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1 Contents List of Tables Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations and Acronyms xi xiii xv 1 The Nexus between Socio-Economic and Political Change in Italy: Why Does Italy Matter? 1 Why the Government and Politics of Italy Are Important 1 Italy as a Case Study for Developing Countries and Democratization 7 Italy s Vanguard Role in the Unification of Europe 9 Italy s Alternative System of Power: The Non-Westminster Model 11 2 The Impact of Economic Challenges on Italy s Political System 17 The Sovereign Debt Crisis and Its Impact on the Italian Government 17 The Reform of the Pension System (Fornero Reform) 28 The Reform of the Labour Market: The Renzi Jobs Act 31 Italicum: Electoral Reform 35 Partial Constitutional Reform: The Aborted Attempt to Abolish the Senate 39 3 Parliament: Democratization of Representative Institutions 47 The Institutionalization of Parliament and the Parliamentarization of Parties 48 The Changing Role of Parliament and the Role of the Charismatic Leader 58 vii

2 viii Contents Parliamentary Elites: Who Gets Elected and Where? 67 How Parliament Legislates: The Role of Standing Committees 71 The Gatekeepers of Democracy: The Role of the Floor 74 4 The Executive Branch: Who Rules Italy? 79 Italy s Dual Executive and the Presidentialization of the Political Process 80 The Prime Minister and the Dynamics of Coalition Government 86 The Prime Minister: Primus Inter Pares or Delegated Governance? 91 Executive Decrees as a Substitute for Parliamentary Initiatives 95 The Long Road to Implementation 98 5 The Judicial System: The Delivery of Justice under the Separation of Powers 101 The Penal, Civil and Administrative Court Systems 102 The Governance of the Judiciary 104 The Judiciary s Response to Terrorism and Organized Crime 106 The Struggle against Corruption: The Role of the Judiciary 112 Reform of the Judiciary The Electoral System and the Search for Political Advantage 119 The Nexus between Electoral and Constitutional Reform in Italy 119 Political Campaigning and Voter Turnout 124 The Unending Search for Government Stability through Electoral Reform 128 The Impact of Electoral Reform on Government Stability after The Political Party System 139 The Ideological Divide 141 The Depolarization of the Italian Political System 152

3 Contents ix The Rise and Fall of Berlusconi and the People of Freedom Party 154 The Northern League: From Federalism to Secessionism to Fascism 157 New Charismatic Leaders on the Right: Grillo and the Five Star Movement Organized Groups and Civil Society 165 The Church and the Impact of the Social Orientation of Catholicism 169 The Trade Union Movement from Subordination to Independence 178 Entrepreneurs and the Restructuring of Business Representation 186 The Redefinition of Civil Society and Its Political Representation Italy as an International Actor: Punching Above Its Weight? 195 Italy s Mediterranean Policy and Immigration 198 The External Projections of the Italian Military 207 Italian Policy towards Europe and the US Conclusions 215 The Redefinition of the Social and Economic Order under Difficult Conditions 216 What Can Be Learned from the Italian System of Governance and Politics? 220 The Italian Contribution to the Understanding of European Politics 222 Bibliography 225 Index 237

4 1 The Nexus between Socio-Economic and Political Change in Italy: Why Does Italy Matter? Why the Government and Politics of Italy Are Important The study of Italian politics has a long pedigree among American and European scholars given the country s history and economic and political turbulence over the past two centuries. After the Second World War scholars were attracted to the politics of the country due to the existence of Western Europe s largest Communist Party (PCI), which had significant roots in different social classes (farm workers, industrial blue collar workers, white collar workers, members of cooperatives, storekeepers, entrepreneurs and intellectuals) and pursued a basically democratic rather than revolutionary strategy for coming to power through the electoral process. Based on its large membership base, it governed a number of local, provincial and regional governments with reasonable success in the production of common goods for the public and was recognized as a party capable of incorporating the principles of good government in terms of policy making and administration. But the politics of the country also fascinated scholars due to the existence of the Vatican and a dominant Christian Democratic Party that exercised a monopoly of power at the national level and was able to impose Catholic cultural values and practices on the general public through national legislation on divorce, abortion, differentiation of rights between men and women, and censorship of the national media. In between these 1

5 2 Government and Politics of Italy two large mass parties, the country witnessed the existence of many other different political movements that waxed and waned on the basis of internal as well as external political events. The gamut ran from the neo-fascists (MSI) to the Liberals (PLI), Social Democrats (PSDI) and Republicans (PRI) within the central part of the political spectrum. The Italian political system also had more extremist parties on the far left (e.g., Marxist- Leninist) and on the far right (e.g., New Order, Casa Pound) agitating for a military coup and the imposition of an authoritarian regime and corporatist state. Interest in Italian politics was also stimulated by the geographic position of the country. During its first 40 years of existence after the end of the Second World War, Italy represented for many the soft political underbelly of the European continent that was flanked by military dictatorships towards the west (Portugal and Spain) and towards the east by either other military dictatorships (Greece) or Communist regimes (Yugoslavia and Albania). Given the persistent political instability of the national governments (a turnover of governments on a yearly basis) and the exasperated multi-party system, the country seemed to be constantly on the brink of political collapse. In fact, the model that was usually applied by scholars to phantom the developments in the Italian party system was the theoretical construct formulated by Giovanni Sartori of polarized pluralism (1976) predicting that the country would eventually wind up as a post-second World War copy of the Weimar Republic or Allende s Chile. However, despite its apparent shortcomings the country s political system continued to muddle through each political crisis that surfaced during the 1960s and 1970s and was ultimately successful in beating back both right-wing as well as left-wing terrorism without militarizing the society or the judicial system. For many observers Italy continued to inexplicably resist going over the political precipice but just barely. Instead, the country s political system was able to transform the recurrent political crises into subtle political changes that were slowly transforming the nature of political interactions among the various political parties and strengthening the outputs of public policy. Italy s party system in the post-war period was a dualistic system that was split between parties that could assume the responsibility for governing the country and those that could not. The differentiation in political

