The Italian electoral law of 2015, also known as ''Italicum'', was an Italian electoral law passed in 2015. The law, which came into force on 1 July 2016, regulated only the election of the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
, replacing the
Italian electoral law of 2005
The law n. 270 of 21 December 2005 was a proportional electoral law with a majority prize and blocked lists that regulated the election of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in Italy in 2006, 2008 and 2013.
It was nicknamed Porcellum by Giov ...
, which had been ruled partly unconstitutional by the
Constitutional Court of Italy
The Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic ( it, Corte costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana) is the highest court of Italy in matters of constitutional law. Sometimes, the name ''Consulta'' is used as a metonym for it, because its sessi ...
in December 2013. It provided for a
two-round system
The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resul ...
based on
party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a subset of proportional representation electoral systems in which multiple candidates are elected (e.g., elections to parliament) through their position on an electoral list. They can also be us ...
, including a
majority bonus
The majority bonus system (MBS) is a form of semi-proportional representation used in some European countries. Its feature is a majority bonus which gives extra seats or representation in an elected body to the party or to the joined parties with ...
and a 3%
election threshold
The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...
. Candidates would have run in 100 multi-member
constituencies
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...
using
open list
Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, par ...
s. The largest party which won over 40% of the vote would automatically win a majority of seats; if no party won 40% of seats, a second round of voting would be held between the two largest parties, with the winner of the second round winning a majority of seats. The name "''Italicum''" was coined in 2014 by
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
secretary and later
Prime Minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...
,
Matteo Renzi
Matteo Renzi (; born 11 January 1975) is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having been ...
, who was one of the legislation's main proponent.
The law was written under the assumption that major constitutional reforms would have taken place by the time it came into force. The failure of the reforms in the
2016 Italian constitutional referendum
A constitutional referendum was held in Italy on 4 December 2016. Voters were asked whether they approved a constitutional law that amends the Italian Constitution to reform the composition and powers of the Parliament of Italy, as well as the d ...
created unforeseen complications, as electoral law for the Chamber of Deputies and
Senate of the Republic were not harmonised. This was compounded by a January 2017 Constitutional Court ruling finding the ''Italicum'' partly unconstitutional. In October 2017, the ''Italicum'' was repealed by the Italian Parliament and replaced by the ''
Rosatellum''. The ''Italicum'' is the first and only electoral law to have been approved by the
Italian Parliament
The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitiona ...
but never used in a general election.
History
The 2005 electoral law passed by the centre-right government, nicknamed the Porcellum, immediately received widespread criticism. The use of long
closed list
Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively only vote for political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some inf ...
s, which gave party executives great power in deciding the composition of Parliament, was called into question, as was the regional allocation of the majority bonus in the Senate, which made a "clear winner" of the elections less likely.
After two unsuccessful attempts at repealing the law by referendum, in the
2013 general election, the law failed to produce a majority in the Senate: as a consequence, the only way to form a government was by means of a
grand coalition
A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are t ...
between left wing and right wing parties that had harshly fought each other in the election. The resulting
Letta Cabinet
The Letta government was the 62nd government of the Italian Republic. In office from 28 April 2013 to 22 January 2014, it comprised ministers of the Democratic Party (PD), The People of Freedom (PdL), Civic Choice (SC), the Union of the Centre ...
was perceived by many people as the second "unelected government" in a row (after the
Monti Cabinet
The Monti government was the sixty-first government of Italy and was announced on 16 November 2011. This Experts' cabinet was composed of independents, three of whom were women and was formed as an interim government. The government ran the cou ...
).
While the coalition agreed that a new electoral law was needed, it failed to agree on a specific model. The Democratic Party executive and prime minister
Enrico Letta
Enrico Letta (; born 20 August 1966) is an Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy from April 2013 to February 2014, leading a grand coalition of centre-left and centre-right parties. Since March 2021, Letta has been secretary ...
even went as far as requesting that his party vote against a parliamentary initiative by fellow democrat
Roberto Giachetti
Roberto Giachetti (born 24 April 1961) is an Italian politician, member of Italia Viva and of the Transnational Radical Party. He has been a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies since 2001.
