Political System of Italy
Italy is a parliamentary, democratic republic. The monarchy was abolished in 1946 by popular referendum. The constitution of Italy was passed in 1947 and took effect from January 1, 1948. Italy’s political past has been an unstable one and it has seen many governments come and go. There is multi-party system in Italy. The government in Italy constitutes of a President, the Council of Ministers led by the Prime Minister and there is a Parliament that comprises of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. The upper house of Parliament, the Senate consists of 315 members while the lower house that is the Chamber of Deputies has 630 members. All the members of both the houses are elected by direct elections. Judiciary in Italy is independent of executive and legislative but been accused of lengthy trial delays and of being biased.
Prime Minister is the government head of Italy while President is the chief of the state who heads the armed forces. The president in Italy is elected to serve for a period of seven years and must be at least 50 years old. The President is elected by both the houses of the Parliament and regional representatives. He has power to veto legislation, dissolve parliament and call for elections. The president appoints the prime minister, who chooses the other ministers that are approved by the President. Members of Chamber and Senate in Italy serve for a period of 5 years. The executive power rests with the Prime Minister who is the most important person of the government responsible for deciding the national policy of the state and other day to day matters of running a state. The Prime Minister does not have the authority to dissolve the Parliament. The President appoints the Prime Minister who is then confirmed by a majority support of the parliament. Prime Minister in Italy is elected for a period of five years.
Italian politics has been marred with corruption and scandals which still remains and issue to be tackled.
Political Situation
The president of Italy is elected for a seven year term by the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies and regional representatives. No executive power rests with the president in Italy. The current President is Giorgio Napolitano. He was elected in May 2006 and his term will last till mid-May 2013.
Berlusconi is the second longest-serving Prime Minister of Italy. He
has held this position on four separate occasions: from 1994 to 1995,
from 2001 to 2005, from 2005 to 2006, currently since 2008.
Berlusconi’s political career has been rapid with quick ups and downs.
His party Forza won with great majority after having been launched for
a mere period of 3 months and Berlusconi was appointed as Prime
Minister for the first time in 1994. In April 1996 parliamentary
elections, he was defeated by Romano Prodi and served as the leader of
opposition during the tenure from 1996 to 2001. In 2001 elections he
won again and formed his second and third governments. It was in 2006
elections that he lost again to Romano Prodi by a narrow margin.
After the collapse of the Prodi government, in early 2008 the two
parties Brelusconi’s Forza Italia and the AN, a rightist party agreed
to merge and form a single party PDL to contest for the April general
election. Berlusconi was re-elected with a strong victory and is now
serving his fourth term as the Prime Minister. After the elections they
haven’t officially formed the party as planned but preparations were
being made in late September.
Mr Berlusconi’s political priority with Lega Nord which comes often at
the expense of AN and other allies has given rise to differences. This
political strategy quite evident from 2000 has been a crucial issue.
The centrist UDC because of these reasons broke away from the alliance
just before the 2008 elections were to take place. Berlusconi and its
alliance party won the election with a clear-cut victory. The support
to Lega is again showing signs of creating problems for the Berlusconi
government and it may prove vital to the survival of the government.
The present government’s positive economic initiative so far includes
the scraping of house tax that was quite unpopular and to reduce the
tax on overtime.
