ABSTRACT
At a distance of only two years from the first elections to be held under the new, predominantly majoritarian, electoral system in 1994, Italians returned to the ballot box on 21 April 1996 to elect a new Parliament. The Polo comprised the same political forces which had stood at the regional elections the preceding year. Essentially, the main political forces within the Ulivo coalition were the Partito Democratico della Sinistra (PDS), the Partito Popolare Italiano and the Greens. The first contained members of the Comunisti Unitari, the Cristiani Sociali and Laburisti as well as of the PDS for both proportional and majority places. In 1994 Forza Italia and its leader, Silvio Berlusconi, had to try and hold together two political formations who had not even been allies during the election campaign. The number of party units present in 1996 remains extremely high, reflecting the ongoing process of decomposition and recomposition of political forces.
