Is There a Comprehensive Explanation?

Abstract

Thinking over the empirical results, discussed in the previous chapters, we have to acknowledge that there is no direct intertwining between the freedoms and equalities when checking the domestic and external explanations. At the same time, the immediate and strong tension that also emerges in our analysis of freedoms concerns the contradictory demands of citizens about achieving security to cope with terrorism, with security that comes first. When reflecting on the data presented in the previous chapters, we can single out three patterns. The first is balanced democracy, characterized by the attempt of implementing both freedoms and equalities. The second is protest democracy, where the more substantial attention to equality is complemented by different possible types of protest, of a revendicative kind, a weak rule of law and inter-institutional accountability. The third is unaccountable democracy, where there may be relatively higher equality, complemented by weaker freedoms and above all the absence or the weakening of inter-institutional guardians who were relevant in establishing democracy. Corruption may be present along the lower side of the triangle to reinforce both patterns. The last part of the chapter proposes an overview of the literature about the questions addressed in the book. However, as in the published literature, there is no empirical work that addresses our questions, but works that address similar questions concerning equality only, freedom only or also the entire democratic regime.