The relationship between freedom and equality in the theory of democracy of Norberto Bobbio: dialectic tension between social-liberalism and minimal democracy

• Grant number: 22/05867-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: February 28, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Anderson Deo
• Grantee: Anderson Deo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Giovanni Fresu ; Giuseppe Stefano Azzara
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/07084-7 - Survey and bibliographic systematization on the Democratic Theory of Norberto Bobbio, BP.TT

Abstract

The present research has as its subject the Theory of Democracy of Norberto Bobbio. In the post-doc research, I analysed the current content of liberal democracy taking into account Bobbian analysis and concepts in the face of the ascension of conservative governments in Italy and Brazil. Now the focus of the analysis will be on the reconstruction of the theoretical-conceptual path that brought the Italian philosopher to elaborate the concept of "minimal procedural democracy". This is a dialogical research based on the history of political ideas in relation to the philosophical-political content that the theme reproduces. In this sense, it is aimed to investigate possible changes, or even inflections, in the Theory of Democracy of Norberto Bobbio occurred between the late 1970s and during the 1980s, analysing the "dialectic tension" between the concepts of freedom and equality present in his works. At the same time, it is aimed to analyse how this conceptual evolution is inserted in the historical context of the period, especially in relation to the theoretical debate about "democracy" in front of the observed transformations, as the end of the Cold War, the development of neoliberalism, and the War on Terror. The purpose is to analyse the evolution and developments derived from the process of theoretical elaboration of the author in the period, its constitutive elements, convergences, and possible contradictions in the interior of his conceptual development, contextualizing him in the debate and interlocution of political ideas of his period. The research is organized with basis on the methodological instruments founded in the qualitative, exegetical, and immanent analysis of his texts, as well as of his interpreters. (AU)