Politics

Italy has been a democratic republic since June 2, 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by popular referendum (see birth of the Italian Republic). The constitution was promulgated on January 1, 1948.

Administrative division

Main article: Regions of Italy

The Italian State has twenty regions and about a hundred provinces. The constitution of Italy provides for twenty regions, most of them with limited governing powers. Regions are further divided in provinces. Provinces also have their own local elections. For each of the provinces, a prefect is appointed by and responds to the central government, which he locally represents. While the number of regions is somewhat stable (the only modification to the original set is the separation of Molise from Abruzzo), there has been a tendency in later years to create new provinces, such as Crotone, Verbania, Lodi, Biella, Lecco and others.

Five regions (Sicily, Sardinia, Valle d'Aosta, Trentino-South Tyrol, Friuli Venezia Giulia) have special charters granting them varying degrees of autonomy. The raisons d'être of these charters is in most cases the presence of significant linguistic and cultural minorities, but in the case of Sicily it was historically an early attempt by the mafia to create its own independent state in the 1950s. The other 15 regions were in practice established in 1970, even if their ideation had been a much earlier idea. They vote for regional councils.

Division of Powers

The 1948 Constitution established a bicameral parliament, with a lower and an upper chamber (respectively Chamber of Deputies and Senate), a separate judiciary branch, and an executive branch composed of a Council of Ministers (cabinet), headed by the president of the council (prime minister). The government depends on confidence from each branch of the parliament, and has in turn the power to make decrees. Decrees have to be confirmed in the parliament, and "decree jam" has been a problem in recent years, as governments try to reform the structure of the state using chiefly decrees instead of passing laws directly through the parliament.

Parliament

Main article: Parliament of Italy

Electoral system

The national elections have Additional Member System which is a mixed system of 75% of seats allocated using a First Past the Post electoral system and 25% using a proportional method.

Voters can cast two independent votes for the lower chamber, while the proportional 25% of the Senate is collected from the best losers.

The lower chamber has a 4% admittance threshold, while the upper has none; furthermore, an overly complicated mechanism (known as scorporo, a previously unknown word in Italian) to dampen the effect of the majoritarian system was implemented out of fear that the new system might promote a prevalence of one political party over another.

In practice, the system has proven useless, as majoritarian candidates usually declare their formal allegiance to some decoy list that will collect no votes, known as liste civetta, and relieves their own party of a reduction in votes in the proportional quota.

This dissonance in electoral systems is the result of a series of referendums that changed Italy's electoral system from proportional to majoritary; since only abrogative referedums are allowed, a complicated selective deletion of the previous law was devised by promoters, and most of its results have been left untouched. The proportional quota was added after the referendums.

National elections are held every five years, but the president of the Republic can call for earlier elections. In fact, no parliament in Italy has ever lasted its full five years, even if by a few days.

The Italian Chamber of Deputies has 630 members, of whom

• 475 are directly elected
• 155 are elected by regional proportional representation
• of whom, twelve will represent Italians residing overseas at the next elections (2006).

The Senate includes 315 elected members, of whom:

• 232 are directly elected
• 83 are elected by regional proportional representation
• six represent Italians residing overseas
• a small number of senators-for-life include former presidents of the Republic and several other persons appointed for life by a president (no more than 5 for each president), according to special constitutional provisions (scientists, writers, artists, social workers, politicians, tycoons).

Elections

Main article: Elections in Italy

Election results (April 2001):

• Senate, seats by coalition:
  • House of Freedoms 177,
  • Olive Tree + South Tyrolese People's Party 128,
  • Communist Refoundation Party 3,
  • Italia dei Valori 1 (immediately defected to House of Freedoms),
  • European Democracy 1,
  • Others 4.

• Chamber of Deputies, seats by coalition
  • House of Freedoms 368,
  • Olive Tree 242,
  • Communist Refoundation Party 11,
  • Olive Tree + Southern Tyrol People's Party 8,
  • others 1

Government

The Prime Minister is appointed by the President, and his government must be confirmed by each branch of the Parliament.

Judiciary

The Italian judicial system is based on Roman law modified by the Napoleonic code and later statutes. It is based on a civil law system. Appeals are treated as new trials, and three degrees of trial are present.

There is only partial judicial review of legislation in the American sense. Judicial review under certain conditions in Constitutional Court, which can reject anti-constitutional laws after scrutiny.

The Constitutional Court is composed of 15 judges: one-third appointed by the president, one-third elected by Parliament, one-third elected by the ordinary and administrative supreme courts. The constitutional court passes on the constitutionality of laws, and is a post-World War II innovation. Its powers, volume, and frequency of decisions are not as extensive as those of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Italy has not accepted compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice .

