A SHORT GUIDE TO THE ITALIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM

Contents

Introduction The Executive The Chamber Of Deputies The Senate Political Parties The Judiciary Conclusion

INTRODUCTION The modern state of Italy came into force on 17 March 1861 when King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia signed into law a bill in which he took for himself the title King of Italy. Italy adopted a new constitution in 1948 after the traumatic experience of Mussolini's fascism and the Second World War. Unusually the two Houses of the Italian Parliament possess the same rights and powers - a particular form of parliamentary democracy known as perfect bicameralism. However, this is far from being the only oddity of the Italian political system. Italy is something of an aberration in the democratic sweep of Europe. For decades, it somehow combined the maintenance of the same political party in power with constant changes of government while, in more recent years, it has witnessed a fundamental transformation in the pattern of political parties and this process is still in flux. Meanwhile, in recent years, the electoral system has been changed frequently and substantially and the current version is both immensely complex and hugely controversial. Politics in Italy is constantly beset with scandal and corruption and, for so long, it has seemed astonishing that the Italian economic system could be so robust, when the Italian political system has been so chaotic and I write as a half-Italian. It was inevitable that, sooner or later, the weaknesses in the poiltical system would translate into problems for the economic system and so it proved in the Eurozone crisis of 2011.

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH The Italian monarchy was abolished in a referendum of 1946 (when my mother voted against the retention of the King) and, under the constitution of 1948, the head of state is the President of the Republic. He is elected for seven years by a two-thirds majority of the Parliament sitting jointly with 58 regional delegates. The Italian President of the Republic heads the armed forces and has powers to veto legislation, disband parliament and call elections. He nominates the senior Government minister, called the President of the Council (equivalent to the British Prime Minister). The current President of the Republic is Giorgio Napolitano who is a former Communist Party member. Day to day power is exercised by the President of the Council who is nominated by the President of the Republic (one needs to be careful with the term President in Italy) and confirmed by the Parliament. As a result of the Eurozone crisis and the huge sovereign debt problem faced by Italy, in November 2011 the then President of the Council Silvio Berlusconi was forced to step down and his replacement is Mario Monti. Astonishly, Monti - a former European Commissioner - has never been elected and was only made a senator a few days before his elevation to the head of government. It is the President of the Council who proposes the other ministers (formally named by the President). The Government ministers make up the Council of Ministers. Vice-ministers - called Sottosegretari (Undersecretaries) - are not formal members of the Council. In Italy, anyone can be appointed a minister, with no requirement to be a member of the Parliament or a political party. Indeed, when Mario Monti became President of the Council, he ensured that all his 17strong cabinet are technocrats with more than a third of them professors. THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES The lower house in the Italian political system is the Chamber of Deputies. It has 630 members elected by all Italian citizens older than 18. 617 members are elected by proportional representation from party lists for each of 26 constituencies. Lombardy has three constituencies, Piedmont, Veneto, Latium, Campania and Sicily each have two constituencies, and all the other 13 regions have one. Another Deputy is elected in the Aosta Valley (a mountainous region in north-western Italy). A peculiarity of the Italian Parliament is the representation given to Italians who are permanently living abroad (about 2.7 million people). Therefore, as well as the 618 nationally elected Deputies, there are 12 elected in four distinct foreign constituencies. The term of office of Deputies is five years, but the Parliament may be dissolved by the President before then if it proves impossible to form a stable government (this has happened six times since the war).

The election system for the Chamber of Deputies is new and complex. In its newest form, it dates only from 2005; its complexity comes from the fact that it combines a proportional representation system (a version of which produced so many weak post-war governments) with a 'prize' for the coalition securing the largest number of votes (so that the resulting government has a stronger basis than would otherwise be the case). To obtain seats, some thresholds must be surpassed on a national basis as follows:

a minimum of 10% for a coalition (if this requirement is not met, the 4% limit for single parties apply) a minimum of 4% for any party not in a coalition a minimum of 2% for any party in a coalition (however, the first party in a coalition that rates below 2% is also assigned seats).