6 The Nexus between Socio-Economic and Political Change in Italy 3 prospects was referred to by Giorgio Galli (1978) as the imperfect two party system. In the former category of those who could assume governmental power were located the Christian Democratic Party along with its centrist allies (Republicans, Social Democrats and Liberals), and in 1964 that category was expanded to the Socialist Party. In the latter group one could find the Communist Party and the Italian Social Movement (MSI). The PCI was excluded due to its ties to the Soviet Union while the MSI was excluded because it had never fully reconciled its party programme with the democratic principles contained in the 1948 Italian Constitution. For the MSI, parliament should not be directly elected by the people but rather should represent the various sectoral groups or corporations that composed civil society. Therefore, the results of parliamentary elections were almost always a foregone conclusion: the Christian Democrats would emerge as the strongest party and would continue to rule with their centrist, and later, with their Socialist allies while the PCI and the MSI would continue to represent the opposition. In this manner the largest party of the left, the PCI, never had the opportunity to emerge as the governing party. If this had been a possibility, there was the strong expectation that the army would have stepped in to put an end to this turn of events and, finally, to the existence of a democratic political system. In reality the Christian Democrats never lost their relative majority role and when the Communists closed in on the level of the Christian Democratic vote, they proposed in 1976 the creation of a grand coalition to combine the forces of the two largest parties in a governmental alliance. This proposal was labelled the Historic Compromise. While the political system seemed to resist change, this was not the case in the economy. Italy s economic system, once dominated by the agricultural sector, was quickly converted during the 1950s into an industrial economy, and it continued to survive and even prosper in increasingly competitive European and international markets. Even more surprising was the appearance of a new, diffused form of industrialization based on small and medium-sized enterprises that cropped up in the central and northeast parts of the country in the form of industrial districts (Bagnasco, 1977; Piore and Sabel, 1984) while at the same time in other Western European countries deindustrialization had become the dominant industrial trend. An Italian form of deindustrialization

7 4 Government and Politics of Italy also appeared among the large corporations, especially the public ones, operating in Italy s former industrial triangle located in the northwest part of the country, but the negative economic effects of deindustrialization were minimized in the Italian case by the new industrialization process that had cropped up in other parts of the country. Eventually, the industrial districts also made their appearance in the former industrial triangle. At the same time that these changes in industry were taking place, the country underwent a swift and profound change in social mores. Italy witnessed the introduction of legislation on divorce in 1970 and on abortion in 1981 and these were subsequently sanctioned by popular referenda. Such changes were previously unheard of in traditional Catholic societies and were even less expected in a political system where the Catholic Church exercised a daily presence and was represented by the dominant political party. Despite the institutionalized power of the Catholic party and the position of the Church, lay social values that were reflected in Italian cinema classics such as La Dolce Vita succeeded in changing the social values of a majority of the population. During the 1970s and 1980s these lay social values triumphed over the conservative and even reactionary religious values that had long dominated civil society in the northern as well as southern parts of the country. The thesis of this volume is that the changes in social values reflected in the reinforcement of individual civil rights that took place after 1970 reflected the solid social mobility and economic changes that continue to characterize Italian society. The stimulation of social mobility in Italy can be traced to the changes in the economic base, the mass migration of southerners to the north and the expansion of the educational system to cover increasingly large strata of young people between the ages of 11 and 16. Thus, during the 1960s and 1970s the population became better educated, was geographically more mobile and had employment prospects radically different than was the case with previous generations. Finally, Italy is worth studying due to its important role in building the foundations for European integration. Italy is the home of European federalist thought through the contribution of thinkers such as Altiero Spinelli and others who laid the theoretical foundations for a united Europe and who during the early years of the European Coal and Steel

