The paper considers the attempts recently made both in Greece and in Italy to amend the Fundamental Charters and their relation with the wider context given by the economic crisis and the emerging challenges to the rule of law. The comparative approach allows to detect similarities between the two cases and to envisage possible solutions to restore the rule of law and protect democracy from the quick gains of populist politics. The paper describes how in both legal systems the state of the rule of law is fairly weak, seriously affecting the quality of democracy, notwithstanding a long and well-established constitutional tradition. Italy and Greece experience the threat to which western democracies are currently exposed to that of becoming essentially illiberal, because of “ill-conceived” reforms leading towards an unbalanced distribution of power and progressively increasing the flaws in the compliance to the rule of law. A challenge responsible political actors should relish.

Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICON·S Executive Committee has decided to postpone our 2020 Conference to 2021. Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021, in Wrocław, Poland.
Procedural details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow in the months ahead.
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