As an Italian friend of mine put it: "Look!!! I fund a party, my mother another one and my father as well. We join together into a coalition and we get 30 votes (just the votes of the neighbourhood), rather far from 2%. But, as candidate of the first party, I can claim for a seat. In Italy everybody can go the Parliament, thats democracy!" Finally, the coalition or party that obtains the largest number of seats but is assigned less than 340 seats, is assigned additional seats to reach this number, which corresponds roughly to a 54% majority. This is the 'prize' and this is the incentive to form coalitions. The Chamber of Deputies actually sits in a palace: the Palazzo Montecitorio. THE SENATE The upper house in the Italian political system is the Senate. It has 315 members elected by all Italian citizens older than 25. 309 members are elected by a system of proportional representation system based upon party lists for the 20 regions of Italy. As mentioned earlier, an oddity of the Italian Parliament is the representation given to Italians abroad. Therefore, as well as the 309 nationally elected Senators, there are 6 elected in four distinct foreign constituencies. The term of office of elected Senators is five years, As well as these 315 elected Senators, the Senate includes former Presidents and appointed Senators for life (no more than five) by the President of the Republic according to special constitutional provisions. The electoral system for the Senate is very similar to the one for the Chamber of Deputies, but it is in many ways transferred from a national to to a regional basis. Therefore the thresholds which are different are applied on a regional basis as follows:

a minimum of 20% for a coalition a minimum of 8% for any party not in a coalition a minimum of 3% for any party in a coalition (there is no exception for the first party in a coalition below this threshold, as in the lower house)

The coalition that wins the largest number of seats in a region is automatically given 55% of that region's seats, if it has not reached that percentage already. In contrast to the situation for the Chamber of Deputies, there is no mechanism to guarantee a nation-wide majority in the Senate. So the real oddity in this electoral system is the lack of a 'prize' in the Senate. As widely confessed by Roberto Calderoli (a Senator from the Northern League and the creator of this electoral law), the new electoral system was written and approved during the last months of the Berlusconi Government in order to put the new winning coalition (at that time the Centre-Left coalition was substantially ahead in the opionion polls) in trouble with a weak majority in the Senate. In Italy, this electoral law is infamous and well known by everybody for its amusing 'nickname', the "porcata" (a rather rude way to say 'a load of rubbish') and this is the name that television and newspapers often use to refer to it. The Senate actually sits in a palace: the Palazzo Madama. POLITICAL PARTIES After the end of the Second World War, Italian politics - and even more so its government was dominated by a single political party Democrazia Cristiana (DC - Christian-Democrats) for more than forty years, while the opposition was led by the Italian Communist Party (PCI). The third important party was the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). Accordingly, in the period 1946-1992, there were no less than 28 governments and all but two of them were headed by a Christian Democrat. Everything changed in the early 1990s. First, all the governing parties were caught up in a major scandal called the Tangentopoli and dissolved themselves so that the Christian Democratic and the Socialist parties ceased to exist. Second, following referenda of 1993, substantial electoral changes were introduced, shifting the country from an unstable system of proportional representation to a more stable additional member system (although the voters had actually expressed a wish for a majoritarian system similar to the French model [click here]). Third, a further electoral change provides a 'prize' to the coalition which secures the largest number of votes in the Chamber of Deputies (which is intended the give the government a stronger base) which has the effect of encouraging political parties to join one of two major coalitions. The results of all these changes are that, in an effort to maximise votes, simultaneously political parties are splitting and political power is now contested by two broad coalitions bringing together most of these (often small) parties:

a Centre-Left one known as the Democratic Party a descendant of the Olive Tree coalition - which originally consisted of 11 parties (Democrats of the Left being the largest) and is led by former Communist Pierluigi Bersani a Centre-Right one known as the People of Liberty a descendant of the Pole of Freedoms which originally consisted of 8 parties (notably Forza Italia, the National Alliance and the Northern League) and is led by Silvio Berlusconi

