Abstract
The aim of the paper is to analyze electoral participation in Italy against the decline in turnout in elections during the Second Republic. Each election yields a variable proportion of citizens not taking part in the vote. In order to measure this phenomenon accurately, we first need to define the non-voter turnout by considering abstention, null and blank votes considered as components of electoral not participation. Successively we show the geographical distribution of uninvolved people underlying the dualism North and South and the differences between first-order and second-order elections in the level of turnout. In the final part of the article we claim that abstention is really only one dimension of a more general process of instability in voting behavior. We identify electoral volatility, partisan identification and vote to protest parties as further evidence in order to state a specific syndrome of declining legitimacy for main actors in democracy loosing the grip with electorate.
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