The Italian Electoral System and its Reform: The Challenge of Consolidation

Authors

  • Francesco Clementi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5944/trc.45.2020.27110

Keywords:

electoral system, constitutional reform, political parties

Abstract

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.

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Published

2020-04-03

How to Cite

Clementi, F. (2020). The Italian Electoral System and its Reform: The Challenge of Consolidation. Teoría Y Realidad Constitucional, (45), 185–206. https://doi.org/10.5944/trc.45.2020.27110

Issue

Section

Estudios

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