Francesco Marangoni

From a Technocratic Solution to a Fragile Grand Coalition: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Parliamentary Government in Italy

Italy is an interesting case to be included in a comparative analysis of the effects determined by the recent financial crisis on the European political systems, because of the distinctiveness characterising the recent development of this parliamentary democracy. The processes of making and breaking governments, in particular, have been particularly unusual: the end of the governmental experience of Silvio Berlusconi and the formation of the technical government led by Mario Monti have been strongly influenced by external factors, as well as the recent formation of the government guided by Enrico Letta, supported by a broad coalition including the former competing centre-right and centre-left cartels. The paper focuses on the practices of executive–legislative relationships in Italy between 2008 and the 2013 elections. Its basic puzzle is to understand the effective impact determined by the economic crisis over the core mechanisms of parliamentary democracy. Comparing the impact of the governmental policy agenda set by the technocratic cabinet vis-à-vis the previous ‘political’ executives, and measuring the reactions of the different parliamentary actors, it is possible to test a number of empirical propositions concerning the transformation of the adversarial mode that emerged in past years into a more or less consensual parliamentary atmosphere.

From Letta to Renzi: preliminary data concerning the composition of the new Cabinet and the new executive’s programme (with an appendix concerning the legislative activity of the Letta government)

This article provides an initial analysis of the characteristics of the Renzi government – the 60th to take office since the 1948 constitution came into force. The focus of the article, in particular, is on the composition of the new executive (starting with the ministers’ socio-demographic traits and political careers) and on the government agenda (as indicated by the Prime Minister’s inaugural speech in parliament). A comparison between the new executive, and the Italian governments of the last 15 years, on these aspects is also provided. The appendix of the article reports some data on the legislative activity of the previous Letta government, during its nine months in office.

The activity and legislative achievements of the Renzi government after two years in office

ABSTRACT On 22 February 2016, the Renzi government had been in office for 2 years and had become the sixth longest lasting executive in the history of the Italian republic. This article attempts to provide some indicators of the executive’s productivity by presenting certain basic data concerning the Government’s legislative initiatives. In particular, we analyse the number of bills introduced by the Government; the ‘programmatic nature’ of these legislative initiatives (i.e. the link between the measures introduced by the executive, on the one hand, and the Government’s programme, on the other); the ‘strategies’ used by the Government in Parliament, with particular reference to the use of decree laws and confidence votes; the rate of success of government initiatives. All the data presented are analysed from a longitudinal perspective, comparing them with the corresponding data for executives of the recent past beginning in 1996.

Government Efficiency, Agenda Setting and Legislative Strategies

The transformation of the executive institution has been a basic argument in the endless discussion on the Italian political transition following the political crisis of the mid-nineties. Certainly, all the cabinets alternating in power during the “Second Republic” can be considered as examples of failing attempts to strengthen the performance of the cabinet. The reasons for such frustrating evidence have been explored elsewhere.