This article or section should be merged with Politics of Italy

The Italian Government of today is defined by the Italian Constitution, which was written by the Constitutive Assembly formed in the wake of Italy's defeat in World War II. Prior to WWII Italy was a constitutional monarchy of sorts, the vote was afforded exclusively to middle and upper-class men. The head of state was then the male heir of the House of Savoy, the royal family of Italy and previously of the Kingdom of Piedmont. Despite not being an absolute democracy, the Kingdom of Italy was very much at the same pace as the then governments of France, Britain and the United States - a modern Western democracy.

Unification to the Second World War

Italy was officially born on March 17, 1861 with the King of Piedmont's declaration of the Kingdom of Italy. The first capital was Turin, in the north-east of the country, the former capital of the Kingdom of Piedmont. The capital was later moved to Florence, Tuscany and finally Rome, Latium in 1871 when the former was captured from French troops protecting the Eternal City with the Pope's approval. Because of the Pope's opposition to ceding his temporal power over Rome to the Italian government the Roman Catholic Church and the Kingdom of Italy were at odds until 1929 - with the Latern Pacts which finally normalized relations between the Church and State. Piedmont's tradition of liberal democracy was stamped upon the entire country of Italy through unification and its customs were adopted as those of Italy by the late 19th century.

The Italian Government remained relatively democratic until Mussolini's 1922 March on Rome and the then King's request to Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini thus did not come to power through a coup but through the implicit approval of the Head of State - the King of Italy. Mussolini, in effect, served at the discretion of the King, Victor-Emmanuel II. Mussolini's totalitarianism did not completely destroy Italian democracy until 1925 when the last pretenses of a free country were abandoned. Mussolini's rule over Italy was solid for a generation - until the summer of 1943. In June of 1940 Fascist Italy joined Nazi Germany in attacking France - the military disasters of WWII, partly due to Mussolini's purges of competent but non-ideologically reliable officers and partly due to very poor training, equipment and motivation directly led to his deposition by his peers in June of 1943.

At this point, a man named Badoglio took charge and stalled for time, on September 8, 1943 he unconditionally surrendered to the Allies; Italy was out of the war. Things were not that simple, however, as much of Central and Northrern Italy at this point remained under German occupation. What followed from the Autumn of 1943 to early 1945 was the Italian War of Liberation; culminating with the April 25 liberation of Rome by Anglo-American troops. The King abdicated in favour of his son in 1946, Umberto II. King Umberto II and all male heirs of the House of Savoy were expelled from Italy and the monarchy abolished by a popular referendum where around 12 million voted in favour of exiling the King and 10 million voted against. It was then written in the Italian Constitution that no male heirs of the House of Savoy should be allowed on Italian territory for perpetuity - this remained the case from 1946 to the early 21st century, when the constitution was finally amended and the male heirs allowed to enter Italy. In voting to abolish the monarchy, the Italian people voted for the establishment of a Republic. The constitution embodying the structure of the Italian Republic came into effect on January 1, 1948. Since that time, almost 50 years ago the Italian system of government has remained unchanged.

System of Government

The familiar separation of powers embodied by the US and French constitutions is also present in the Italian constitution. The executive branch is composed of the Head of State - the President of the Italian Republic and the Head of Government - the President of the Council of Ministers, commonly referred to in English as the Prime Minister, although this is not strictly correct. The legislative branch is composed of the Italian Parliament - itself a bicameral legislature with a lower Chamber of Deputies with 630 members and an upper Senate of the Republic with 315 members. The judicial branch is formed by the Constitutional Court.