In July 2010, supporters of Gianfranco Fini, a co-founder of the People of Liberty movement, set up their own groups in both houses of parliament under the name of Future and Freedom for Italy. Technically this means that Silvio Berlusconi lost his majority in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. The factionalism of Italian politics has some echoes of the party political situation in India [click here] but, in European terms, this situation of a multiplicity of parties and changing alliances is unique. THE JUDICIAL BRANCH The Constitutional Court of Italy is the country's supreme court. It is composed of 15 judges: one-third appointed by the President, one-third elected by the Parliament, and one-third elected by the ordinary and administrative supreme courts. The Constitutional Court is a post-war innovation. Its powers, volume, and frequency of decisions are not as extensive as those of the Supreme Court in the United states The other senior court is the Court of Cassation. Given the conflict and corruption in the Italian political system, the courts in Italy find themselves embroiled in political issues in a manner largely unknown elsewhere in Europe. So it was the courts who played a major role in provoking the fundamental political restructuring and realignments of the early 1990s as a result of the exposure of the corruption-based system called Tangentopoli (Italian for bribeville) that dominated the country until the 'Mani pulite' ('clean hands') investigation delivered it a (possibly fatal) blow in 1992. The 'clean hands' operation exposed corruption at the highest levels of politics and big business. Several former prime ministers were implicated and thousands of businessmen and politicians were investigated. CONCLUSION Perhaps only in Italy could a business leader (Silvio Berlusconi) create a major political party (Forza Italia) from scratch and then become Prime Minister while simultaneously owning the majority of the country's television channels and while still in office facing substantial corruption and sex-related charges. In November 2011, Berlusconi finally fell from power after 17 years at the top, although he is still leader of the largest party in the parliament, and it remains to be seen whether Monti's technocratic government presages a new era for Italian politics or whether Berlusconi will be back.

Therefore Italian democracy remains a work in progress. We cannot be sure that the present electoral system will be preserved; we cannot be sure that the present non-political cabinet will last; and much work needs to be done to reduce corruption and restore voter confidence.
http://www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/Italianpoliticalsystem.html

http://internationalbusiness.wikia.com/wiki/T he_Political_System_of_Italy The Political System of Italy

Italian Political System

The Italian political system takes the form of a parliamentary democratic republic. On December 11, 1947, Italy selected a new constitution that was enacted on the first of January in the following year. Italy is a multiparty system divided amongst three branches; the Executive, the Chamber of Deputies, and the Senate. o The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are considered to represent perfect bicameralism due to the balance of powers and rights possessed by each. The Executive Branch o The Head of State (Also known as the President of the Republic) is in the Executive Branch of the government. o The President (Head of State) serves a seven year term. This position is also responsible for selecting the President of the Council (Prime Minister). o The President of the Council is responsible for overseeing the daily operations. The Chamber of Deputies is considered the lower house in the Italian political system. o Overseeing the actions in this Branch are office deputies who serve five year terms. o In The Chamber of Deputies are 630 Italian members, all of whom represent 26 different political parties. o An incentive is offered to gain the most support to a political coalition. The Party with the most supporters will be awarded a 54% majority vote within The Chamber. o The Chamber of Deputies possesses a national perspective in regards to the decisions they make. The Senate is the upper house in the Italian political system. o It consists of 315 Italian members, who serve five year terms as well. o Also included in the Senate are past presidents and senators appointed by the President. o The Senate, unlike the Chamber of Deputies, has a more regionally focused perspective when making decisions. o 55% of the seats in the Senate are awarded to the political faction with the most seats in the region. Both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate have a small number of members that represent Italians living abroad. The Italian Republic is comprised of twenty regions. o Fifteen normal regions o Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Molise, Piemonte, Puglia, Toscana, Umbria, and Veneto.

o Five autonomous regions o Friuli-venezia Giula, Sardegna, Sicilia, Trentino-Alto Adige, and Valle DAosta.

References: http://www.rogerdarlington.co.uk/Italianpoliticalsystem.html http://italy.suite101.com/article.cfm/italy_government_profile

http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00540/italy.html Italy
General structure:
Italy is currently a democratic republic, after monarchy was abolished in 1946. There is a president, the cabinet which is headed by the Prime Minister, a legislative branch which consists of 945 members. The different political parties include: Forza Italia, Democratic Party of the Left, National Alliance, Northern League, Democracy is Freedom-The Daisy, United Christian Democrats of the Center, Communist Renewal, Italians of Values, Greens, Rose in the Fist, Italian Communist Party, and UDEUR (Union of Democrats for Europe).

Way of appointment:
The president is elected by voters, up to a term of 7 years, and the president will then elect his prime minister. The houses of parliament are elected by a proportional representation system for a maximum of five years, but before the expiration of its normal term, they can be dissolved. The president can just dissolve the Parliament and hold a new election. In fact, the president of Italy must be at least 50 years old!

Brief history of Italys government structure:

Italy, in the past, was governed by a king, but Benito Mussolini introduced facism during World War 2. In 1946, after a popular referendum, monarchy was abolished and a Constituent Assembly was elected.

