Political Trends in Italy

Abstract

rT HE MOST striking result of the parliamentary elections of June 7, 1953, in Italy was the failure of the ministerial parties Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Liberals, and Republicans to win a popular majority. The major political issue of the pre-election campaign had been the controversial revision of the proportional representation system which the ministerial parties had steered through Parliament. This amendment of the 1948 law, by which the Chamber of Deputies is elected, permitted the coalition of parties which won 50 per cent plus one of the popular votes, to receive 641/2 per cent of the 590 seats in the lower house of Parliament. The other parties, with less than 50 per cent of the popular votes, were to receive a total of only 351/2 per cent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The logic of this revision was to insure the De Gasperi government a majority in the Chamber of Deputies as preponderant viz., 64 per cent as it had enjoyed since April 18, 1948. More particularly, it would have permitted the Christian Democratic party to amass a parliamentary majority of 52 per cent with only 40 per cent of the popular votes. The De Gasperi government considered such a revision as the indispensable means to preserve the policies of the past six years and to maintain ministerial stability for another five years in Italy. Prime Minister De Gasperi had declared in Parliament, while debating the merits of the electoral revision, that the popular vote would constitute a moral referendum of the new law and also a vote of confidence in the government's policies.1 The anti-ministerial opposition was divided into Leftists Communists and Socialists and a sprinkling of independent groups and Rightists -Monarchists and Neo-Fascists. Despite the intense hatred that divides the Left from the Right in Italy,2 both were in agreement that the ministerial parties should not be permitted to win a popular majority. The logic of the opposition parties was clear-by preventing the Christian Democrats from winning a large majority in the Chamber of Deputies the stability of future governments would be threatened in much the same way as has been true of the French Republic. Without a secure parliamentary majority, the Christian Democrats would be forced eventually to