ABSTRACT
In the mid-1990s, Italy is going through a period of transition from one democratic regime to another, partly characterized by majoritarian elements in the electoral laws at national and local levels and the heterogeneity of the new multi-party system. The Italian democracy was inaugurated in 1945-1946, after a period of uncertainty. A large, heterogeneous alliance, formed by the Liberals, Catholics, Socialists, and Communists, which participated in the Committees of National Liberation, was the coalition that founded Italian democracy. The lack of legitimation or, if one prefers, of consensus for the newly-established democratic institutions, was compensated by control over civil society by the parties which were at the center of the process of consolidation. In the 1950s, there was a freezing; few rules were implemented as there was hardly any reform, adaptation with partial reform began to take place only in the 1980s, and a change characterized by deeper, more extensive reforms occurred in the early 1990s.
