The Department of Political Science Presents

1
The Department of Political Science Presents

• The Territory of Somewhat Requited Dreams 
• Creating an ethnically-sensitive state in Nunavut
• Dr. Annis May Timpson
• Director of Canadian Studies
• University of Edinburgh
• Science Building Lecture Theatre
• February 12, 2008 _at_ 730pm

2
Italy

• Toward a Second Republic?

3
Demise of the 1rst Republic

• Pentapartito and its problems
• Flashback to the 1970s the coalition that
  wasnt
• DCs soft hegemony
• Alliance with an increasingly stronger PSI
• Broadening the coalition PSDI, PRI, PLI
• Keeping the coalition together
• Lottazione, and clientelismo run rampant

4
Problems

• Managing the economy
• Difficulties controlling costs in light of scala
  mobile, EUs 1992 project, needs of parties
• Decreasing trust legitimacy in a country not
  long on either
• Growth of protest parties
• Bossis Lega Nord
• Changing political context
• End of Cold War gt no reason to exclude Communists
  in convento ad excludem

5
Initiatives

• Activities of investigating magistrates
• Da Pietro (Milan) Tangentopoli
• Attempts to reform DC from within (Da Mita
• Growth of party-lets proposing reform
• Increasingly active civil society
• Referendum initiatives
• 1993 repeal of proportional component of the
  Senates electoral law forces politicians hand

6
The new electoral law

• Joint parl. committee struggles to reach
  agreement
• Options
• binomale or French system
• MMP (German system)
• Solution the worst of both worlds
• ¾ of Chamber of Deputies and Senate elected by
  SMP
• ¼ via proportional allocation
• Collapse of the previous party system
• Members, activists, voters head for the exits
• Improbable result
• Fragmented bipolarity (clustered multipartyism)
• a party system more fragmented than the one which
  it replaces

7
The new party system

• Competition between two clusters
• Polo (casa) di liberta
• A new party, Forza Italia (FI) plus
• Lega Nord (Northern Leagues)
• Alleanza Nazionale (AN)
• Formerly MSI (ex neo-fascists)
• Rump of Christian Democrats
• Ulivo (Olive)
• PDS (DS), Democratic Left ex-PCI
• Populare (ex DC)
• 7 other parties
• Occasional support from RC- Refondazione
  Communista left of PCI

8
Parties

• Forza Italia
• Founded by Silvio Berlusconi, media tycoon, owner
  of AC Milan football club
• Built on the advertising arm of his media empire
• A business-firm party
• Lega Nord
• Anti-immigrant, anti-EU
• Demand an independent Padania (North of Italy)
• AN National Alliance ex-fascists, cleaned up
  no longer excluded

9
Ulive

• PDS (now DS) as its core
• Reform communists, pragmatists
• But without the mass base of PCI
• And without the Refounded Communists (RC)
• Disparate alliance
• Large numbers of party-lets makes it difficult to
  keep alliance together

10
Explaining the outcome

• Why did electoral reform fail?
• Why is resuscitated PR (from 2005) not doing much
  better?

11
The new politics of government formation

• End of partocracy soft one party dominance
• Alternation of governments
• Berlusconi Liberta, 1994-1996
• Ulive (Prodi DAlema..) 1996-2001
• Berlusconi, 2001-2006
• Centre-left (Prodi) 2006-Jan. 2008
• 2008 beyond?

12
Problems

• The unreformed state
• Maintaining EU budget norms
• Increasingly shaky cabinets
• Reforming the electoral law again
• Is there a second Republic?