8 The Nexus between Socio-Economic and Political Change in Italy 5 Community and Common Market participated in the building and consolidation of European institutions. Part of the reason for its openness to Europe is that Italian culture has always strived towards a universalistic vision rather than a national or local one. This is also the vision of the Catholic Church, which under the present Pope but also before him continues to address universal themes and speaks to the world at large rather than to the immediately surrounding Italian society. Secondly, Italy has always had porous physical as well as cultural borders. It has been invaded and parts of its territory has been ruled by other European powers, but in the process it has absorbed influences and ideas from multiple sources that have enriched its culture and contributed to a more European-wide and less nationalistic view of its political prospects. Therefore, an understanding of Italian politics and governmental institutions helps to better understand what the building blocks of a transformed Europe are. This volume will analyse the nature of government and politics in Italy in order to understand why politics matter and how institutions are in a position to influence the development of civil society and economic change. The analysis will be conducted with an eye on other countries and developments in Europe as a whole in terms of comparisons of what is similar while at the same time highlighting the contrasts that make Italy a fascinating political system. Only in this way is it possible to fully understand the politics of Italy and how its institutions and leaders have influenced developments at the European level. This chapter will provide the overall context for understanding the political system of Italy and how that system has changed over the years in response to challenges proposed by endogenous developments as well as exogenous ones. The fundamental thesis here is that Italian political institutions have had a leading role in institutionalizing the changes placed into motion by economic and social pressures. In other words, the Italian institutional system has been able to process demands for political, social and economic change originating in civil society, the economy and contending political forces. The Italian executive branch has never been able to exercise a monopolistic role in legislative proposals, nor has it been in a position to dictate the political agenda in a complete manner. However, it has been able to work with the legislative branch to produce

9 6 Government and Politics of Italy the reforms required to modernize the country and to take advantage of integrating markets at the European and international levels. These responses to requests for legislative changes have been pos sible due to the fact that Italian political institutions have, from the very beginning, attempted to be inclusive in nature through the initial adoption of proportional representation characterized by extremely low barriers for entry that made it almost impossible for any political force that had at least 1% of the national vote to be excluded from representation in Parliament. It will be argued that at the beginning the Italian political system emphasized what has been referred to in the literature as input legitimacy (Scharpf, 1999; Lijpart, 1999) i.e., maximizing the capacity to represent political differences in society but later on during the 1970s it added the output side of legitimacy i.e., being able to solve societal demands through governmental legislation and action. This switch was made possible due to the fact that the centre of the political system was focused on the representative and not the executive branch of government. This led to the creation of an institutional relationship where the representative branch has remained strong while the executive branch has been relatively weak, and it is the executive branch that constantly has to rely on the reconfirmation of its political base in Parliament and is forced to constantly change its leaders and coalition in order to remain in power. Italian executives have always ruled on the basis of party coalitions. No one party has ever had an absolute majority. Even after the 1948 election when Christian Democracy did capture a simple majority of seats in one branch of Parliament, it decided to govern on the basis of a four-party coalition rather than attempting to rule the country by itself. On the other hand, parliamentary elections have mainly followed their natural course of taking place once the political mandates have been completed. Italian parliamentary rules even allow legislation to be passed by votes in standing committees rather than being always brought out on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate. The manner in which legislation is approved depends on decisions taken by representatives of the parliamentary groups along with the president of each chamber and of the government. In Italy private member bills are common, and they are not blocked by pre-emptive executive action. Thus, the broad nature

10 The Nexus between Socio-Economic and Political Change in Italy 7 of representation in Italy and the openness of legislative initiatives and decision making make it possible for forces from civil society to get their message through to the political institutions and thus reconfirm the open nature of the Italian political system. Italy as a Case Study for Developing Countries and Democratization In 1961 Maurice Neufeld published a book entitled Italy, School for Awakening Countries in which he argued that the Italian labour movement, despite its political divisions into three ideological groups, i.e., Communist, Socialist and Catholic, had served to integrate large strata of the working population into organized trade unionism and into production and consumer cooperatives, thereby succeeding in successfully mobilizing the working population into organized collective action groups capable of impacting political institutions. The type of collective action promoted by the trade unions was, first of all, in the defence of the working standards and salaries of the working class but also as a bulwark against authoritarian movements of the right as well as the revolutionary movements of the left. Support for Neufeld s thesis was provided by developments in the 1960s and 1970s when the trade union movement proved fundamental in rejecting the attempts by conservative forces in the Christian Democratic Party to bring the neo-fascist MSI into government as well as in denying a social base for the attempted coup in 1964 by reactionary military and industrial interests. The same stabilizing effect on the part of the trade union movement took place on the heels of the student and workers mobilization that was channelled into the formal recognition of the role of the trade unions and the workers movement in supporting changes in industrial relations and social policies and in opening up the national governmental process to the institutionalized parties of the left. Therefore, what was important from Neufeld s perspective of the Italian trade union movement was not its nominal political affiliation Communist or Socialist but the policies it supported and what it did

11 8 Government and Politics of Italy in channelling the workers movement into participation in the democratic political process. The validity of his thesis was later to be verified by the course of the democratization process in Spain and Portugal where the trade union movements were fundamental in pushing the political system towards open parliamentary democracies and competitive party systems and in helping to resist any attempt to push these two countries back into an authoritarian mould. The democratization process in Eastern Europe brought together a slightly different mix of socio-economic and political forces than was the case in the Iberian Peninsula. Important in the Eastern European context was the democratization impact of the social mobility that had been created by the Socialist regimes and the need to open national markets to external competition and investment. The dismantling of state monopolies and the positions of political privilege previously enjoyed by the leaders of the Communist party structure opened up society to further mobility but also to an increased diffusion of power among various elements of civil society. The Italian case is also instructive in demonstrating the depolarizing effect on radical anti-system political parties of, in the first place, taking seats in Parliament and, secondly, assuming responsibility to govern (Leonardi, 1978). In Italy s case during the immediate post-war period Communist and other Marxist parties in general assumed government responsibilities at the local and regional levels and eventually at the national level without placing into question the democratic nature of the political system. The 2017 Italian government headed by the Democratic Party (PD) evolved from the former Communist Party. The PCI was dissolved in 1991 in response to the disappearance of the Soviet Union (Andreucci, 2014) and subsequently went through different phases of evolution before it became a normal social democratic party in the European mould. In addition, the depolarization of the political system made it possible for the former Communist Party and parts of the Christian Democratic Party to come together in support of the bid by Romano Prodi for the office of Prime Minister in 1996 and eventually to create a single party, the PD, in In the same manner the former neo-fascist party was brought into government by Silvio Berlusconi in 1994 and one year later transformed

