ABSTRACT: The documents outlines three possible statutes for the Radical Party, relative to three hypotheses of refoundation of the party. These lead to a refounded Radical Party as subject of transnational law, of mixed law and of national law, with a probable separation of competences between the party's international and national organs.

Following are all the changes which the party will need to undergo in terms of designation, Statute, symbol, organs, headquarters, etc, in order to become an association of citizens of different nationalities which constitutes itself into a party to contribute in deciding the policies of the national States. While it cannot participate in national elections, the possibility for its members to run on tickets of other parties is not ruled out.

Lastly, the text contains the organizational guidelines of the party of transnational and national law which refounds itself changing symbol and name, and characterizing itself with a double designation and maintaining the Statute of 1976.

DOCUMENT COMMISSION '87

Throughout the proceedings of the two joint Commissions, three hypotheses of Statute of the Radical Party have been outlined, which obviously point to three hypotheses of political refoundation of the Radical Party.

In the first hypothesis, the Radical party refounds itself as a subject of "transnational law", setting the political subjects of international relevance as its only political competence. Any other issue of strictly and exclusively national importance is alien to the party and therefore is not regulated by its statute but entrusted to the independent initiative of its militants. This achieves a clear-cut separation between the radical party's transnational political activity and other national political activities entrusted to independent subjects.

This hypothesis originates from the belief that only an act of clear separation with regard to the "conservative" drive inside the party, and the full and formal expression of a political can enable to achieve the transnational political project, all the while stimulating the necessary public debate.

In the second hypothesis, the radical party constitutes itself as a subject of "mixed law", transnational and national. The federal party is charged with the competences on international matters, whereas the national radical parties, as organs of the party, are charged with matters of national relevance. It is the hypothesis of the separation between transnational structure and activity and national structures and activity, albeit in an organic relationship inside the party.

It is the "intermediate" hypothesis which tends to give a consistent impulse toward the creation of the transnational party, all the while maintaining the political heritage acquired in particular in Italy.

The third hypothesis outlines a Radical Party which would fundamentally be a subject of "national law", sided by organizations of "transnational law" created in view of specific political objectives.

The last hypothesis is justified by the need for a further experimentation and enhancement of the transnational policy in order to verify its feasibility, before carrying out any statutory reform in a transnational sense.

The Commissions have therefore traced the general lines of the three statutes corresponding to the three hypotheses of refoundation and of political project; it is implicit that only after the choice of the party model will the draft statute be prepared in a short period of time.

1. PARTY OF "TRANSNATIONAL LAW"

The Radical Party refounds itself, changing its name, "(transnational) Radical party", "designation", statute and symbol. It is not a free association of Italian citizens created to "contribute with democratic method in deciding national politics", but an association of citizens of different nationalities who constitute a party to contribute in deciding the policies of the national states. Its "source of law", its "juridical basis" are the "Declaration of the Rights of Man", the "European Convention of the Rights of Man", and the democratic national constitutions which respect the principles contained in first two Charters.

Its "designation", therefore, is the "active defence of the three fundamental laws". The preamble of the current statute becomes the first article of the statute of the transnational party.

The (transnational) Radical Party is formed by the members, the radical associations and the federate associations (radical or not). The party's organs are the (transnational) Congress, the "regional" Congresses, the (transnational) Council, the President and the board, the Secretariat, the (transnational) Treasurer, the "regional" treasurers, the board of auditors. By "regions" we mean multinational areas decided by the congress according to territorial and political criteria (e.g. Community Europe, Eastern Europe, Mediterranean Europe, North America, etc.). Each regional congress appoints a federal secretary who is part of the secretariat, and the delegates to the transnational congress.

The conditions for joining the Transnational radical Party are the same as those established by the current statute, and those who are already members for 1988 may confirm their membership to the Transnational radical Party if they wish to.

The (transnational) Congress, formed by the delegates elected by the regional Congress, and by the delegates of the radical associations, meets once every three years and defines the guidelines and the general orientations of the party, and appoints the President of the Radical Party and the members of the transnational Council. The regional Congresses, formed by the members, which meet once a year, establish the political objectives to be pursued in the respective regional areas, in conformity with the guidelines and general orientations, elect respectively the secretaries and the delegates of the transnational Congress. The seat of the secretariat and of the services should be in a central city with respect to the regional area of greater concentration of members, whereas the seat of the President may be the city where there are larger structures and best political conveniences. It might be useful for the congress to periodically define the party's "official" languages in relation to the existence of a min

imum number of members speaking a given language, writing all the party's documents in the "official" languages, and charging the radical associations with the task of preparing documents in the other languages that are not spoken by the established minimum number of members.

The Radical Party's are represented by the individual fees of the members, the contributions of the federate associations, other contributions from individuals or corporations which have no associative bonds with the party.

The radicals Associations are formed by a minimum number of members, established by the federal party's congress, with the objective of pursuing, without a common territorial reference, self-established and self-financed objectives. They cannot represent the members of a territory. The minimum number varies in relation to the different "nationalities" of the members of the association.

The transnational Council is formed by members elected by the regional congresses and by the transnational congress. The Council may appoint a first secretary among the secretaries elected by the regional Congresses. The secretaries and the treasurers participate, without the right to vote, in the proceedings of the Council. Associations of radicals or non-radicals may join the (transnational) radical party at a federative level, following a political and financial agreement between the respective directive organs. In relation to the size of the association and to the financial contribution, the federation agreement includes the right, for the federate association, to appoint one or more members among its associates in the transnational council and in the secretariat.

