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Italy 1992-2012: Twenty Years of Democracy Without Quality?

Democracy
Government
Institutions
Daniela Piana
Università di Bologna
Leonardo Morlino
LUISS University
Daniela Piana
Università di Bologna
Daniela Piana
Università di Bologna

Abstract

Over the last years Italian politics has been in the international spotlight. The criticisms of international NGOs joins with the disenchant of Italian citizens. How can we explain this state of affairs and the changes occurred in the Italian democracy over the last twenty years, by referring to a comprehensive framework which does not take a priori any stance in favor of a model of democracy? A comprehensive research whereby quantitative trends have been integrated by qualitative in depth analysis, both focused on Italian politics in comparative perspective, singled out three main patterns of interdependence which proved to be promising candidates in explaining the transformations undergone by Italian democracy over the last twenty years. a) Competition/participation: an increasing fragmented and radicalized competition, combined with a stronger non-conventional participation, unable to impact upon the political agenda, creates favorable conditions not only for the deterioration of the procedural face of Italian democracy, but also for the substantial face, such as freedom and equality. b) Inter-institutional accountabilities: the mechanisms of checks and balances, i.e. relationship between the executive, the legislative, and the judicial branches, turned out subverted. c) Responsiveness: Italian citizens seem to be more satisfied of democratic institutions today than they were forty years ago, although they trust more non representative institutions – such as the President of the Republic or the constitutional court – than the representative institutions – such as the parliament or the government. This paper seeks to assess empirically the quality of the Italian democracy by singling out the driving mechanisms of these patterns of interdependence. This is made relying on a comprehensive dataset spanning over two decades which covers 8 dimensions of democratic quality: rule of law, electoral accountability, participation, competition, inter-institutional accountability, responsiveness, freedom, equality