Shaping a Better Republic: Italy in a Comparative Perspective

SHAPING A BETTER REPUBUC: ITALY IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Giarj/hmcoPasquino JLhe Italian political system is finally undergoing a major transformation. In several important respects it is engaged in what may be correcdy defined as a transition. By now, the starting point of the transition is well-known—June 1991—though there are many differences of opinion on the precise cause or causes. What is unknown is where and when die Italian transition will end, and what kind of political system will emerge. In order to understand the overall process oftransformation and to provide some guidelines necessary to predict and evaluate die different possible outcomes, several intriguing issues have to be identified and carefully scrutinized. This article first discusses political transitions in general and explains why and how die Italian transition differs from the ones known so fer. It then analyzes the following issues: die demise of the old parties and the construction and nature of the new party alignment; institutional reform and renewal; the restructuring of the political economy; and die turnover ofthe political class. Finally, itventures happily and audaciously into predictions about die future and quality of Italian democracy. Diverse Transitions Thanks to the pioneering work of Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead,1 we have come to know a lot about 1 O'Donnell, Schmitter, and Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, vol. 4 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986). Gianfranco Pasquino is a member ofthe Italian Senate, professor of political science at Bologna University, and adjunct professor at the Bologna Center of SAIS. He is the author of, among other books, La nuova politica (1992) and co-author of Euroministn. Il governo dell'Europa (1994). 61 62 SAIS Review SUMMER-FALL 1994 political transitions, especially transitions from authoritarian rule. Yet the Italian transition differs from those generally analyzed. It is a transition from one democratic regime to another more or less equally democratic regime. Therefore, for comparative purposes a good candidate for analysis would be anodier transition within a democratic framework. Though evoked by several commentators and scholars,2 the case ofdie French transition from the Fourth to die Fifth Republic in 1958 has not been adequately utilized to illuminate the Italian transition. In fea, Italian analysts have been referring to the French example most frequendy to explain why Italy is not following the French path: that is, because Italy is not involved in colonial wars, especially one like Algeria, and, for better or for worse, Italy has no Charles de Gaulle. Still, die French case may offer very important lessons for the Italian transition. Italy had a crisis detonator thatcorresponds to dieAlgerian war: the fall ofthe Berlin wall in November 1989. Also, many small de Gaulles have proliferated, diough so fer without success. Moreover, at least three ofthe four issues that are intriguing and important in the Italian case—parties and die party system, institutional renewal, and die turnover of the political class—bear a striking resemblance to the problems tackled in die French case. These similarities may be what has prompted many analysts and commentators to refer to a transition from the First to the Second Italian Republic. Italy's transition clearly is an example ofdemocratic regime change, and dierefore can be categorized widi France's transition from the Fourth to the Fifth Republic. With regard to differences, it must be stressed that die timing of Italy's transition in the life of the regime may be more significant than the timing of the French transition. It is one thing to start a political transition after slighdy more than a decade ofa fragile regime's troubled existence. It is a very different thing to initiate a transition after a regime has existed for more than forty-five years. Both the French Fourth Republic and the Italian First Republic were worn out at the end ofdieir trajectories. But in the Italian case there are more, better organized vested interests willing to defend the old regime than existed at the end ofdie French Fourth Republic. Comparisons with differenttypes oftransitions are possible and illuminating . Regarding stability or stagnation of the political class, both Spain's transition of 1975 to 1977 from its exhausted, Franquist...