12 The Nexus between Socio-Economic and Political Change in Italy 9 itself into the National Alliance Party (Alleanza Nazionale, AN). AN was present as a separate party in every government led by Silvio Berlusconi between 1995 and 2009 when it formally merged with Berlusconi s Forza Italia to create the People of Freedom (PdL) alliance. We have seen this process unfolding in Central and Eastern European countries and more recently in Greece where the radical leftist party Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, has been able to work within the institutional framework and principles of Europe s market economy rather than exiting. Thus, Italy was the first country that experimented with the depolarization impact of the combination of political democracy based on parliamentary representative institutions and competitive elections with open markets and a European integration process. Later, that process was to be replicated in the Iberian Peninsula and in the countries emerging from Soviet domination in Central and Eastern Europe. Thus, Italy s experience with democracy has been translated in the gradual but steady institutionalization of the post-war political system, the parliamentarization of radical political parties whose command structure was initially outside of parliament, and the depolarization of the political discourse between government and opposition which has substituted gradual change in exchange for revolution. Italy s Vanguard Role in the Unification of Europe European unification has, from the beginning, been strongly associated with Italian intellectual thought. During the nineteenth century the attempts to unite Italy associated with the political activities of leaders such as Giuseppe Garibaldi and Giuseppe Mazzini were conceived as part of a reform process characterizing large parts of the European continent. During the initial years of the Italian Republic, the political leaders e.g., Luigi Einaudi (D Auria, 2012), Italy s first post-war governor of the Bank of Italy and the second President of the Republic elected in 1948; Alcide DeGasperi, the Prime Minister that led the country from 1944 to 1951; and Carlo Sforza, the Italian Foreign Minister from 1947 to 1951 (Delzell, 1960) strongly advocated their own personal

13 10 Government and Politics of Italy and the country s support for the creation of greater European unity. In fact, a survey taken among the members of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Italian Constitution during the two years between 1946 and 1947 showed that 64% supported the objectives of a European federation (Pistone, 1988: 137). The logic of the Italian position was summarized by Luigi Einaudi in his early writings on the causes of war in Europe (D Auria, 2012). According to Einaudi, Europe had destroyed itself in the last two successive wars not because of economic reasons but rather due to a misconception of state sovereignty. The concept of sovereignty that was applied by each country led to an unrestrained competition with neighbouring states and eventually to war. The result was the destruction of each country s economic base and the planting of the seeds for renewed future conflict. The solution according to Einaudi to this mutually destructive situation was the pooling of national sovereignty within new political institutions at the European level. For Altiero Spinelli, the solution for the prevention of endless wars in Europe was the creation of a federal state capable of bringing together the interests of the member states and creating the mechanism for resolving inter-state differences. Spinelli was one of the three authors of the Ventotene Manifesto ( Manifesto for a free and united Europe ). The other two were Ernesto Rossi and Eugenio Colorni. Rossi was a close friend of Gaetano Salvemini, Nello and Carlo Rosselli and went on to become one of the founding members of the Justice and Liberty (Giustizia e Libertà) Party and then of the Radical Party with Mario Pannunzio in He collaborated with Pannunzio in the weekly magazine Il Mondo. Colorni, on the other hand, was killed on 28 May 1944 in Rome a few days before the city was liberated. He was an active member of the Resistance and one of the founding members of the new Socialist Party (Graglia, 2000; Braga and Franzinelli, 2007). Reflecting these concepts during the years immediately after the war, the Italian government became a consistent and forceful supporter of proposals to bringing greater unity to the European continent. As a consequence, Italy was the first country to come out in support of the Marshall Plan. In the early discussions on the creation of the Council of Europe it strongly advocated the position that the Council should be allocated executive powers rather than being based on a completely

14 The Nexus between Socio-Economic and Political Change in Italy 11 intergovernmental and voluntary approach that was advocated by the British government. For Italy, aside from the considerations championed by Einaudi and Spinelli, a greater form of European union was advocated. Such an aggregation of countries was necessary according to the Italian representatives not only as a response to the Soviet threat but also for the purpose of providing support for its own economic recovery and providing alternative markets for its excess workforce and supply of natural resources. In later years the prospects of creating, first, a common market and, second, a single market were considered crucial for the economic prospects of the country. Italy understood from the beginning its need to secure stable markets for its goods and services in order to grow and prosper. Italy s Alternative System of Power: The Non-Westminster Model The Italian political system is important for understanding those systems that are not initially based on the majoritarian Westminster model of interaction between government and opposition. It is the conviction of the author that the characteristics of party systems are not permanent. Instead, they can change over time due to both exogenous as well as endogenous developments. In the Italian case the change took place over a two-year period between 1992 and During those two years the Italian party system underwent a complete change in the array of political parties contesting national and local elections, the old political leaders were almost completely removed, and the rules for local and national elections were rewritten. Given these changes, it became common in the Italian political system to argue that the pre-1994 system was referred to popularly as the First Republic and the post-1994 system as the Second Republic. However, the transition between these two periods was not grounded on a change in the constitution but rather in a change of the political discourse and in the political leaders. A similar transformation took place in Greece, Portugal and Spain as the political systems became institutionalized and the threat of a coup by anti-democratic

