The Italian Parliament: In search of a New Role?

The so called “Italian transition” of the 1990s has a profound impact on Parliament, albeit often of a quite unexpected kind. Many external changes forced it to modify its role and performance, but as usually happens when a well-established institution is under strain, Parliament tried to resist by adapting in order to maintain its specific, historically-rooted patterns of behaviour and internal principles. The chief prize at stake has been Parliament’s central institutionalised role within the political system, and its formal and substantial prerogatives in the legislative process. The political trend urged the parliamentary institution to adjust to the much-invoked bi-polar dynamics, which basically meant the acceptance of the centrality of Government in the legislative process. At the same time, it was encouraged to change the content and the quality of its functions, by focusing more – as Bagehot would have it - on its expressive, oversight and electoral activities rather than on its legislative functions. Parliament was thus asked to radically change its institutional identity, its deeply consolidated internal practices dating back to the age of liberalism. Above all, traditional patterns of behaviour (culturally reproduced within assemblies), challenged by external changes, included: the absence of a clear majority/opposition divide; the lack of any strong institutional tools favouring the prominence of Government within Parliament; the consensual decisional style. Did Parliament respond positively to those demands? The data and facts we have presented in this article point to a rather contradictory, ambiguous situation.