Though the possibility for the radical party to present lists at national elections in order to pursue its transnational objectives defined by the first article of the statute cannot be ruled out, in theory at least, it seems appropriate to exclude this hypothesis, at least on a transitional basis, to underline its feature of transparty. In the latter case, the secretary of the Radical Party could not be summoned, for example, by the President of the Italian Republic for consultations relative to the formation of the government, but only for consultations relative to international issues.

The right for each single member to participate in national elections on tickets of other parties or on tickets which are formed exclusively or prevalently by radical members remains unchanged. The associations or the electoral committees or the parliamentary groups which may be formed can join the (transnational) Radical Party on a federal basis following a political and financial agreement between the respective directive organs. On a transitional basis, the refoundation Congress represents and recognizes the Italian radical association "Radical Party" (detainee of the symbol of the "rose in the fist" and beneficiary of public funding to the parties), initially formed by all former secretaries, former treasurers, former members of the federal Councils as well as by all parliamentarians and ex parliamentarians elected on radical tickets, members of the radical party at the date of summons of the congress. Such association will approve its own statute, appoint its own organs and establish relations with its

members. Such organs will stipulate the federative agreement with the (transnational) Radical party, which will expire at the end of the legislature. At that date, the organs of the association "Radical Party" will autonomously establish whether or not to renew the association to the (transnational) Radical Party on a federal scale, and its electoral choices, if there are such.

Even though it is not part of the tasks of the (transnational) Radical party to define the conditions of organization of the association "Radical party", it is advisable for it to constitute itself prevalently as an electoral committee, with forms of membership submitted to the examination of the founding members and of the organs, and with a correspondence between its political organs and the parliamentary organs of the elected.

2. PARTY OF '"TRANSNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LAW"'

The Radical Party refounds itself, changing its name, "(transnational) Radical Party" and symbol. But contrary to the previous hypothesis, it devises a double "designation" and fundamentally maintains the statute of 1967.

On the one hand the federal (transnational) Radical Party pursues the transnational objective of the '"active defence of the three fundamental laws"', on the other hand the regional parties established on a territorial basis "with self-determined and self-financed purposes" and '"governed by its own democratic regulations"' pursue national objectives in complete independence.

The statute of 1967 may be maintained, with the exception of a few variations, by simply replacing the word "regional" with "national".

Following are the consequences in practice.

The (transnational) Radical Party is formed by the members of the party, the transnational radical associations, the national parties, the radical associations which join the party on a national scale.

The organs of the federal party are the (transnational) Congress, the (transnational) federal Congress, the (transnational) Secretary and the board, the (transnational) Treasurer, the board of auditors.

In this second hypothesis, the seat of the organs of the federal party must be a central city with respect to the regional area of greater concentration of members.

As far as the matter of the "official" languages and the conditions for the constitution of the transnational radical associations are concerned, the regulations provided in the previous hypothesis may be applied.

The national radical parties, which are formed on the basis of a minimum number of members residing in the same country, have their own statute, their own congress, their own organs and decide independently the conditions for the participation (or not) in national elections.

In the latter case, the symbol of the national radical party, not the one the transnational party, should be used.

The only political and statutory problems arise on the question of a balanced division of forces and resources between the transnational entity and the national one, and therefore on the question of the self-financing and the model of national party.

While the fact that the condition to join the national party is joining the transnational party seems to be obvious, a choice must be made on the division of the membership fees between the two entities. The hypothesis of a self-financing on the part of the national parties of their specific activity seems to be preferable to the hypothesis of a destination of part of the fee to the national activity.

A further reduction of the problem of the competition between the transnational and the national entity, with the purpose of correcting the trend of a concentration of forces and resources in the context of the national parties, is the hypothesis of an Anglo Saxon party model, which restricts its action prevalently to the elections and whose organs coincide with the parliamentary ones for the national parties that have a consistent number of members to be recognized as such but not an electoral representation; in any case, it would be appropriate to imagine a reduced context of national activity. The activity of the federal party should be exclusively financed by the membership fees and the extraordinary donations of the national radical parties. It is to be hoped that public funds be used in favour of independent subjects which can provide supranational services.

3. PARTY AND '"NATIONAL LAW"'

It is the simplest hypothesis in terms of statute, as it does not involve any significant change with respect to the statute of 1967. The transnational associations are associations of radicals or non-radicals, created in view of specific political objectives and which make agreements of federation with the radical party.

An example of this are the association "Altiero Spinelli" for the United States of Europe or the association for civil rights in the countries of the East.

In order to privilege this kind of association, at the same time urging the transfer of forces and resources in the transnational direction with the purpose of subsequently passing to one of the previous hypotheses, it is necessary to think of statutory corrections.

The responsibility of the direction and coordination of the transnational associations should be entrusted to a vice secretary, elected by the Congress, having identical powers as the secretary for the enactment of the transnational policy. The vice secretary is sided by an executive board. Similarly, it is necessary to think of an ad hoc treasurer with the task of administering the self-financing policy. The same congress should furthermore establish the share of funds to devolve to the transnational policy.

The involvement of the party's other bodies in the process of the construction of the transnational party could be ensured through sessions of the federal council focussing entirely on international politics.