15 12 Government and Politics of Italy forces evaporated. However, in these three countries the changes in rules, parties and electoral systems were based on changes in the constitution. During the last 60 years the Italian system has been characterized initially by a non-westminster model that was based on a strict definition of who could and who could not govern. Thus, the outputs of parliamentary legislation were determined by the dominant party and coalition and the opposition did not figure in the process of governing the country (Di Palma, 1977). Subsequently, this system in which the ruling party or parties was never in doubt and had a monopoly on legislation was replaced by a gradual opening up to the opposition during the 1970s by recognizing its role in the formulation of legislation in Parliament ( Leonardi et al., 1978). Subsequently, the system also saw the introduction of an alternation of power at the governmental level that was much more similar to the Westminster model present in other democratic systems. The first model was in place for almost 50 years ( ) while the second made its appearance in 1970 and lasted until the complete transformation of the party system took effect in Since 1994 the Italian political system has evolved in the direction of the regular alternation of power between parties of the left and those of the right. In this third system the emphasis is on the ability of the political system to produce the outputs necessary to resolve recurring economic and social crisis. What is important to remember is that the three shifts that took place in Italy between the two basic models have been undertaken without recourse to the use of violence or as the result of major socio-economic dislocation. They took place peacefully and the major adjustments were brought to fruition through the normal electoral process that brought to the fore new political elites, parties and policies. The possibility of shifting between these models was the product of both exogenous as well as endogenous factors. The major exogenous factor was the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of demo cratic regimes in Eastern Europe, but it was also helped by the consolidation of the European project on the heels of the Single European Act (1986) and the Maastrict Treaty (1993). The endogenous factors can be traced first to the need to respond to societal demands in relation to the equalization of social and economic rights

16 The Nexus between Socio-Economic and Political Change in Italy 13 between men and women and to making the Italian institutional system more responsive to demands for change in the delivery of economic and social politics as was the case with the institutional reforms undertaken to complete the creation of the regions (1970) and to strengthen the role of local governments in the delivery of services (1972). The second endogenous factor was the surfacing of the 1992 Clean Hands judicial investigation into widespread party corruption and the indictment of the previous elite. The result was the collapse during 1993 and 1994 of the traditional parties and previously dominant political elites and the emergence of a completely new competitive party system in which the major parties and their allies have alternated in power over the last 20 years. The new system of governance and representation is based on a much more personalistic approach to the exercise of governmental power but also to the control of the party and communication with supporters and voters. It can be argued that the emergence of a strong personal approach to party organization and campaigning was strongly influenced first of all by the rise of the charismatic figure of Silvio Berlusconi (Ginsborg, 2003) as the media entrepreneur who entered the political arena in 1994 to provide a new prospect for centre-right voters (Ginsborg, 2001). The example of Berlusconi was almost immediately taken up by the leftist side of the political spectrum with the emergence of Romano Prodi as its leader and Prime Minister in two centre-left governments that broke on two occasions (through the victories in 1996 and 2006) Berlusconi s tenure of power. Prodi s role as leader of the centre-left was eventually taken up by Matteo Renzi who combined the roles of both the leader of the main leftist party the Democratic Party, PD and Prime Minister starting in Renzi s control of the government ended in December 2016 as a result of the voter reaction to his attempt to redefine the Constitution and Italy s bicameral system of governance. From the beginning of the Italian Republic, the central government ruled the country through a system of power sharing through its vertical relationship with local and regional government. The national level never had a monopoly on decision making and implementation on socioeconomic issues. In addition, power was shared through the involvement of important interest groups trade unions, farmers groups, employers organizations, Catholic social groups, etc. that were allocated important

17 14 Government and Politics of Italy policy areas to manage on behalf of the state. This system of power was instrumental in guaranteeing strong social support for the dominant party Christian Democracy at the time of its dominance. In a parallel fashion the main opposition parties were obliged to build their own social support system through organizations and local governments that shared their ideological stance. The definition of power to be used here is based on a distinction between high politics associated with foreign, monetary and defence vis-à-vis low politics that relate to socio-economic policy making and implementation. The former are the traditional responsibilities of national government while the latter have in the Italian case been distributed to other levels of government or allocated to socio-economic groups for deliberation (Leonardi, 1980). During the 30 years covered between the 1970s and the 1990s Italy underwent a significant restructuring of the management of national power. In the first case, national power was devolved to the regions and localities as a result of the 1975 law (382) that established the necessity of devolving to the regions the powers foreseen by the Italian Constitution which were subsequently undertaken as a result of the 616 decrees of A final devolution of power to the regional level was part of the reform of the Italian Constitution undertaken in 2000 by the Amato government. Subsequent attempts (2006 and 2016) to redefine the powers of the regions through a redefinition of the Constitution have failed. The transfer of powers to the European level took place in various stages. The first was the result of the 1957 Rome Treaty and the other two most important transfers took place in 1986 with the Single European Act and in 1993 with the Maastrict Treaty in relation to the management of the European Market and the Single European Currency. Thus, the management of power and the formulation of policies in Italy (and also in other EU member states) have undergone a significant transformation since the 1970s. The high policies (currency, management of the market, control of borders, etc.) have been moved to the European level while the low policies (development, transport, health, social services) have been devolved to the sub-national level. This dual transfer of power has not by any means hollowed out the state. However, it has forced the state into a new form of cooperation with the European and sub-national

