Global Law vs National Law? Sovereignty and Representation. Italian-American dialogues on Costitutionalism in the 21st Century

The present Chapter, after briefly analysing the notion and the historical developments of representation, examines from a constitutional law perspective the relevant relationship between political representation and sovereignty, focusing on the form of state. In an increasingly globalized world, the traditional components of the state (people, territory, and sovereignty) are often perceived as inadequate to fully grasp the complexity of the current situation. This weakness also relates to the challenges posed by the globalized world to political representation, here specifically explored concerning the erosion of the concept of representation and to the crisis of representative mechanisms. Finally, the Chapter analyses the electoral system's impact on the performance of political representation, also adopting a comparative approach. Specifically, it focuses on the Italian case concerning the main "locks" affecting the electoral matter and referring to the recent decisions of the Italian Constitutional Court on the topic.