From fragile majoritarianism to the ‘technocratic addendum’: some data on the legislative activity of the governments of the sixteenth legislature

Abstract

The opening of the sixteenth legislature took place against a ‘majoritarian background’. This seemed to mark the final stage in the evolution of the Italian system towards competitive democracy – involving the control, by two main parties, of most of the seats in parliament; a highly simplified majority coalition; a strong government (sustained by the large size of the majority itself), with authority to implement the programme it had presented to voters and potentially able to survive until the natural end of the legislature. In the event, the prospect of this scenario coming to pass faded away during the course of the legislature, to be substituted by new centrifugal drives in parliament, by problems in managing the governing coalition and then finally by the crisis of the executive and the formation of a new technocratic government. This article analyses data that summarise the legislative activities of government during this parliament beginning with the activity of the fourth Berlusconi government, whose difficulties became increasingly apparent during the course of its term as conflict within the coalition became more acute. We then analyse the activity of the Monti government, highlighting in particular the way in which it was influenced by the shortage of time available to it at the end of the legislature (and by the urgency of the measures to be adopted), and which very often sought to secure its aims by means other than the ordinary legislative procedures.