Pros:
The pros of a republic are that many people are elected to help govern the country. This reduces burden of the entire government as the workload is spread thinner. Furthermore, viewpoints from different perspectives can be gathered and discussion can be held before any political decisions. This is important as Italy is a large country. Thus, not everyone should be involved but instead some people will help govern Italy.

Cons:
The cons of a republic are that it is not like a democracy, so certain minor viewpoints may be ignored. As Italy is a huge country with a large population, views from certain people may be ignored.

Conclusion:
Republic has helped transform Italy from a monarchy to a more constitutional rule. If kings are to be still present now, then Italy would definitely not be able to keep up with current standards seeing that the population has increased and that more people are needed to help govern the country.

References
Birth of the Italian Republic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2008, February 27). Retrieved March 26, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_of_the_Italian_Republic. Italy (02/08). (2008, February). Retrieved March 26, 2008, from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/4033.htm. Italy's Government. (2001). Retrieved March 26, 2008, from http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112187/italy_government.htm. Italy:History, Geography, Government, and Culture — Infoplease.com. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2008, from http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107658.html. What are the pros and cons of these types of government??? - Yahoo! Answers. (n.d.). Retrieved March 26, 2008, from http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070913183658AAP91gI.

Italy - Politics, government, and taxation Italy has been a democracy since the end of World War II, and despite its international reputation for political instability, the country has enjoyed largely consistent policies from successive governments. The country became a republic following the abdication of King Victor Emmanuel III in 1946 and the creation of a constitution in 1948. The country's president is elected by an electoral college whose members represent the popular vote. The president in turn selects a prime minister from the ruling coalition in the parliament. In elections held in 1999 Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was elected president. Following legislative elections in 2001, Silvio Berlusconi was selected as prime minister. Italy has a bicameral legislature consisting of a 315-member Senate and a 630member Chamber of Deputies. Both houses are directly elected by popular vote, and members serve 5-year terms. The judicial branch is headed by a Constitutional Court whose members are appointed in equal number by the president, the parliament, and the administrative Supreme Courts. The major parties that have dominated politics since 1946 are: the Christian Democrats (DC), the Communist Party (PCI), and the Socialist Party (PSI). The Christian Democrats have been the dominant force in Italian politics, continuously leading a coalition government from 1946 until the early 1990s. Until 1963, when the Socialist Party entered parliament, the Christian Democrats' coalition partners represented 3 smaller parties, the Republican Party (PRI), the Social Democratic Party (PSDI), and the Liberal Party (PLI). The main objective of all parties was the exclusion of the communists from government, and the resulting continuity of parliamentary representation ensured that there were no major swings of policy. This government coalition presided over a long period of economic growth and a satisfied electorate opposed to any radical change. The harsh recessions of the late 1970s, mid-1980s, and early 1990s, however, undermined the popularity of the DC-PSI axis, but it was not until 1992 that the political system fell apart. In that year, a major anti-corruption investigation that implicated politicians and heads of industry in a cash-for-favors exchange shook the political and economic establishment of the country.

The corruption scandals, combined with the collapse of the USSR that ended the ideological war over communism in Italy, radically altered the political system. In addition, a new economic recession for which mismanagement of the national economy was largely to blame hastened the exit of an already discredited political class. Thus, traditional parties disappeared, and new parties emerged between 1991 and 1994. Electoral laws were reformed, and in a radical move, proportional representation was abolished. It was replaced with the first-pastthe-post system, where the country is divided into constituencies, and the constituency seat goes to the winning candidate. (The congressional elections in the United States follow a comparable system.) The changes stood to give the electorate clear choices and were welcomed by many who believed that, with fewer parties in government, politicians would deal with concrete issues in non-ideological terms. Far from decreasing, however, the number of political parties has increased, and coalition government still prevails. Nevertheless, to a certain extent, expectations have been met, and the Italian electorate does face a clear choice at election time between center-right and center-left coalitions. Both sides have had periods in office since 1994. The main parties within the center-right coalition are Forza Italia, National Alliance (AN), the Northern League (NL), and the Center Christian Democrats (CCD). The largest party is Forza Italia, led by media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, who is also the leader of the coalition. This party believes strongly in further reducing the role of the state in the economic sphere and aims to accelerate the pace of privatization. Clearly conservative, Forza Italia also plans to cut the costs of the welfare state and introduce free-market competition in health and education, as well as cutting taxes. The Northern League shares these economic policies but also advocates increased political and fiscal autonomy for all regions by devolving responsibility to the regions for providing several fundamental services, including the provision of education, health care, transport, and law and order. Under this proposal, the regions would be empowered to raise taxes, keeping most of the revenue to spend as they decide, without central government interference. The NL represents, in electoral terms, the majority of northern voters, and its appeals for federal reforms are to be taken seriously. The National Alliance is the most right-wing party of the coalition and is mostly preoccupied with limiting foreign immigration, preserving the integrity of the national territory, and safeguarding the

