What is more paradoxically democratic than a people exercising their vote against the harbingers of the rule of law and democracy? What happens when the will of the people and the rule of law are at odds?

Some commentators note that the presence of illiberal political movements in the public arena of many Western countries demonstrates that their democracy is so inclusive and alive that it comprehends and countenances even undemocratic forces and political agendas.

But what if, on the contrary, these were the signs of the deconsolidation of democracy instead of its good health? What if democratically elected regimes were to ignore constitutional principles representing the rule of law and the limits of their power?

With contributions from judges and scholars from different backgrounds and nationalities this book explores the framework in which this tension currently takes place in several Western countries by focusing on four key themes:

- The Rule of Law: presenting a historical and theoretical reconstruction of the evolution of the Rule of Law;
- The People: dealing with a set of problems around the notion of 'people' and the forces claiming to represent their voice;
- Democracy and its enemies: tackling a variety of phenomena impacting on the traditional democratic balance of powers and institutional order;
- Elected and Non-Elected: focusing on the juxtaposition between judges (and, more generally, non-representative bodies) and the people's representation.

Giuliano Amato is currently a judge of the Italian Constitutional Court, and Professor Emeritus at the EUI in Florence and at the Università La Sapienza in Rome, Italy.
Benedetta Barbisan is Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Macerata (Italy) and Visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, USA.
Cesare Pinelli is Professor of Constitutional Law at Sapienza University of Rome School of Law, and Substitute Member of the Venice Commission, Italy.