Making Italy Governable

Professor Giovanni Guzzetta is a lawyer and lectures in Public Law at Rome's Tor Vergata University. He has been involved in organizing electoral referendums in Italy since 1991 and is currently the President of the Italian Electoral Referendum Organizing Committee.

DW-WORLD.DE: How do the current Italian electoral laws work?

Giovanni Guzzetta: The electoral laws are based on proportional representation whereby the parties that are politically similar form a coalition. The coalition that obtains the most votes wins a majority in the parliament.

The problem with the current electoral law is that the threshold is very low and so even very small parties can obtain seats and become determining forces in the life of the majority. This, in turn, can result in a large amount of fragmentation.

For example, the political parties today number more than 20 and this produces instability because all governments are forced to negotiate with the various smaller parties.

What are the two different electoral reforms currently on the agenda?

The first is the one that they are discussing in the parliament. It aims to raise the threshold to between four to five percent. This is somewhat inspired by the German system.

The other proposal is the subject of a referendum and is supported by 800,000 citizens, as is required by the Italian Constitution. It aims to reduce much more drastically the number of parties by eliminating coalitions altogether. It foresees that each party runs alone and the party that wins is the one that has the majority of votes. This way, all of the instability of coalition governments would be avoided.

You are the President of the Italian Electoral Referendum Organizing Committee. Will the referendum to change the electoral laws go ahead?

We collected the signatures and we obtained the approval of the constitutional court less than a week ago. But Italian law requires that if early elections are called then a referendum must be delayed for a year. Once a new government is formed, the referendum will go ahead as long as that new government doesn't propose its own electoral reform.

The current government crisis brings back memories of 1993 when the Amato Government fell and Carlo Ciampi (the former head of the Bank of Italy who later went on to serve as President of Italy and who is currently a Senator for life) was appointed head of a technocratic government with the sole task of changing the electoral laws. How has the political climate changed since then?

The truth is that the current politicians are very much divided over the electoral law so it will be very difficult to reach a strong enough agreement to make a final decision over the electoral laws. The most probable outcome will be either early elections or a government that serves only to carry out the referendum.

Italy has had 61 governments since the end of World War II. Are Italians fed up with these constantly changing governments or do they like politics to be this way?

I believe that a majority of Italians are fed up. A majority of Italians realize that Italy is destined to a miserable decline if it doesn't change its institutions. For my generation -- I'm 41 years old -- Italy has been our destiny. For the next generation, the generation of my children, Italy will be a choice between many other possibilities: My children can choose to live in Italy, Germany or Spain, for example.

If Italy doesn't have the equipment to be a country that is upward-moving, well-governed, with services that function and with stable institutions, it risks losing ground with respect to other countries.

What must happen in Italy to ensure stable governments in the future?

You need big changes within the political class. The political class was shaped culturally in the era of the Cold War, but things need to change. The institutions need to become more competitive and more stable. You need changes that strengthen the power of citizens and give more responsibility and stability to governments.

So not only electoral reform is needed but also changes to the political parties?

The renewal of the parties would also mean changing the constitution, but in the meantime the electoral reform is a really important step.