international credibility of Italy. It shares the broad economic approach of its partners but does not support the federal reforms advocated by the NL. The Center Christian Democrats offer a more moderate voice regarding immigration and social policies but argue for increased economic liberalization. The center-right coalition was in power in 1994 for only 7 months and was unable to carry out their promised reforms because the Northern League withdrew from the alliance. The center-left coalition won the 1996 election. The main parties of the centerleft coalition are the Democrats of the Left (DS), the People's Party (PPI), the Greens, the Democrats, and, after years in the wilderness, the Communist Party (PCI). The DS, the largest partner in the coalition, is a social-democratic party. The broad outline of its economic policy, shared by all its partners, favors liberalization, privatization, lower taxes, and job creation by means of financial incentives to employers. The PPI is one of the heirs of the old Christian Democrats (DC) and is the most socialist party of the coalition, supporting recognition of gay rights, subsidized housing for refugees, and abortion. In the economic sphere, the PPI is slightly to the left of the dominant DS and believes that the state should still play a strong role in managing the economy. One distinctive policy of the PPI is the advocacy of state aid to private schools run by the Catholic Church. The Greens subscribe to most of the economic policies advocated by the DS but are mainly concerned with the environmental aspects of those policies. In common with the Greens in the rest of Europe, they are particularly committed to limiting the use of motor cars in favor of a more environmentally friendly public transport system. Many of the economic policies of the right and left parties overlap; the difference is marked in matters of social policy, the environment, and federalism. The center-left coalition is not as keen as its opponents to introduce free-market competition in the provision of health and education, preferring a smaller, more efficient welfare state and, in principle, is not hostile to foreign immigration. Finally, the center-left supports administrative and political decentralization, but is against extensive federal reforms that would widen the already large gap between North and South. The center-left coalition held power from 1996 to 2001, a period characterized by an economic slump and by Italian support for NATO actions in Kosovo. With the economy slumping in the runup to the 2001 legislative elections, the center-right parties, led by

Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing Forza Italia, returned to power in a coalition that included some of the most right-wing parties in Europe. Since his return to power, Berlusconi has been an outspoken proponent of free trade and pro-business policies. He has promised to reduce unemployment, cut taxes, and reform education and the still-bloated state bureaucracy. An aspect of Italian politics that should not be ignored is the growing disillusionment of the electorate. Many citizens feel that their participation in the political process makes no difference to government, and there has been a sharp decrease in party membership. Voter turnout has steadily decreased since the mid-1980s, and in the 1996 elections, 23.1 percent of voters either stayed away from the polls or spoiled their ballot papers. This is a worrying sign of disaffection, and many political parties are concerned that if this trend continues it will undermine the legitimacy of future governments. The former leader of the Socialist Party, Giuliano Amato, launched a far-reaching privatization program in 1992, which was continued by both coalition governments. Aside from the sale of state assets, both coalitions agreed that the pension system should be reformed and its apparent generosity curtailed. The reform of the pension system was carried out in full by the center-left coalition in power from 1996 to 2001, which was able to convince the trade unions to accept a deal. Both coalitions are also in favor of increased international free trade, even though they advocate some sort of protectionist measures for so-called "cultural products" such as movies and TV programs, which promote Italian language and culture. Finally, budget cuts across the board (particularly as regards health and defense) have been welcomed by both coalitions. The general convergence of ideas on economic management should not, however, obscure the differences that still exist between left and right. These differences are highly visible when it comes to crucial social issues such as immigration, gay rights, and the environment. Problems of corruption, including the infiltration of political institutions by organized crime, have long been a feature of Italian life. The present political system was born out of a popular reaction against the spread of corruption and crime, but the problem, though marginally worse in the 1970s and 1980s than it is as of 2001, refuses to go away.

