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Some Thoughts on the Relationship Between the Rights of Freedom and Equality in the Italian Constitution

Dino Fiorot

The rights of freedom and equality in the context of contemporary political thought developed in two different conceptions: the liberal that favors the right to liberty and the socialist that favors the right to equality. The Italian Constitution makes a new and different kind of relationship.

In practice the right to freedom is engaged as the primary value underlying the principle of democratic legitimacy that guarantees the civil rights regarding the protection of citizens against any prevarication of power and political rights on the involvement of citizens in the management of power. The right to equality is placed instead as a primary value on the basis of the morality of a social-economic order in which at all citizens are guaranteed the social rights. Based on these considerations, the rights of freedom and rights of equality in the Constitution are not in competition each other, but incorporated into a democratic order in which the principle of liberal-democratic legitimacy is integrated with the principle of social-democratic legitimacy.