Parliament

The people (all Italian citizens over the age of 18) vote to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies (a Deputy must be over the age of 25) and the Senate of the Italian Republic (a Senator must be over the age of 40). The Italian Parliament is renewed at least every five years, but the calling of elections is a purvue of the President of Italy - who may dissolve one or both of the houses of parliament except in the last six months of his tenure. Until the early 1990s the Parliament was elected by a proportional representation system where a party was attributed a percentage of seats dependent on the nation-wide percentage of the popular vote it reached; this ensured that with one exception (1946) no one party has ever had a majority in either houses for the past half-century. The new law passed in the 1990s however changed the system to a mixed-method one where 75% of seats of each house are attributed through a majority system (where a particular seat is won via a simple first-past-the-post vote tally), the remaining 25% of seats are attributed via a nation-wide proportional-representation system. This mixed-method system has not altered the large number of parties represented in Parliament (14). Potential laws, known as bills, may originate in either the Senate or the Chamber, and require the approval of both to be passed on to the President for final approval and signing into law. The current balance of power in both houses is in favour of the governing centre-right House of Freedoms (Casa delle Liberta`) coalition which won approximately 58% of the popular vote on 13 May, 2001.

President of the Republic

The President of the Republic of Italy is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and is elected by a qualified 2/3 majority of a joint-session of Parliament attended by a number of regional delegates every seven years. It is the President's duty to sign new legislation into law, he may reject a bill, sending it back to Parliament with a letter of explanation for his rejection. If the bill returns to the President unchanged, the President is constitutionally-bound to sign the legislation, if he does not do so the bill will automatically become law within sixty days. The President is also responsible for nominating one-third of the Constitutional Court (renewable every ten years). Most importantly, the President's duty is to protect the Constitution and represent the unity of Italy, this last task is often ceremonial, with medal-awarding and ribbon-cutting large parts of the job. Although not purely a figure-head the power of the Italian Presidency is not great, he is not capable of passing laws or stopping them from being passed. However, his co-operation with the government of the day ensures smooth functioning and good governance. In addition, the President has the power to grant pardons, subject to approval by the Justice Minister of the day. The President officially nominates the Council of Ministers - which includes its President, the Head of Government, subject to approval (a vote of confidence) by the Chamber of Deputies. The current President of Italy is Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who was elected in May 1999, he is a former Premier and a well-respected economics-expert. The next Presidential Election is scheduled for May 2006.

Council of Ministers

The Council of Ministers is the actual government of Italy - charged with running day-to-day affairs, passing laws and the like. Its composition varies from time to time, currently there are some two dozen or so members. Italy is somewhat different from Britain in that it does not require any of its Ministers to actually have a seat in Parliament; in fact a few Ministers in most governments have not been MPs - so-called technocrats these are often non-political experts, be they doctors, scientists or engineers. The equivalent of the US or British Cabinet the Council of Ministers contains many counter-part roles. The Council must be appointed by the President of Italy and have the 'confidence' or approval of the Chamber of Deputies - this means a simple majority of the 630 members. Ministers must always be appointed by the President of Italy, although in practice it is the President of the Council who tells the President who to appoint. The actual Head of Government in Italy is thus the President of the Council of Ministers, he is effectively the Prime Minister. The current President of the Council of Ministers is Silvio Berlusconi, the Foreign Minister is Gianfranco Fini, the Economics Minister is Domenico Siniscalco, and the Defence Minister is Antonio Martino.

The Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court is Italy's highest court, but its rulings are entirely centred on the constitutionality of laws passed by government, not on cases brought forth by private individuals. The Court has 15 members, one-third are appointed by the President of the Republic, one-third are appointed by the President of the Council of Ministers and one-third are appointed by the Council of Magistrates, essentially other top judges. The Court's decisions are final and are effectively the only way of blocking legislation approved by the Italian Parliament. Recently the Court has struck down a law passed by Berlusconi giving him immunity from prosecution.

Government Stability

Italy is notorious for its shaky and brief governments, the average life-span of an Italian Premier is just nine months. This may be attributed in large part to the necessity of coalitions - due to the proportional-representation method of electing Parliament in force until the early 1990s. Despite the apparent chaos of the Italian government, there was until the end of the Cold War a remarkable sense of continuity. Effectively the Christian Democrats formed part of the government of every single coalition from 1946 to 1992, likewise the Italian Communist Party formed the Opposition to every singe government from 1946 to 1992. The presence of these two blocks - the Christian Democrats and Communists was directly due to the Cold War under way, and with the collapse of the Soviet Union came the implosion of the Italian system of government - the Communists disbanded and the Christian Democrats disintegrated in bouts of in-fighting. This heralded the end of the Italian First Republic and the birth of the Second Republic.