The new political structures seem only to have provided a pause in the usual pattern of "doing politics" and "doing business" in Italy. Taxation in Italy is quite a complicated affair because there are numerous taxes that each citizen has to pay. Moreover taxation is high, representing 43.3 percent of the GDP. However, the number and quality of the public services are some justification for high taxes, and measures to simplify the tax system have been introduced since 1998. Income tax accounts for 34.9 percent of total tax revenues, while value-added tax (VAT) contributes 35.4 percent. In addition, local governments levy other indirect taxes . The tax system is plagued by tax evasion, however. Many economists point to this problem as one of the main challenges Italy needs to resolve in the near future. The government is improving the situation, but there is still an enormous amount of work to do. Aside from the considerable sums of money that entirely escape the government due to the strength of the informal economy, there is significant income tax evasion. Employees in both the public and private sectors have their tax deducted from their paychecks and do not have to submit tax declaration forms. However, employers, selfemployed professionals, and business owners must fill out tax forms and declare their profits. Huge numbers of people in these categories falsely report their earnings, thus lowering their tax bills. The state has as yet not found a method of tackling this situation. For many years tax evasion was ignored, thanks to a commonly accepted theory that it was conducive to economic development: the money would swell either consumption or investment. But tax evasion is clearly putting a strain on public finances, and its effects are particularly negative at a time of increasing cutbacks in public services. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recognized the problem in 1998 and pointed out that far-reaching reforms had to be undertaken if tax evasion was to be reduced. The government is currently implementing certain reforms that are expected to make the system more coherent and make evasion less common.

Read more: http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Europe/Italy-POLITICSGOVERNMENT-AND-TAXATION.html#ixzz2DIO0vjfo

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112187/italy_government.htm In 1946 Italy changed its government. In this year, the people voted to change their nation from a monarchy, which was ruled by a king to a republic that was headed by a president. King Humbert the 2nd fastest left the throne and the voters elected 556 members to the Constituent Assembly to write a constitution. The constitution was passed in 1947 and took effect on January 1,1948. The constitution established a government, which was made up of a president, the Council of Ministers headed by a prime minister, and a Parliament with a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.
President

The president of Italy was elected to a seven-year term by both of the houses of Parliament. In Italy the president must be at least 50 years old. They show the prime minister, who forms the government. The president has the power to get ride of Parliament and call a new election. The president is the commander of the Italians. Italy doesnt have a vice president. If the president of Italy is sick, the president of the Italian Senate takes over the job. If the president dies, a presidential election is held.
Prime Minister and Cabinet

The prime minister decides a national policy and is the most important person in the Italian government. The prime minister is picked by the president, but can be voted out of office any time. Members of the cabinet are picked by the prime minister, and usually come from the members of Parliament. The president then appoints the members to the cabinet, and they are approved by Parliament. The Italian prime minister and the cabinet are officially called the government.
Parliament

The Chamber of Deputies and Senate are the Parliament. The Chamber of Deputies has 630 members who are elected by voters from 27 voting districts. The Senate has 315 members who are elected by voters, from 20 units called regions, and members picked by the President for life. Plus, former Presidents are life members. The Chamber and Senate both share equal power to pass laws. Members of each serve 5-year terms.
Courts

Judges of courts appoint rather than elect. The Italian judges get appointments during service exams. The President of the Parliament picks five of the judges from the constitution court, and 5 are by judges of other courts. The courts work under a national ministry for a justice panel of the judges.

Armed Forces

If you are a man and 18 years old you have to go to the army. If you go to the Air Force you go there for 12 months. If you go to the Navy you go there for 16 months.

