The Italian XVIII legislature: populism, law-making and procedures

Abstract

The study explores the adjustment of the Italian parliamentary system to the change of balance between political parties. The results of several aspects of the breakdown of the March 2018 parliamentary elections are examined in the use of certain law-making mechanisms such as laws, decrees, delegations, votes of confidence and decentralised procedures, analysed as a dependent variable. An interpretation of the characteristics of the legislative process is then proposed on the basis of elements of continuity and change in three independent variables: parliament fragmentation, governability and electoral volatility. The case study is the XVIII legislature, focusing on the first year of activity of the government-parliament subsystem.