Into the third Republic: parties without presidents (and presidents without parties)

Abstract

The record of the last twenty years shows that most of the hopes put in the Second republic have been betrayed. Rather than a two party system reproducing the Westminster model, Italy has nurtured two highly fragmented coalitions, which have, in the latest national elections, been outplayed by a third pole, the protest movement of Beppe Grillo. The result is a tri-polar system, where a parliamentary majority can only be obtained by pulling together two bitterly antagonistic parties, with very little, if any, governmental stability. This article explains why the Second Republic failed to meet the expectations of the reform movement which strived to set Italian politics on a better track. It outlines how the main features of the emerging regime -the so-called Third republic- reflect, as it is often the case, the legacies of the previous one.