ABSTRACT
Elections lie at the heart of representative democracy, because they are one of the main channels through which ordinary citizens have an input into the political process and affect public policy and because, thereby, they legitimise the public-policy decisions of those duly elected. In parliamentary systems, such as the Italian, any particular legislative election outcome can be understood as the result of the interactions of two categories of actor and one institution or set of rules: political parties and voters and electoral systems. Given, then, that elections are central to representative democracies and given that parties, electoral systems and voters are central to elections, an understanding of these three elements is crucial to an understanding of the functioning of Italian democracy. Therefore, in this chapter I consider the political parties and party coalitions, their organisational features and the substance of their political messages. I consider the nature of Italy’s electoral systems (there have been four since the early 1990s) and their effects. Finally, I consider the most significant among the political and social factors influencing citizens’ voting choices.
