CRITERIA OF PUBLIC POWER’S LEGITIMACY: 3 R D CONTENT OF THE CONCEPT

OF CONSTITUTION
In order to justify its existence, it must have the consent of those who are subject to it, in this sense, the constitution
became the normative guarantee of the legitimacy of public power. A first form of the involvement of citizens has
already been developed before the turn to the individualistic paradigm in political philosophy, let’s think about the
ancient holistic forms of government including popular participation like the Greek poleis and the roman republic. 
here, the fundament of public life was still a shared myth on the origin of the community or the fiction of a kinship.
A similar approach can be found in the constitutional tradition which was influenced by the REFORMATION,
especially in its Calvinist and Puritan version, even here popular participation was not rooted in the autonomy of
individuals but was required as a testimony of the compliance with the message of salvation.  some radical
expressions of the Calvinist-Puritan constitutionalism can be considered as anticipations of the requisite of a proto-
democratic legitimation of public power.
Very interesting is the “Agreement of the People” of 1647, which was entirely concentrated on the representative
assembly. Indeed, the ambiguity of the Calvinist-Puritan emerges in it. => it set the idea of self-organization of the
social and political community, this idea is set against the background of God’s will.  the same spirit also inspired the
founding documents of the New England Colonies:
- The “Fundamental Orders of Connecticut” of 1637
- The “Massachusetts Body of Liberties” of 1641
Moreover, the affirmation of the centrality of the citizens’ will in the construction of the society was very much
connected with the proclamation of individual rights, as we can see in the section III of the Virginia Bill of Rights of
1776: “government is to be instituted for the common benefit, protection and security of the people; and when any
government shall be found contrary to those purposes, a majority of the community has an indubitable and inalienable
right to reform it.” Similar idea taken by the AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE of the 4th of
July 1776, and of the DECLARATION DES DROITS DE L’HOMME ET DU CITOYEN of 1789: the idea of the
bottom-up legitimation of public power is realized in the competences attributed to the representative assemblies with
regard both to the law-making function as well as to the control of the executive.
ELECTORAL SYSTEM
It is difficult to legitimate public power by the citizens in a direct way if the state is characterized by large size and a
significant number of inhabitants.  so, direct democracy has developed into representative democracy.
Electoral systems are those systems which allow to translate the number of voted cast by the citizens into a
corresponding n. of representative in the parliamentary assemblies.  the way in which the n. of the votes cast and the
n. of the representative correspond, determines the characteristics of the distinct electoral system.
4 kinds:
1. Plurality system: also known as “first past the post”, the national territory is divided in as many constituencies
as the number of representatives to be elected. In each constituency the candidate is elected who in one turn
gets a relative majority of the votes.
2. Majoritarian system: the dividing of the territory in constituencies is the same, however, it requires that the
candidate gets a significant majority of the votes.  meaning that in the 1st round the candidate elected has to
get at least a simple majority of the votes, which if it does not happen, then there is a second round, in which
the candidate who gets the most votes in the 2nd round is considered elected.
3. Proportional system: it is the most widespread, indeed 80 countries adopted it. Even here the territory is
divided into constituencies, however each one elects not only one, but many members of the parliament. There
are 3 relevant elements in this system:
a. Dimension of the constituency
b. Electoral threshold
c. Mathematical formula which is adopted to transfer the percentage of votes into a certain n. of seats.
2 most common formulas:
i. “highest average system”
ii. “largest remainders system”
4. Mixed system
THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLIES
These are the constitutional organs that represent the citizens. In some countries the parliament is composed of only
one chamber => unicameral parliaments.
In many other countries the parliament is bicameral where we usually find a Lower House whose functions are pretty
similar in all countries (exercise the main part of the legislative power) and a Upper House.