Italian Politics - Government

http://www.understandingitaly.com/profile-content/government.html

In June 1946, the Italian people voted to abolish the Monarchy and the country became a Democratic Republic. The Italian Parliament is made up of 946 elected members. There are two houses, both with equal rights and powers. The Italian Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, has 630 seats. For elections to the lower house, the country is represented by 26 constituences. These constituences elect 617 members of Parliament between them. Aosta Valley elects one more and the remaining 12 are elected by Italians living abroad. The Italian Senate, the upper house, has 317 seats. For elections to the Senate, votes are cast regionally with 6 seats allocated to Italians living abroad. Both houses are elected every five years. Unlike the British and American system, where votes are cast for individual candidates, the Italian voting system is based on a 'Party List' system, where each party's candidates are ranked in order of priority. If a party wins 10 seats, for example, then the first 10 candidates on their list are selected and take their seats in Parliament. Coalitions are actively encouraged by the system. In forming a coalition to fight an election, individual parties must sign up to a coalition document and agree to support a single, nominated leader. If a coalition wins the election with less than the 340 seats required for a working majority, then they are assigned additional seats, equivalent to a 54% majority. The party or coalition with the largest vote is asked to form a government by the President of the Republic. This government must then receive a vote of support from both houses before it can exercise power. Thereafter, it is supported by Parliament through a series of 'votes of confidence' in the two houses. Parliament can request a new vote at any time, once a certain proportion of members wish it. If the government fails to gain enough support it must resign. At this point the President can ask the parties to create a new government that does have the support of Parliament or he can attempt to create a new government of his own design. If either of those options fail to win support, Parliament is dissolved and new elections are held. This electoral law has been widely criticised by the centre left parties, as they believe it favours parties from the right. Reform of the electoral laws is currently being proposed.

Silvio Berlusconi - Prime Minister

Executive power rests with the 'Council of Ministers', or Cabinet, which is led by the Prime Minister (President of the Council of Ministers). Legislative power rests primarily with the two houses of Parliament, and secondarily with the Council of Ministers. The Judiciary is independent of Parliament.

Giorgio Napolitano President of the Republic

The President is the head of state and is independent of all branches of government. As the head of state, the President of the Republic represents the unity of the nation and has taken over many of the duties previously undertaken by the monarchy. The President serves as a focal point between the three branches of power: he is elected by the lawmakers, he appoints the executive, and is the President of the judiciary. The President is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The President of the Republic is elected for a seven year term by an electoral college which consists of both houses of Parliament together with 58 regional representatives. His election needs a wide majority that ensures that the elected President enjoys wide support across all political parties. While it is not forbidden by law, no president has ever served two terms. Usually, the President tries to stay out of day to day politics, and to be an institutional guarantee for all those involved in the political process. As the guardian of the Constitution of Italy, the President can also reject openly anticonstitutional laws by refusing to sign them. The President of the Republic appoints the Council of Ministers and its President (the Prime Minister). The Prime Minister advises the President of the Republic on the composition of the rest of the Council of Ministers (the cabinet), which comprises the ministers in charge of the various governmental departments. In practice, the President accepts Prime Minister's advice, and submits the proposed Council for a vote of confidence from both parliamentary chambers. Italy's First Republic There have been 61 governments in Italy since 1945. However, the dominance of the Christian Democratic party in Italian politics over this period provided continuity and comparative stability to the political situation in the country, as they attempted to maintain Cold War equilibrium in the region by keeping the Italian Communist Party (PCI) out of power. Apart from playing a part in the National Unity governments prior to 1948, the communists have never been in power. The clich that Italy had 50 governments in its first 50 years of democracy is often used as an example of political instability. However, Italy's main political problem was actually the opposite. Where the governments of other western countries alternated between left and right wing parties, Italy's government remained in the hands of the Christian Democrats and their allies throughout the whole of the period of the so called 'First Republic', since it was politically unacceptable for a communist party to rule a western country during the Cold war period.

During the 1960s, Aldo Moro, a relatively left-leaning Christian Democrat, unsuccessfully attempted to include the socialists in the government. He would later try to include the communist party as well in a deal called 'The Historical Compromise'. In 1978, this attempt was brought to an abrupt halt by the kidnapping and murder of Moro by the Red Brigades, an extremist left-wing terror organisation. At this time, the Communist Party was the largest in western Europe, and it has remained so ever since. Their appeal to Italians has been mainly due to the Party's independence from Moscow, their rejection of extremism and their reasonable, practical approach to politics. The 'Years of Lead'

On December 12, 1969, a bomb exploded in the Piazza Fontana in the center of Milan. This act of terror initiated ten years of political terrorism in Italy, between left and right wing extremists. The term 'Years of Lead' is translated from the Italian, 'Anni di Piombo', refering to lead used to make bullets. The Milan bomb was left in a bank and killed about twenty people. It was originally blamed on anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli. This accusation was hotly contested by left-wing circles, especially the Maoist Student Movement which was popular among the students of Milan's universities, and who considered the bombing to have the hallmark of a fascist operation.

