Legislative institutionalization and change: the case of Italian Parliament viewed from a diachronic perspective

This article gives a comprehensive account of a twenty years process of change in the role and the workings of Italian Parliament, which has underwent strong pressures to change. As a result, we are currently faced with a Parliament that is resisting external pressure in order to salvage its very being, but one whose institutionalized role in the political system is gradually weakening. It is an interesting case for institutional theory: one of both over-institutionalization and de-institutionalization; one of small, gradual changes but also of revolutionary, informal changes; a case of ambiguous, apparently contradictory variations in time (there is no before/after dichotomy here but a continuous process); of different sources of changes. Then, the case-study will be examined - focussing on the content and dynamics of the process, and on the sources of change and stability - and some general observations will be made regarding the concept of institutional and legislative change. What the analysis presented suggests is that institutional change is intrinsic to institutional and legislative development, and that its "time-scale" and scope depend on the history of the institution (and its institutionalized levels of autonomy and permeability), on its relationships with the external environment, and on its contingency.