ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the implications of the events of the early 1990s for reform of Italy’s political institutions. It analyses the difficulties likely to be encountered in changing the relationship between voters, representatives, and governments. By comparing the Italian case with fundamental reform in other European states-most notably France-it asks whether the sequence of events culminating in the 1994 election can rework that relationship. It argues that the changes brought about during the life of the 1992-94 Parliament were unplanned, and uncontrolled. They were the result of immediate and often emotional responses to dramatic events, and they suggest that despite fundamental electoral reform, despite the resulting changes in the party system in the 1994 general election, and despite widespread assumptions that recent events constitute the water-shed between the ‘First’ and the ‘Second’ Republics, the true extent and nature of political and institutional reform are still uncertain.