Their guess eventually proved correct, but only after many years of difficult investigations. Neofascist Vincenzo Vinciguerra later declared the bombing to be an attempt to push the Italian state to declare a state of emergency, in order to lead to a more authoritative state. Italy's left-wing organisations continued to be blamed for bombings carried out by right-wing terrorists. Fascist "black terrorists," such as 'Ordine Nuovo' and the Avanguardia Nazionale, were, in the 1980s-90s, found to be responsible for several terrorist attacks. On the other extreme of the political spectrum, the leftist Red Brigades carried out assassinations against individuals, but weren't responsible for any blind bombings. The Red Brigades killed socialist journalist Walter Tobagi, and, in their most famous operation, kidnapped and assassinated Aldo Moro, president of the Christian Democracy, who was trying to include the Communist Party in the government through the 'Compromesso Storico' ('Historic Compromise'), to which the radical left, as well as Washington, were opposed.

It is worth noting that the Red Brigades met fierce resistance from the Communist Party and the trade unions; some left-wing politicians, however, used the sympathetic expression 'Comrades who are mistaken', ('Compagni che sbagliano', in Italian) to refer to the Red Brigades. Some radical left apologists have alleged that the Red Brigades (or at least the 2nd Red Brigades, led by Mario Moretti) were exploited by the right-wing or even possibly by foreign forces to destabilise Italy, discredit the Communist Party and impede the historic compromise. This is a hotly contested claim that the evidence does not support and which many consider to have the hallmarks of a 'Blame-the-Victim' conspiracy theory. Italy's Second Republic Towards the end of the 80s and 90s, corruption had become endemic in Italian politics. The longsuffering population had become increasingly unhappy about what became known as 'Tangentopoli': a toxic mixture of the polititians' antics in Parliament, widespread corruption, massive government debt and the Mafia's stranglehold on public life. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a series of events triggered a comprehensive investigation and clean-up, called 'Clean Hands' (Mani Pulite). As a result, a series of referendums were held in 1993 which, amongst other things, approved changes to the voting system. In the subsequent election of 1994, 452 out of 630 deputies were replaced and 213 out of 315 senators lost their seats. These political upheavals led to the formation of the 2nd Republic.

Silvio Berlusconi

The voters had become very disillusioned with the traditional political parties and consequently a political newcomer,

Silvio Berlusconi, was swept to power as prime minister with a new party, the Italy's constitution

'House of Freedoms' coalition. However, this coalition proved to be a fragile one and having lost the support of his partners in the Lega Nord, Berlusconi was forced to step down. provided for a caretaker government, headed by prime minister, Lamberto Dini, which governed until new elections were held in 1996.

Romano Prodi

By this time the left-leaning parties has reorganised themselves and won the new election as a coalition called 'The Olive Tree', headed by Romano Prodi. in Italian terms, this government lasted a long time, 2 years, before being narrowly defeated in a vote of confidence in 1998. badly in regional elections, he too resigned. Again, the

A new government

was put together under the leadership of former communist Massimo D'Alema, but after performing

government rearranged itself and this time the

president appointed a former prime minister, Giuliano Amato, a social-democrat who had served in the

1st republic.

In 2001 new national elections were held and this time Silvio Berlusconi was returned to power with a new, centre-right coalition called 'Freedom House'. The was made up with Berlusconi's own pary own party, Forza Italia, the National Alliance, the Northern League, the Christian Democratic Center, and the Democrats' Center Union. This government lasted for an unusually long time, until the new elections of 2006 when Romano Prodi was narrowly returned to power. Although he resigned less than a year later, the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, asked him to stay on which he did until he lost a vote of confidence and new elections were called in January 2008.

These elections set the scene for the current political landscape. The main centre-left parties united under 'The Democratic Party' set up by Walter Veltroni, a previous mayor of Rome, and the centreright parties under 'The People of Freedom Party', led by Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi won the election with what, in Italian terms, was a clear majority. However, as the Euro crisis gathered momentum towards the end of 2011, and Berlusconi's ability to deliver the necessary reforms was called into doubt, several members of his party withdrew their support during a crucial vote in Parliament which led to his resignation as Prime Minister.

Mario Monti

Under Italian consitutional law, the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano,

put together a new

government of European Tecnocrats (i.e. unelected administrators) under the leadership of Mario
Monti, an ex-European Commissioner. He hoped that they would have the necessary experience and credibility to calm the volatile financial markets.

The elected polititians, perhaps reluctant to accept the blame for making unpopular decisions, are supporting this development for the time being. However, should that support be withdrawn at any time over the next year, it would immediately lead to new elections.