The President of the Republic

The president of the republic is elected by an electoral college consisting of both houses of Parliament and 58 regional representatives for a seven-year term. Its election needs a wide majority that is progressively reduced from two-thirds to one-half plus one of the votes as the ballots progress. The only presidents ever to be elected on the first ballot are Francesco Cossiga and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Mr. Ciampi is the current incumbent, and his term is due to end in May 2006. While it is not forbidden by law, no president has ever served two terms.

The president represents the unity of the state, and is present, albeit with limited powers, in all branches of the Italian state: he is elected by the law-making, nominates the executive, and is automatically the president of the judiciary. He is also commander in chief of the armed forces. In practice, the president should be above party politics, and be an institutional guarantee for all. The president can also reject openly anti-constitutional laws by refusing to sign them.

History of the post-war political landscape

campaigners working on posters in Milan, Italy, 2004

First Republic

There have been frequent government turnovers since 1945. The dominance of the Christian Democratic party during much of the postwar period lent continuity and comparative stability to Italy's political situation, mainly dominated by the attempt of keeping the Italian Communist Party out of power, to maintain Cold War equilibrium in the region.

The communists were in the government only in the national unity governments before 1948, in which their party's secretary Palmiro Togliatti was minister of Justice. After the first democratic elections with universal suffrage in 1948, in which the Christian Democracy and their allies won against the Popular front of the Italian Communist and Socialists parties, the communist party never returned in the government.

Even though many repeat the cliché that Italy had over fifty governments in its first fifty years of democracy to stigmatise its alleged political instability, Italy's main political problem was actually the opposite: in all the course of the so-called First Republic, the government was in the hands of the Christian Democrats and their allies, since it was unacceptable for a communist party to rule a western country during the Cold war. The system had been nicknamed the imperfect bipolarism, referring to more proper bipolarism in other western countries (the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France etc.) where right-wing and left-wing parties alternated in government.

The Socialists enter the Government

The main event in the First Republic was the entry of the Socialist party in the government in the sixties, after the reducing edge of the Christian Democracy had forced them to accept this alliance; attempts to incorporate the fascist Italian Social Movement in the Tambroni government led to riots, and were short-lived.

Aldo Moro, a relatively left-leaning christian democrat, was the inspirator of this alliance. He would later try to include the Communist Party as well, with a deal called the historical compromise. This was however stopped by the kidnapping and murder of Moro by the Red Brigades, an extremist left-wing terrorist organisation.

The Communist party was at this point the largest communist party in western Europe, and remained such for the rest of its existence. This was largely due their non-extremistic and pragmatic stance, and to their growing independence from Moscow. The communist party was especially strong in areas like Emilia Romagna, where they had stable government positions and matured practical experience, which may have contributed to a more pragmatic approach to politics.

The Lead Years

On December 12, 1969, a roughly decade-long period of political terrorism known as the lead years (Italian: anni di piombo) began with the Piazza Fontana bombing in the centre of Milan. A bomb left in a bank killed about twenty, and was immediately blamed on anarchists. This was hotly contested by left-wing circles, especially the Maoist Student Movement, very strong in those years in Milan's universities, who saw considered the bombing to be of fascist brand; their guess was proved to be correct, but only after many years of difficult investigations.

Some left-wing extremists, then dubbed extraparlamentarians since they referred to no institutional party, formed the terrorist organization Red Brigades. The Red Brigades, among other acts of terrorism, killed socialist journalist Walter Tobagi (seen as an enemy because he was a moderate), and, in their most famous operation, kidnapped and killed Aldo Moro, president of the Christian Democracy, who was trying to involve the Communist party into the government. The Red Brigades notably met fierce resistance among the Communist Party and the trade unions, even if a few left-wing politicians used the condescending expression "comrades who are mistaken" (Italian: Compagni che sbagliano).

The last and largest of the bombings, that destroyed Bologna's railway station, occurred in 1980. This was also found to be a fascist bombing.

Many aspects of the lead years are still shrouded in mistery, and debate is still going in regard to some aspects: to what degree the Red Brigades were actually been exploited by right-wing or possibly foreign forces to destabilize Italy or to discredit the Communist Party, and whether NATO and the United States were involved in the fascist bombings, with an alleged organisational structure called Stay behind.

The Eighties

With the end of the lead years, the communist party gradually increased their votes under the leadership of Enrico Berlinguer. The Socialist party, led by Bettino Craxi, became more and more critical of the communists and of the Soviet Union; Craxi himself pushed in favour of Ronald Reagan's positioning of Pershing missiles in Italy, a move the communists hotly contested.

As the socialist party moved to more moderate positions, the ranks of the Communist party increased in numbers, and the Communist party surpassed the Christian Democracy in the European elections of 1984, barely two days after Berlinguer's death, that likely drew sympathy in the population. That was to be the only time the Christian Democracy was not the largest party in a nation-wide election they participated in.

