Democrazia e tutela delle minoranze

Abstract

It is not accidental that in the last few years the theme on the protection of minorities has once more become the object of a quite heated juridical as well as political debate. There are several reasons for this renewed attention: cultural, political, social, economical and religious ones. They all however converge into new considerations on a classical issue. Principles embedded in the social and cultural conscience of the western democracies such as that of equality of social dignity of every human being and the respect of his inviolable fundamental rights, are now submitted to new tensions, to the extent of reconsidering them in depth. The juridical treatment of the "new minorities" is today a momentous challenge. In this challenge, however, the constitutionalist finds something both ancient and new because the question is once again to reconcile equality and diversity, how to detect the border beyond which a reasonable differentiated treatment becomes illegitimate and unjustified disparity. The border between the "right to equality'' and "right to the difference", between "social integration" and "exploitation of the differences", is a shifting border that needs continuous verification and normative adjustments to avoid "equality'' becoming disguised "inequality''. The article intends therefore to return to the enlightened principles of constitutionalism to find the correct synthesis and a reasonable balance between such different and sometimes opposed demands.