordinary political processes. Rights are intrinsically inter-subjective. A condition of relative security is a second best, that is, an equilibrium which, among other things, includes (and stabilizes) relationships of a conflictual nature or of an imperfect coordination, since in the real world rights are only imperfectly delineated. Hence, transaction costs are needed, in order to define, protect, capture, or transfer resources control rights. In the modern political theory there two approaches to the security problem: that of the voluntary exchange between rational political actors, and that which is founded upon the concept of political identity and acknowledgement. Security may be seen as a policy idea, as well as an object of public policy.

Eugenio Pizzimenti, Alberto Vannucci, Il concetto di sicurezza e le politiche per la sicurezza in "RIVISTA TRIMESTRALE DI SCIENZA DELL’AMMINISTRAZIONE" 4/2005, pp 51-76, DOI: