Sistema dei partiti, legislazione elettorale e disciplina dei gruppi parlamentari: è possibile governare la frammentazione politica in Italia?

Fragmented party system in Italy: nightmare or advantage for democracy? by Laura Lorello In building the newly-established democracy, the Authors of the Italian Constitution attributed a fundamental role to political parties. Therefore, the Italian political system comprises numerous political parties, often small in size, which have to coalesce to form a government majority. The resulting fragmented party system in Italy is generally considered a negative characteristic. Historically, it has been very difficult to reduce the number of political parties. Many attempts were made to modify the electoral system, from proportional representation to majority rule during the last thirty years. More recently, further attempts have been made to introduce more restrictive rules to form a parliamentary group in the Senate (one of the two Houses of Parliament). However, it can be said that the fact of having many parties is advantageous to the contemporary Italian and global contexts in preserving democracy from attrition, degeneration and self- destruction.