Abstract
While almost all European democracies from the 1980s started to accord legal recognition to same-sex couples, Italy was, in 2016, the last West European country to adopt a regulation, after a tortuous path. Why was Italy such a latecomer? What kind of barriers were encountered by the legislative process? What were the factors behind the policy change? To answer these questions, this article first discusses current morality policymaking, paying specific attention to the literature dealing with same-sex partnerships. Second, it provides a reconstruction of the Italian policy trajectory, from the entrance of the issue into political debate until the enactment of the civil union law, by considering both partisan and societal actors for and against the legislative initiative. The article argues that the Italian progress towards the regulation of same-sex unions depended on the balance of power between change and blocking coalitions and their degree of congruence during the policymaking process. In 2016 the government formed a broad consensus and the parliament passed a law on civil unions. However, the new law represented only a small departure from the status quo due to the low congruence between actors within the change coalition.
Highlights
The regulation of same-sex couples has reflected common issues among European states
The present analysis focuses on the case of Italy to explain the end of Italian exceptionalism in 2016, when a form of recognition for same-sex couples was introduced under the legal institution of civil unions
This article has contributed to our understanding of the policy dynamics in reference to the recognition of LGBT rights
Summary
The regulation of same-sex couples has reflected common issues among European states. Domestic party systems and sociopolitical dynamics do make a significant difference in explaining the variety of SSU regulation (in timing and in legal institutions) across European countries Against this backdrop, the present analysis focuses on the case of Italy to explain the end of Italian exceptionalism in 2016, when a form of recognition for same-sex couples was introduced under the legal institution of civil unions. The question of the family, its transformations, and the different possible forms of recognition for same-sex couples became a more and more a contested issue in the early 2000s In this scenario, the role of the Catholic Church can be conceptualised as a societal veto player whose power is based on mobilisation potential and internal preference cohesion and on strong ties with the right-wing coalition in mirroring its positions against SSU. The revised text was approved by the Senate on 25 February 2016, and this represented a turning point for the policy process, given that in the Chamber of the Deputies the government was sustained by a much larger majority
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