Il materialismo storico come metodo della riflessione costituzionalistica di Salvatore d’Albergo

The aim of this paper is to stimulate the new generations of constitutional law scholars to deepen the work of a legal expert considered by the most heretical, since, inspired by the Gramscian idea of the philosophy of praxis, perceived as expressive of the responsibility of the social function of intellectual, pursued the practice of “telling the truth to power”. The paper therefore aims to outline the characteristics of the method used by Salvatore d’Albergo in the analysis of public and constitutional law. A method inspired by the Gramscian philosophy of praxis and therefore of an interdisciplinary nature and inserted in the perspective of history, which aimed at a unitary and organic knowledge and therefore critical of reality. Some applications of this method can be identified in the demystification of the category of “material constitution” developed by Sergio Panunzio and developed by Costantino Mortati and in the criticism of Norberto Bobbio's theory on the “non-existence of a Marxist theory of the state”. From the vast work of d’Albergo, some essays can then be identified that critically analyze the causes of the transition from the phase of the democratization process of the seventies, to the phase of the modernization process of the eighties of the twentieth century, up to the current phase characterized by a profound Issn 2421-0528 Note e commenti Diritto Pubblico Europeo Rassegna online Fascicolo 1/2022 50 democratic, economic, social and environmental crisis. Furthermore, some valuable indications are drawn from the reflection of d’Albergo to get out from the phase of regression and to start again a democratic and progressive path.