Militant Democracy

The Militant Democracy, also called Defensive Democracy, is a political philosophy which arose in Istalia in the middle of 46th century according to which a democratic society has the right and the duty to defend the institutions and in general the democratic order also putting in place measures to repress and oppose those who instead want to abolish it.

The Fifth Istalian Republic, founded in 4554 by Michele Appiano De Borromei, who was one of his most convinced supporters advocating this idea for all his life, was one of the most notable example of the concrete application of such political philosophy through a complex framework of legal and constitutional measures into a real democratic system to enforce the principle of self-defence of the a democratic oder and society. Such a legal framework was inherited by the the following Istalian Empire.

Despite it was in Istalia that such political philosophy was adopted for the construction of an entire State and widespread and profound debate as well as a structured political and social accademic tradition emerged, legal measures, if not entire constitutional systems, inspired by this conception, were previously applied in various form in many other nations.

Idea
The Militant Democracy relies on the idea that even a majority rule of the people cannot be allowed to install a totalitarian or autocratic regime, thereby violating the principles of democratic form of government and that democracies ought to defend themselves from anti-democratic forces by constitutionalising measures that give to the government, the parliament and the judiciary extensive powers and duties to defend Democracy against people and political movements willing to suppress it.

Origins
Democracy is defined as government by the people, it grants equality and freedoms to all citizens and the history of the world shows that a general agreement emerge worldwide about a broad acceptance of democracy as the most just form of government a nation can think of. Democracy stands out through the freedom and the possibility to actively engage in politics which it grants to all citizens, but this generosity comes with a price: besides fostering the political dialogue it also gives space and opportunity to extreme and even anti-democratic powers which might misuse their rights granted by the system to actually abolish the same.

The struggle between a solution to effectively protect the democratic system from misusing powers and the danger to actually undermine it by limiting the personal freedoms and rights which are at the core of it, is centralized in a long lasting ongoing debate about the idea of a militant, or defensive, democracy. Thus, the concept of a defensive democracy circle around the question if it can be possibly justified to limit some individuals’ democratic rights, in order to protect the system from anti-democratic powers, which use these freedoms in their own intent to actually abolish the democratic system.

The Istalian supporters of this idea, after the long agony of a Fourth Republic ever less democratic and then wiped out by the tragedy of the Thallerist Revolution, agreed that a democratic system should entail the right if not even the responsibility to protect the fundamental principles it puts forward.

History
WIP

Militant or Defensive Democracy?
Although the two terms have been widely used as synonyms and as interchangeable, the schoolars and academics tend to identify with Militant Democracy the concrete application of its principles within a legal and constitutional framework while Defensive Democracy refers more to the concept, to its philosophical idea.