Electoral systems and concepts of democracy: electoral reform as a permanent policy issue in the Italian political system

The article explores the history of electoral reform in Italy from the point of view of the normative assumptions implicit in the reforms, and in particular the conceptions of democracy that have inspired reform strategies. It argues that where the electoral system occupies a permanent and high profile place on the political agenda, there is it an indicator of the degree of de-structuration of the political system and the persisting nature of this state of affairs. Underlying the various attempts at institutional reform undertaken in Italy over the past quarter century is an interpretation of the country’s ‘democratic crisis’ as a ‘crisis of governability’ rather than a ‘crisis of legitimacy’. The penultimate section of the article examines the latest electoral reform, showing that it is the fruit of contingent calculations deprived of any politico-cultural inspiration: the latest product of confused attempts at electoral bricolage as opposed to a genuine and rational attempt at electoral engineering. The conclusion is that ‘a return to proportionality’ – to a coherent and convincing proportional system – may be the only means available for attempting, at least, to put a stop to the growing de-legitimation of Italy’s democratic institutions.