Alessandro Ferrara’s Sovereignty Across Generations

Alessandro Ferrara (Università degli Studi)

"How is it possible for there to exist over time a just and stable society of free and equal citizens, who remain profoundly divided by reasonable religious, philosophical, and moral doctrines?" (John Rawls, Political Liberalism)

Alessandro Ferrara’s work explores and develops John Rawls's answer to this question, and in his most recent book, Sovereignty Across Generations (OUP, 2023), he focuses on how the question extends "over time," or across generations. In response to current populist threats to democracy, he argues that the sovereign "people" is best understood as the trans-generational author of the constitution.  

This symposium on Ferrara's book will involve commentaries by Richard Bellamy (University College London), Sebastiano Maffettone (LUISS), and Ingrid Salvatore (Salerno) and responses from Ferrara himself. It will be chaired by Tom Bailey (JCU).