18 The Nexus between Socio-Economic and Political Change in Italy 15 levels which has been referred to in the literature as multi-level governance. In the Italian case the system of multi-level governance is not only restricted to the management of the EU s regional development (or cohesion) policy. Instead, it has come to characterize a whole series of policy areas, especially in the field of economic and social policies. Therefore, there is much ground to cover in analysing the nature of contemporary Italian politics that is useful in understanding other political systems in Europe and abroad. In covering this ground it is necessary to distinguish between three phases that have characterized the Italian political system from 1943 to the present. These three phases are: the pre-republican phase that went from 1943 to 1948, the phase of the First Republic covering the first to the 11th Parliament (i.e., ), and the last phase, referred to as the Second Republic, which started in 1994 with the 12th Parliament and extends until the present legislature. The attempt by Matteo Renzi to change the Constitution and initiate the beginning of a Third Republic based on a new institutional arrangement and electoral rules eventually failed due to the pervasive view that the current Constitution is fit for purpose. According to the voters it does not need to be radically modified. However, what must be changed is the capacity of government to better guarantee the formulation of adequate policies in response to the prolonged effects of the economic and social crises that continue to characterize the country. The current analysis divides the Republican period into two phases due to the fact that in these two phases there existed a different set of parties, the electoral systems used in the selection of parliamentarians diverged and the dynamics of policy making in Parliament were based on different hypotheses on how the parties could interact and what was the role of government vis-à-vis Parliament in the policy-making process. The exact nature of these differences will be discussed in detail in the chapters dealing with the legislative and executive branches of government and on the system of parties that have animated the Italian political process since It will be argued that the pre-1948 period was important in establishing some of the basic conditions for the functioning of the future political system and in excluding some aspects of the pre-1943 political structure such as the monarchy, Fascism, strong executive government and elite governing parties. What replaced these pre-1943 characteristics

19 16 Government and Politics of Italy and what became immediately evident in the pre-republican period was the predominance of a representative parliamentary regime based on a competitive electoral system dominated by mass parties, the emergence of a dual executive represented by the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, a diffused system of power shared by the political parties along with important socio-economic groups in society, and the ability of the policy process to produce important legislation in modernizing the Italian social and economic system. All of these aspects will be discussed in greater detail in the following chapters.

20 Index Index numbers in italics refer to figures. A Achille Lauro, 209 Afghanistan, 110, 199, 210 Albania, 2, 195, 198, 201, 204, 212 Alfano, Angelino, 25, 66, 156 Alleanza Nazionale (AN, National Alliance Party), 8 9, 37, 50, 58, 64, 69, 91, , 191 and MSI, 60, 62, 130, 154, 157 and PdL, 154, 9 Allende, Salvador, 2 Almirante, Giorgio, Amato, Giuliano, 14, 21, 28 29, 60, 63 64, 70, 89, 90, 91, 113, 160 Andreotti, Giulio, 56, 88, 89, 113, 153 Angelini, Vito, 56 Associazione Cattolica dei Lavoratori Italiani (ACLI, Catholic Association of Italian Workers), 172 Attlee, Clement, 213 Autorita Nazionale Anticorruzione (ANAC, National Anti- Corruption Authority), 115 B Badalamenti, Gaetano, 109 Badoglio, Marshal, 86, 87, 207, 208 Bagarella, Leoluca, 111 Balkans, 195, 198, 201, 204, 208, 210 Banking crisis, Bank of Italy, 9, 84, 131 Barbera, Augusto, 153 Bassolino, Antonio, 130 Berlinguer, Luigi, 153 Berlusconi, Silvio, 8 9, 21 22, 24, 83 85, 90, 91, 93 94, , 164 and electoral system, and judiciary, 101, 105, , 117 and Parliament, 51, 57 64, 66, 70, 73, 76 rise and fall of, See also Forza Italia (FI) Bersani, Pier Luigi, 24 25, 65, 71, 90, 134 Bevin, Ernest, 213 Black economy, Boccassini, Ilda, 113 Bonomi, Ivanoe, 87 Bontade, Stefano, 109 Bordiga, Amadeo, 146 Borrelli, Franesco, 113 Borsellino, Paolo, 94, Bossi, Umberto, 58 64, 66 67, 130, 132, 155,

