The university held its annual public meeting in the university’s library Monday, discussing the history behind the American federal observance of Constitution Day.
Director of Kent State’s Florence program Fabrizio Ricciardelli, Ph.D., addressed 12th and 13th century Italy’s influence on the American constitutional founding, sparking an engaging democratic discussion.
Constitution Day commemorates the signing of the United States Constitution, which happened on September 17, 1787.
The event began as Dr. Ricciardelli discussed the roots of democracy, seeing total government participation and the influence of early self-governing Italian city states Florence (1138) and Siena (1125). He used many paintings by early Italian painter Ambrogio Lorenzetti to help visualize his discussion of Italy’s historical significance.
“History is the melting pot of everything,” said Ricciardelli, while discussing shared values in democratic systems.
A panel of three Kent State pre-law students, Trevor Walton, Meredith Blair and Alex Karpowicz joined the discussion, moderated by Chris Banks, Ph.D., a constitutional law professor at Kent State.
The students brought questions to ask Dr. Ricciardelli, beginning with a conversation on key concepts of liberty, virtue and the common good which then led into the challenges representatives face in upholding a republic form of government and the constitutional governance in Italy and the United States.
“The quality of the republicanism we find in these areas or other areas of Europe is not comparable to the updated values we might find in northern and central Italy, meaning cities like Siena and Florence,” Ricciardelli said. “Their need of sharing common values was determined by the need of finding a common space in the community and to have the chance of creating a common life.”
The discussion was centered around the value of democratic systems in modern Europe and the United States.
“We are privileged to live in democratic systems, this goes without saying, because I am here talking to you, discussing and sharing my ideas,” Ricciardelli said. “You have the possibility of having a voice, and this is real democracy.”
Professor Banks emphasized freedom in a republic and the importance of giving power to the people.
“Also the idea that we need to be represented fairly so we can have elections that are rotating and public and one that is returning power back to the people on a periodic basis,” he said.
Discussion came to a conclusion with Ricciardelli defining what he believed to be an important core value of democracy by emphasizing the distinction between political powers.
“I think that the core value of any democracy is guaranteed [by] the subdivision of powers into many offices, let’s say. Now again, this is put into practice by our constitution,” Ricciardelli said. “Justice needs to be free by default.”
Lauren Bischof is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
