THINKING ABOUT THE TREATY OF MAASTRICHT AS A MOMENT OF "FRACTURE": THE PROCESS OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM

The article examines the Maastricht Treaty in a historical and comparative perspective, focusing on its economic and constitutional implications. The Maastricht Treaty is therefore contextualised in a historical process, highlighting the attempts of the European constitutional state to deal with the crisis of the so-called "embedded liberalism" after the fall of Bretton Woods. This process had significant economic and political backlashes worldwide. In Europe, the Seventies were characterized by high economic instability, especially considering the currency system and the growing public debt. Since then, the need for a new form of capitalism"s democratic embeddedness arose with the aim to shape a new balance between capitalism and democracy. Though full of contradictions, the Maastricht Treaty represented an attempt to cope with this changing economic and political world order. At that time, the Italian political system was facing an in the long run unbearable economic instability and the Maastricht Treaty represented an opportunity to foster a reform of the political and economic system "from outside" through an "external constraint", as Guido Carli defined it. It was not the first time in the Italian history. A new process began and, full of contradictions and inadequacies, is still ongoing.