21 238 Index Brexit, 39 Brusca, Giovanni, 111 Bulgaria, 21, 195, 200, 206 Buscetta, Tommaso, C Calise, Mauro, 93 Camorra, 104, 111. See also Organized crime Canevari, Emilio, 178 Cantone, Raffaele, 115 Capezzone, Davide, 57 Caponetto, Antonino, 110 Casa Pound, 2, 67, 161 Casini, Pier Fernando, 56, 129, 130 Casaleggio, Davide, Casaleggio, Gianroberto, 65, Cassarà, Antonio, 108, 110 Catholic Association of Italian Workers. See Associazione Cattolica dei Lavoratori Italiani (ACLI) Catholic Church Catholic Action, 89, 166, Catholic Association of Italian Workers, 172 impact of on civil society, Lateran Pacts, 167, Pope Benedict XV, 170 Pope Francis, 5, 161, 177 Pope John XXIII, 175 Pope John Paul II, 177 Pope Leo XIII, 171 Pope Paul VI, 177 Pope Pius XII, 123, 175 Rerum Novarum, 171 Vatican, 1, 143, , 170, 172, 201, 211 Central Statistical Institute. See Istituto Centrale di Statistica (ISTAT) Centro Cristiano Democratico (CCD, Christian Democratic Centre), 50, 57, 91, Charismatic leadership, 13, 47, 58 67, 88, 93, 132, 159, 162, 177, 219 Chiesa, Carlo Alberto Dalla, 108 Chiesa, Mario, 112 Chile, 2, 106, 197 Christian Democracy. See Democrazia Cristiana (DC) Christian Democratic Centre. See Centro Cristiano Democratico (CCD) Churchill, Winston, 207 Ciampi, Carlo Azeglio, 82, 83 84, 89, 113, 153, 160 Ciulla, Antonino, 111 Civil service. See Organized groups and civil service Clean Hands (Mani Pulite) investigation, 13, 56, 101, , 153, 157, 159 Coldiretti (farmers association), 89, 172, 176 Colombo, Gherardo, 113 Colorni, Eugenio, 10 Columbus, Christopher, 196 Comino, Domenico, 159 Common Man s Front, 120, 123 Confagricoltura. See Confederation of Italian Agriculture CONFAPI. See Confederation of Italian Small Industry Confederation of Italian Agriculture (Confagricoltura), 166,

22 Index 239 Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria), 33, 166, , Confederation of Italian Small Industry (CONFAPI), Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL, Italian General Confederation of Labour), 34, 54, 145, , 190 Confederazione Italiana dei Sindacati del Lavoro (CISL, Italian Confederation of Workers Unions), 89, , 185, 190 Confindustria. See Confederation of Italian Industry Confindustria, 33, 166, Constitutional reform, 38, 39 45, 60, 85, 98, , , 160 Contorno, Salvatore, Corruption, 21, 67, 75, 130, 162, 190 Clean Hands (Mani Pulite) investigation, 13, 56, 101, , 153, 157, 159 and judiciary, 101 2, , Cosentino, Nicola, 94 Cossiga, Francesco, 82, 84, 86, 89 Craxi, Bettino, 56, 89, , 153, 184, 188, 209 Czechoslovakia, 54, 153, 209 Czech Republic, 21 D D Alema, Massimo, 63, 90, 91, 95 D Ambrosio, Gerardo, 113 Davigo, Piercamillo, 113 Debt crisis. See Sovereign debt crisis De Gasperi, Alcide, 9, 54, 87, 87, 88, 90, 123, 143, 148, 171, , 180, 208, De Marsanich, Augusto, 123, 150 DeMichelis, Gianni, 56 De Mita, Ciriaco, 89, 90 Democratic Party of Proletarian Unity. See Partito Democratico di Unità Proletaria (PDUP) Democratic Party of the Left. See Partito Democratico della Sinistra (PDS) Democratic Party. See Partito Democratico (PD) Democratic Union for Europe. See Unione Democratica per l Europa (UDEUR) Democratici di Sinistra (DS, Democrats of the Left), 50, 91 Democrats of the Left. See Democratici di Sinistra (DS) Democrazia Cristiana (DC, Christian Democracy), 6, 14, 48, 49, 54, 56, 70, 72, 87, 95, 130, 139, , 150, 154, , , De Nicola, Enrico, 82, 82 Dini, Lamberto, 28 29, 62 63, 84, 90, 91, 92 94, 96, 131 Di Palma, Giuseppe, 71 Di Pietro, Antonio, 50, 70 71, 113, 132 Di Vittorio, Giuseppe, 178 Draghi, Mario, 222 E Economic Indicators, , 18 Eden, Anthony, 207 Einaudi, Luigi, 9 11, 82, 213

