ABSTRACT
Since 1948, the Constitution, institutions and electoral rules have established Italy as a parliamentary Republic. This chapter explains why and how the Italian Constitution matters and briefly suggests how political parties have carved out a role for themselves. Stereotypes concerning Italian politics abound. They are frequently formulated by Italian scholars and commentators and then repeated by scholars and commentators outside Italy. The transition from traditional parliamentarism to semi-presidentialism in France was a qualitative change that allows–indeed obliges–scholars and politicians to distinguish between the Fourth and the Fifth Republic. From the very beginning of the Republic, Italian parties were the backbone of the political system. They acquired and wielded so much power of all kinds–not only political, but also economic, social and cultural–that they gave birth to what was called partitocrazia. All those Italian parties that were dominant systemic actors for almost four decades either disappeared in the 1992–1994 period or have been obliged to transform profoundly.