Biography
Roberto Giachetti was born in Rome in ...
to restore the previous
Mattarellum law.
On 4 December 2013, the
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
judged the Porcellum partly unconstitutional: in particular, the implementation of a
majority bonus
The majority bonus system (MBS) is a form of semi-proportional representation used in some European countries. Its feature is a majority bonus which gives extra seats or representation in an elected body to the party or to the joined parties with ...
without a threshold required to achieve it was struck down. This made electoral reform even more urgent, since proportional representation without majoritarian correction was thought to be incompatible with the competitive party system of Italy.
A few days later, on 8 December 2013, Matteo Renzi became the new leader of the Democratic Party. In his victory speech, he vowed to change the electoral law to counter the risk of "stabilized grand coalitions". Renzi's reformist agenda ultimately led to him replacing Letta as prime minister. Renzi came to an agreement with coalition partner
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...
regarding a set of institutional reforms, including a new majority-assuring law based on a two-round system, designed to make the necessitation of a grand coalition impossible. This law was nicknamed the Italicum.
The new law faced harsh opposition, even by members of the parties proposing it. However, it was approved by the Chamber of Deputies on 12 March 2014 and, in an amended form, by the Senate on 27 January 2015, with the support of a large majority.
After the election of
Sergio Mattarella
Sergio Mattarella (; born 23 July 1941) is an Italian politician, jurist, academic and lawyer who has served as the president of Italy since 2015.
A Christian leftist politician, Mattarella was a leading member of the Christian Democracy par ...
as President of Italy on 31 January 2015, Berlusconi withdrew his support of the bill. In order for it to receive its final approval by the Chamber of Deputies, the government decided to link it to a confidence vote (hinting at a
snap election
A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled.
Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...
in case of a negative outcome). The bill was finally approved on 4 May 2015 and signed by President Mattarella two days later.
Political background
Several events contributed to the development of the electoral law into the current system:
* The collapse of the
consociative party system that dominated Italian politics between 1946 and 1993, which was replaced by a new (sometimes harshly) competitive system, making pure party-list proportional representation undesirable and arguably demanding a strong majoritarian correction.
* The mediocre performance of electoral coalitions from 1994 to 2013: the two electoral laws of this period (the first a semi-proportional
additional member system, the second providing a majority bonus for the winning coalition) gave rise to electoral coalitions which were prone to dissolving once in power.
* The presence of small centrist parties in the
Renzi Cabinet
The Renzi government was the 63rd government of the Italian Republic, in office from February 2014 to December 2016. It was led by Matteo Renzi, secretary and leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
The government was composed of membe ...
which lacked concentrated support, and as such were hostile to pure majoritarian solutions based on single-member constituencies, such as a
first-past-the-post
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
system.
* The effectiveness of the system used to elect Italian mayors and city councils which assures a majority and employs a runoff election (though, unlike the Italicum, gives the majority bonus to an electoral coalition rather than a single party).
Provisions
![2015 Italian electoral law - Map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/2015_Italian_electoral_law_-_Map.svg)
The Italicum system regulates the allocation of 617 of the 630 seats of the Chamber of Deputies, excluding 12 seats attributed to representatives of Italians living abroad and one seat for the
Aosta Valley
, Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title = Official languages
, population_blank1 = Italian French
...
region. One uncommon feature of this system is that it is ''majority assuring'', thanks to a
majority bonus
The majority bonus system (MBS) is a form of semi-proportional representation used in some European countries. Its feature is a majority bonus which gives extra seats or representation in an elected body to the party or to the joined parties with ...
assigned to the winning party, after a second round of voting if necessary.
The territory of Italy is divided into 100
constituencies
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...
electing between 3 and 9 deputies, depending on their population. For each constituency, the parties designate a list of candidates: "head of list" candidates can run in up to 10 constituencies, while other candidates are limited to a single constituency. Gender balance is promoted by requiring that, in each
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
, head of lists of either sex for the same party should not exceed 60% of the total; additionally, candidates in all lists must be in a sequence alternating by gender.
