ABSTRACT
The symbolic importance of national parliaments has been challenged by the growing dominance of the work of governments and public administrations in Europe. Apart from the fact that they already have a long tradition of democracy, there is a constant preoccupation with improving the quality of parliamentarianism at the centre of each country’s political life. The early development of parliamentarianism in the United Kingdom was an important factor in developing well-established procedures and practices, which led to a high level of institutionalisation. The consensual culture of parliamentarianism forces political parties to achieve a viable compromise in legislation, so that it is not challenged by referendums, which can overturn the hard work done in parliament. In the Second Republic, Italian parliamentarianism has been rationalised, in particular by reducing the powers of the committees as decision-making bodies, especially the clientelistic use of ‘small laws’ which were purposefully adopted to help specific constituency groups.
