L’attacco al modello sociale europeo, qualità della democrazia e strategie dei partiti

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), democracy has experienced radical changes. In particular, the article emphasizes some challenges of historic significance: the crisis of welfare state in its various national version and of political representation. These crises are effects of long-term structural transformations in the social, economic and institutional context alleging European and Western democracies. Within this setting the threat against European social model, considered in terms of democratic quality and its subversion, was developed. In the last part, the article examines how the crisis of the welfare state impacts on parties, on their ideology, organization and especially on their competitive strategies. It will be showed up, finally, the weaknesses of the theory of cartel politics