The 1994 General Election saw the birth of a pro-business, conservative, populist sloganistic party Forza Italia! or Go Italy! - the chant of many Italian football fans. The brain-child of business tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, this party forged an alliance with unlikely bedfellows, the remains of right-wing Christian Democrats, rabble-rousing secessionists, the Northern League and the successors to the Fascist Party the National Alliance. The right-wing former Christian Democrats - dubbed the CCD and CDU joined with the right-wing National Alliance and Berlusconi's Go Italy! to form a minority government in 1994 with the external support of Umberto Bossi's Northern League party. This coalition endured nine months, ending when Bossi removed support for Berlusconi's government and unions staged massive nation-wide strikes against government policies. A caretaker government kept Italy running under the sway of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, until the 1996 General Election, which swept the Olive Tree Coalition into power. The latter was composed of former Communists now called Democrats of the Left, former left-wing Christian Democrats, now called the Italian Popular Party, centrist Democrats, a few Green parties and the outside support of the hard-line Marxist Communist Refoundation Party, led by Fausto Bertinotti. The Olive Tree Coalition was headed by Romano Prodi, who thus became Premier in 1996. His government collapsed when Bertinotti removed his support to the coalition in 1998. Massimo D'Alema, head of the newly styled former Communists, the Democrats of the Left, became Premier. He too resigned, two years later as a result of terrible local election results in 2000. His successor, Giuliano Amato, a Socialist, kept the Olive Tree Coalition in power until May 2001, when the centre-left Olive Tree Coalition was defeated by Berlusconi's centre-right House of Freedoms coalition.

The House of Freedoms was now composed of Go Italy!, National Alliance, the Northern League, and the UDC (a merger of the CCD and CDU). This government has stayed in power with the same Premier (Berlusconi) since 2001; Berlusconi is now the longest-serving Italian Premier of all time. Berlusconi's second stay at Palazzo Chigi (the official residence and office of the President of the Council of Ministers) has been characteristed by continual controversy over his ownership of 90% of Italy's private TV stations and indirect control over the state television stations (which split the viewing public 50-50 with Mediaset, Berlusoni's private TV network), as well as his numerous printed media possessions (which control one-third of all publishing in Italy) and control of a major newspaper (il Giornale). While much was made of Berlusoni's ownership of TV and publishing interests by the outgoing centre-left government, no serious attempts were made at legislating to regulate the situation. Berlusconi has gone against public opinion and traditional Italian positions by strongly siding with the United States in the controversial 2003 Iraq War and through his Deputy Premier pursuing a well-publicised friendship with Israel, whilst virtually ignoring the death of Palestine's leader, Arafat. Berlusoni's positioning on the world stage has gone against Italy's traditional role of euro-enthusiast and follower of the Franco-German axis. The current government has enacted legislation aimed at providing immunity for the Premier, President, Presidents of the Senate and Chamber and the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court against prosecution while in office (according to the opposition it is a cynical attempt at stopping many of the trials Berlusconi is currently undergoing). It has also passed laws rendering false accounting no longer illegal (again, some say perfectly suited for many of his companies who are on trial for false accountancy). A new points-system licence has been well-received by many and is believed to have reduced traffic accidents significantly over the past few years. Most recently, Berlusconi has succeeded in passing a budget which cuts around 8 billion dollars worth of taxes. The move was met with a counter-proposal by the opposition and a general strike by the three major unions in Italy. Italy's unemployment rate has fallen under Berlusconi's watch, but the economy has sputtered, with growth under 1% for the first three years of the Berlusconi government.