1. Maurizio Cotta - Luca Verzichelli Il sistema politico italiano
Parliament and parliamentarism during the First and the Second Republic
Maurizio Cotta - Luca Verzichelli Il sistema politico italiano
Chapter 6

2. Topics of this chapter The parliament during the republican history
The parliament in recent times
Legislation and the parliament-cabinet relationships
The legislators

3. The monarchical parliament
Bicameralism
Strong relationships among legislators and voters (for the Low Chamber)
Unsatisfactory internal organization

4. The republican parliament
Unneeded and redundant bicameralism
Internal organization based on a well developed committee system
Legislature five years long for both Houses
Similar Office of the Speakers in both Houses
Similar secretarial organization

5. The legislative initiative
Legislators
Government
Regional assemblies
Citizens’ initiative
Cnel (abolished)

6. The legislative process
The role of the parliament:
Ordinary legislative process on the floor
Decentralized legislative process
Ex post control on governmental decrees
Ex ante control on delegated decrees
Other relevant institutions:
Head of the State
Constitutional Court
referendum

7. Other powers of the parliament
Control on the cabinet
Confidence voting
Collective and individual no-confidence voting
Approval of the budget
Inquiry commissions
Question time
Nomination
Judges of the Constitutional Court
Judges of the CSM
Head of the State
Several state agencies (f.i. RAI)

8. The Italian parliament and the consociative democracy
During the Seventies:
Failures of the governmental legislation
Increasing decisional role of the legislative committees
Parliamentary offices attributed to the opposition

9. The Italian parliament during the bipolarism
Legislative process:
Limitations of the parliamentary debates
Lesser number of laws
Growing role of the government
Decreasing role of the parliamentary committees
Budget process
European Union bill
Control on the government:
New structures (giunte, commissioni)
New tools (interrogazione, interpellanza, mozione, risoluzione)

10. The government and the legislative process

11. The members of the parliament (MP)
During the First Republic:
Partisan selection
Diffused professionalization
During the Second Republic:
High turnover, but a persistent sociografic profile
Previous career in the local government
Different occupational profile for the Left and the Right
Other (often local) appealing offices