Does it still make sense to reflect on the right of resistance in democratic states of law? And first and foremost, what is the political significance of ‘resistance’? In what way does it differ from other forms of opposition and change? With respect to who or what is it right and opportune to oppose resistance? And again, is it possible to delimit the con-fusion of powers, in other words the enormous influence and conditioning of globalized economic and ideological power? Ermanno Vitale examines the traditional theories of the ‘right of resistance’ in light of the new dimensions that political, economic and ideological powers have assumed in the contemporary world and proposes a definition of constitutional resistance whose purpose is to defend the social pact in extreme cases in which it is reasonable to doubt the trustworthiness of the institutional guarantees.