23 240 Index Electoral system and Constitutional reform, electoral reform, 27, 35 39, , Italicum (electoral law), 27, 35 39, Olive Tree coalition, 58, 129, 132, 153 and political campaigning, Porcellum (electoral law), 35, turnout in Four European countries, 126 turnout in Italian Parliamentary elections, , 125 and voter turnout, 44, 119, Employment rates, 18, 21, 30 33, 180 EUR Accords, 183 European Central Bank (ECB), 18 20, 34, European Coal and Steel Community and Common Market, 4 5, 149, 213, 215 Europeanization, 17, 40, European parliamentary results (May 2014), 37 European Stability Mechanism (ESM), 19 Executive branch dual structure, 16, 79 86, executive decrees, governments in the pre-republic period, 87 governments of the First Republic, 88 governments of the Second Republic, 91 legislative implementation, presidentialization, presidents of the Republic, 82 prime minister, F Falcone, Giovanni, 94, Fanfani, Amintore, 70, 89, 90, 143, Farage, Nigel, 66, 163 Farinet, Alfonso, 121 Fascism, 52, 54, 80, 83, 86 87, 120, 123, 130, 139, 142, , , 175, , , 196, 211 Federconsorzi (agricultural consortia), 176, FIAT, 184, 185, , 197 Fini, Gianfranco, 58, 60, 62, 64, 130, 153, 158 Finland, 20 First World War, 142, 145, 146 Fitto, Raffaele, 66, 76, 156 Five Star Movement. See Movimento Cinque Stelle (M5S) Foreign policy Europe and US, Mediterranean policy, and the military, Forlani, Arnaldo, 56, 89, Fornero, Elsa, 28 Fornero reform, Forza Italia (FI, Go Italy), 9, 25, 36, 37, 38, 44, 114, 117, , 191 and electoral system, , and executive branch, 91, 93, 94 and Parliament, 50, 57 59, 61, 64, 66, 69, 76

24 Index 241 France, 53, 67, 79, 115, 117, 126, 127, 130, 161, 177, 195, 199, 205, 207, 208, 211, 212, 221 Franfani, Amintore, 123 Fronte dell Uomo Qualunque (Common Man s Front), 120, 123 Frontex, 200, 205 7, 223 G Gaddafi, Muamar, 204, 209 Galan, Giancarlo, 57 Galli, Giorgio, 3, 176 Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 9 Gazzetta Ufficiale (government journal), 96 Gedda, Luigi, 173, 175 Gentiloni, Paolo, 44, 90, 91, 92 93, 137 Germany, 2, 43, 52, 59, 80 82, 86, 117, 120, 124, 126, 127, 140, 147, 161, 178, 206 8, 211, 214 Giannini, Gugliemo, 120 Gnutti, Vito, 159 Go Italy. See Forza Italia (FI) Gramsci, Antonio, 146, 171 Grand Coalition, 3, 27, 35, 57, 73, 83 Grandi, Achille, 178 Grasso, Pietro, 70 Gray, Lawrence, 59 Greco, Francesco, 113 Greece, 2, 9, 11, 18 21, 115, 143, 180, 195, 199, 206 Greece-Ireland-Italy-Portugal-Spain (GIIPS), 19 Grillo, Beppe, 24, 27, 58, 64 66, , 193, 216 Gronchi, Giovanni, 82, 84 H Health indicators, 217, High politics, 14 Historic Compromise, 3, 124, 150, Howard, William, 59 Hungary, 20 21, 54, 124, 148, 199, 200 Hussein, Saddam, 210 I Il Mondo (magazine), 10 Immigration, asylum applications in selected EU countries, 199 asylum requests in EU and Italy, , 199 Industrial districts, 3 4, 17, 124 Ingrao, Pietro, 55 Ingroia, Antonio, 71 Institute for Industrial Reconstruction. See Istituto di Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI) Institutionalization of Parliament, 51 53, 72, 141 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 19 20, 115 Inzirillo, Salvatore, 109 Iotti, Nilda, 56 Iraq, 199, 210 Ireland, 18, 19, 21, 177 Istituto Centrale di Statistica (ISTAT, Central Statistical Institute), 34 Istituto di Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI, Institute for Industrial Reconstruction), 187 Italia dei Valori (IdV, Italy of Values), 71, 91, 113

25 242 Index Italian Communist Party. See Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI) Italian Confederation of Workers Unions. See Confederazione Italiana dei Sindacati del Lavoro (CISL) Italian Democratic Party of Monarchist Unity. See Partito Democratico Italiano di Unità Monarchica (PDIUM) Italian General Confederation of Labour. See Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL) Italian Liberal Party. See Partito Liberale Italiano (PLI) Italian Popular Party. See Partito Popolare Italiano (PPI) Italian Republican Party. See Partito Repubblicano Italiano (PRI) Italian Social Democratic Party. See Partito Social Democratico Italiano (PSDI) Italian Social Movement. See Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) Italian Socialist Party. See Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI) Italian Union of Labour. See Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL) Italicum (electoral law), 27, 35 39, J Jobs Act, 27 28, 31 34, 76 Judiciary, and corruption, courts, governance, reform, response to terrorism and organized crime, See also Clean Hands (Mani Pulite) investigation L Labour movement collective action, 7, 197 CGIL, 34, 54, 145, , 190 Hot Autumn of , 107, 181, 184 unions, 7 8, 13, 28, 33 34, 54, 89, 107, 145, 147, , , Workers Statute, 33, La Dolce Vita (film), 4 Lama, Luciano, La Torre-Rognoni law, Lebanon, 203, Lega Nord (LN, Northern League), 37, 41, 49, 50, 58 61, 63 64, 66, 68, 69, 76, 91, 130, 132, , , 164, 191 Leggio, Luciano, 108, 109 Leone, Giovanni, 82, 84, 88 Le Pen, Marine, 67, 161 L Espresso (magazine), 85 Letta, Enrico, 25 26, 33, 35 36, 115, 134 and executive branch, 83, 90, 91, 93, 96 97, 97 and Parliament, 66, 73, 75, 76 Libya, 117, 196, 197, , 209, 211 Lombardi, Riccardo, 173 Longo, Luigi, 149 Low politics, 14