The topic of this PhD research are decisional mechanisms in multilevel states. In particular the focus will be on participatory and deliberative democracy forms/procedures in federal and regional countries. From a comparative constitutional law perspective, the research will analyze the constitutional (national and subnational) principles of different EU case studies in order to understand if they permit, and if they do, to which extent, deliberative and participatory democracy to enter their constitutional structures and to cohabit with representative and direct democracy.

This PhD project has two main goals: one is to develop a univocal legal definition of participatory and deliberative democracy, the other is to map deliberative and participatory processes in the analyzed multilevel countries in order to understand the qualitative and quantitative impact of these elements in the constitutional systems but also the effective need of a legislative regulation for participatory and deliberative processes.