ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to an evaluation of the quality of Italian democracy. The quality of democracy is in the eyes of the beholder(s). Most of the beholders–Italians and non-Italians, citizens and commentators–believe that the quality of Italian democracy is modest, and not satisfactory. Although dissatisfaction is always a more or less powerful motivation of criticism, it is seldom quickly translated into action. For a long time in the past, the opinion held mainly, but not exclusively, by Italian left-wing voters was that the quality of Italian democracy was poor. In many ways, the quality of democracy is connected to the quality of politics in all political systems and, more precisely, to the amount of power that the people can exercise. Conventionally, when speaking of democracies, political order is defined as rule of law. Even though often contested, the existence of the rule of law characterizes all democracies, past, present and future.
