La crisi del parlamentarismo tra integrazione europea e trasformazioni della rappresentanza

The crisis of parliamentarism is far too broad and complex a subject to be exhaustively examined within the limits of this contribution. The analysis that follows therefore develops a number of reflections inspired by a re-reading of selected writings by Beniamino Caravita, concentrating on three closely intertwined dimensions: European integration, the transformation of law-making processes, and the difficulties currently affecting the traditional mechanisms of political representation.Startingfrom the assumption that the parliamentary model established by the 1948 Constitution displayed structural weaknesses from its inception, the analysis shows how European integration has progressively relocated the main arenas of political decision-making,strengthening national and supranational executives at the expense of representative assemblies. Within this framework, the article examines the Community method, the intergovernmental method, and the more recent Euro-national method, focusing on their impact on parliamentary functions of political direction and governmental oversight. The discussion also addresses the transformation of domestic law-making processes, marked by the growing predominance of the executive and the extensive use of emergency legislation, as well as the crisis of political representation resulting from the weakening of political parties and traditional mechanisms of mediation. The article argues that the crisis of Parliament should not be understood as a contingent or exclusively national phenomenon, but rather as the outcome of structural dynamics inherent in contemporary multilevel governance. Against this background, several proposals are advanced to strengthen parliamentary involvement in the European decision-making process, enhance oversight functions, and develop autonomous parliamentary capacities for analysis and evaluation. The recovery of parliamentary centrality is therefore conceived not as a restoration of past institutional models, but as a redefinition of representative and deliberative functions within contemporary European constitutionalism.