ABSTRACT
In the democratic consolidations of Southern European countries, such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, parties and party elites, played a key role. Although the Italian experience encompasses the late 1940s and 1950s, whereas the other three took place in the 1970s and 1980s, they all may be defined as consolidation through parties. The process of legitimation ended in 1989-1990 when the government formed an alliance with Nea Democratia. In Portugal, until the first important constitutional revision in 1982, there was a long phase during which it was not even clear what kind of democracy should be installed and considered legitimate: a radical socialist regime or a pluralist democracy closer to European models. Since the end of the 1980s Italy has entered a new phase of deconsolidation and crisis, which will culminate in the transformation of the present democracy.
