The identification of the constitutive principles of the concept of "institution" in the reflections of Giuseppe Guarino

Abstract

The essay aims to identify the concept of «institution» in Giuseppe Guarino’s reflection, placing it within the contemporary philosophical-political debate shaped by Roberto Esposito and his «instituting thought». The constitutive elements of institutions are identified: plurality of participants, plurality of norms, dynamism, authority, social force, and organized force. Central is the concept of «rigidity» (legal, economic, social, historical) as a constraint that conditions institutional dynamism. Guarino argues for the inherence of institutions in human life and proposes a «theory of institutions» as an autonomous science to understand the complexity of an extended and inextricable institutional network. The essay highlights how institutions, while being dynamic, maintain their identity through the balance between stability and change, recognizing the State as part of an institutional pluralism in which complex, subordinate, superordinate, and competitive institutions coexist