ABSTRACT
The Italian parliament has always been a parliament of parties, that is a parliament staffed, controlled, and made to work by parties and party leaders (Cotta et al. 2000). Depending on the perspective, one may want to suggest that this outcome was both inevitable and beneficial or, on the contrary, that it was the consequence of choices made by the Constitution-makers and negative. The Italian parliament has been described as ‘central’ – in the institutional and constitutional framework –, and therefore very influential on its own, or just as an ‘arena’ for dialogue, exchange, confrontation, on one side, by the parties and, on the other side, by the government and the oppositions (in the plural). In order to explain and understand the different definitions and descriptions and, as a consequence, the implications for the working of parliament, one must take into account several factors.