In these years, corruption began to be more extensive, a fact that would be unveiled in the early nineties and nicknamed Tangentopoli. With the Mani Pulite investigation, starting just one year after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the whole power structure faltered, and seemingly indestructible parties like the Christian Democracy and the Socialist party disbanded; the communist party changed their name to Democratic Party of the Left take the role of the socialist party as the main social democratic party in Italy. What was to follow was then called the transition to the Second Republic.

Second Republic

From 1992 to 1997, Italy faced significant challenges as voters (disenchanted with past political paralysis, massive government debt, extensive corruption, and organized crime's considerable influence collectively called Tangentopoli after being uncovered by Mani pulite) demanded political, economic, and ethical reforms.

In the Italian referenda of 1993, voters approved substantial changes, including moving from a proportional to an Additional Member System which is largely dominated by a majoritarian electoral system and the abolishment of some ministries (some of which have however been reintroduced with only partly modified names, as the Ministry of Agriculture being renamed Ministry of Agricultural Resources).

Major political parties, beset by scandal and loss of voter confidence, underwent far-reaching changes. New political forces and new alignments of power emerged in March 1994 national elections. The election saw a major turnover in the new parliament, with 452 out of 630 deputies and 213 out of 315 senators elected for the first time.

The 1994 elections also swept media magnate Silvio Berlusconi (leader of "Pole of Freedoms" coalition) into office as Prime Minister. Berlusconi, however, was forced to step down in December 1994 when the Lega Nord withdrew support. The Berlusconi government was succeeded by a technical government headed by Prime Minister Lamberto Dini, which left office in early 1996.

A series of center-left coalitions dominated Italy's political landscape between 1996 and 2001. In April 1996, national elections led to the victory of a center-left coalition, the Olive Tree) under the leadership of Romano Prodi. Prodi's government became the third-longest to stay in power before he narrowly lost a vote of confidence, by three votes, in October 1998.

In May 1999, the Parliament selected Carlo Azeglio Ciampi as the Republic's President. Ciampi, a former Prime Minister and Minister of the Treasury, and before the governor of the Bank of Italy, was elected on the first ballot with an easy margin over the required two-thirds votes.

A new government was formed by Democrats of the Left leader and former communist Massimo D'Alema, but in April 2000, following poor performance by his coalition in regional elections, D'Alema resigned.

The succeeding center-left government, including most of the same parties,was headed by Giuliano Amato (social-democratic), who previously served as Prime Minister in 1992-93, and had back then sworn never to return to active politics.

National elections held on May 13, 2001 returned Berlusconi to power at the head of the five-party center-right "Freedom House" coalition, comprising the prime minister's own party, Forza Italia, the National Alliance, the Northern League, the Christian Democratic Center, and the United Christian Democrats.

Political parties

a poster for the European Parliament election 2004 in Italy, showing party lists

Italy's dramatic self-renewal transformed the political landscape between 1992 and 1997. Scandal investigations touched thousands of politicians, administrators, and businessmen; the shift from a proportional to an Additional Member System (with the requirement to obtain a minimum of 4% of the national vote to obtain representation) also altered the political landscape.

Party changes were sweeping. The Christian Democratic party dissolved; the Italian People's Party and the Christian Democratic Center emerged. Other major parties, such as the Socialists, saw support plummet. A new liberal movement, Forza Italia, gained wide support among moderate voters. The Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance) broke from the (alleged neo-fascist) Italian Social Movement (MSI). A trend toward two large coalitions (one on the center-left and the other on the center-right) emerged from the April 1995 regional elections. For the 1996 national elections, the center-left parties created the Olive Tree coalition while the center-right united again under the House of Freedoms.

2001 national elections

Template:Mainarticle The May 2001 elections, where both coalitions used decoy lists to undermine the proportional-compensation part of the electoral system, ushered a refashioned center-right coalition dominated by Berlusconi's party, Forza Italia into power. The Olive Tree coalition now sits in the opposition.

This emerging bipolarity represents a major break from the fragmented, multi-party political landscape of the postwar era, although it appears to have reached a plateau, since efforts via referendums to further curtail the influence of small parties were defeated in 1999 and 2000. The constant debate among the components of both coalitions is however intense, and some observers noted in this infighting some similarities with the previous system.

The largest parties in the Chamber are (proportional system):

• Forza Italia (29.2%), a conservative, populistic and liberal party;
• Democrats of the Left (16.7%), a social-democratic party;
• the Daisy (14,5%), a catholic and left-wing liberals coalition;
• the National Alliance (12,5%), a conservative, post-fascist party;
• the Whiteflower (3,3%), a centrist-catholics parties coalition.

Similar rankings generally apply in the Senate, in which Forza Italia and the Democrats of the Left remain the dominant parties.

See also

• Foreign relations of Italy
• List of political parties in Italy