El sistema electoral italiano y su reforma: el desafío de la consolidación

Resumen

En los veintiséis años que caracterizan a las seis últimas legislaturas italianas (1994-2020) ha habido una intensa actividad político-institucional, acompañada de una fuerte modificación del sistema de los partidos políticos. En este contexto, el sistema electoral y sus continuas modificaciones con nuevas leyes electorales ha influido fuertemente en la forma de gobierno, marcando su dinámica, tanto directa como indirectamente. Sin embargo, el rápido cambio de los diferentes sistemas electorales en los últimos años no ha estado acompañado de reformas parejas en el texto constitucional, produciéndose una asimetría en el funcionamiento de los nuevos sistemas electorales que se iban adoptando gradualmente, que los hacía sustancialmente incompletos, incoherentes y, en definitiva, frágiles. Todo ello ha terminado degradando el sistema a ojos de la ciudadanía. Las presentes notas tienen por objeto poner de relieve las transformaciones que se han producido sobre el sistema electoral, tratando de subrayar las dificultades de su consolidación, en el marco de la llamada Segunda República (1994-2020) y de su nuevo sistema de partidos políticos.

In the twenty-six years that characterize the last six Italian legislatures (1994-2020) Italy has seen, from the political-institutional point of view, an intense activity that was accompanied by a very similar vitality of the political party system. In this context, the electoral system and its continuous modifications with new electoral laws has strongly influenced the form of government, marking, by the decisive conditioning factor that represents the party system, its dynamics, both directly and indirectly. However, the rapid change of the different electoral systems in recent years has not been accompanied by an equal change in the constitutional text, so there has been an asymmetry in the functioning of the new electoral systems that were being adopted gradually, making them substantially incomplete, inconsistent and ultimately fragile. Faced with an immutability of the constitutional system, this continuous mutability in the electoral system has not only made the whole political-institutional system very weak, but also degraded it in its function in the eyes of the voters, as it seemed a clearly inefficient tool with respect to the needs of the constitutional system. Therefore, the present contribution aims to highlight the transformations that have taken place on the electoral system, trying to underline the difficulties of its consolidation, within the framework of the so-called Second Republic (1994-2020) and its new system of political parties.