In the first round, voters receive a ballot allowing them to vote for a single party and for its head of list candidate (pre-printed on the ballot), and are given the option to express up to two additional
preference votes
In psychology, economics and philosophy, preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between alternatives. For example, someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are central to decision the ...
for other candidates of that party, by writing their name next to the party symbol. If two preference votes are expressed, they must be of a different sex, otherwise the second preference is discarded.
Only parties passing a 3% minimum
election threshold
The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of the primary vote that a candidate or political party requires to achieve before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can ...
in the first round are assigned seats. If the party receiving the plurality of the votes achieves over 40% of total votes, it is attributed a minimum of 340 seats (54%). The remaining seats are allocated to the other parties in a proportional fashion, and no second round takes place.
If no party achieves over 40% in the first round, a second round takes place two weeks after the first. This time, only the two highest-voted parties from the first round participate. The party winning the second round is attributed 340 seats, and the remaining seats are allocated to the other parties in a proportional fashion, according to the results of the first round.
The proportional allocation of seats follows the
largest remainder method
The largest remainder method (also known as Hare–Niemeyer method, Hamilton method or as Vinton's method) is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. It contrasts with various h ...
. Each party receives a certain number of seats depending on its national result: these seats are then distributed amongst the 100 constituencies, starting from the head of list and continuing according to the number of preference votes for each candidate.
An amendment, known as "Erasmus amendment", ensures Italians studying abroad in the
Erasmus programme can vote.
Reactions
Roberto D'Alimonte (
LUISS), who was the main scholar proposing the new system, said that "the Italicum is a good instrument that represents a point of satisfactory equilibrium between governability and representativeness. However ... good government ... depends mostly on the men and women who use it". He also made a comparison with the
2015 United Kingdom general election
The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first and only general election held at the end of a Parliament under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. Loca ...
, stating that "the Italicum's advantage is indeed that the winner will be assigned 340 seats and the losers will have to divide the remaining 278 seats.... The point is that the Italicum is a majority-assuring system, such that it ensures that there will be an undisputed winner, but unlike the British system, it is not a winner-takes-all system. In fact, the winner does not take the entire pot, but only 54 percent".
Former president of Italy
Giorgio Napolitano
Giorgio Napolitano (; born 29 June 1925) is an Italian politician who served as president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, the first Italian president to be re-elected to the presidency. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics, some critics ...
, who was a key player in pushing Italian parties into reforming the electoral system, remarked that "this law certainly hasn't been written in a month, it took more than one year, there have been many discussions, there has been a committee of scholars who opened the way, therefore I believe this has been an important accomplishment".
Among the politicians critical of the reform, former prime minister
Enrico Letta
Enrico Letta (; born 20 August 1966) is an Italian politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy from April 2013 to February 2014, leading a grand coalition of centre-left and centre-right parties. Since March 2021, Letta has been secretary ...
judged the Italicum "a close relative to the Porcellum" and voted against its adoption.
Likewise, scholars have been divided on the electoral reform.
Augusto Barbera
Augusto Antonio Barbera (born 25 June 1938) is an Italian judge and former constitutional law professor at the University of Bologna. In his political career he was member of the Chamber of Deputies between 1976 and 1994 for the Italian Communist ...
(emeritus professor at the
University of Bologna
The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...
and one of the most prominent experts of Italian constitutional law) was unhappy with the possibility for a candidate to run in more than one constituency and with the low 3% election threshold but otherwise praised the law. He said that the system does not introduce presidentialism but strengthens the powers of the prime minister, which is "the characteristic of all functioning parliamentary systems (United Kingdom, German chancellorship, Spanish premiership)".
According to
Stefano Ceccanti
Stefano is the Italian form of the masculine given name Στέφανος (Stefanos, Stephen). The name is of Greek origin, Στέφανος, meaning a person who made a significant achievement and has been crowned. In Orthodox Christianity the ach ...
(
Sapienza University of Rome
The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...
), the law is "definitely a good one, it would have been difficult for this fragmented, troublesome Parliament... to do any better".
Tommaso Frosini (
Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples
The Suor Orsola Benincasa University of Naples ( it, Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa - Napoli) is a private university located in Naples, Italy. It was founded in 1895, named after the venerable sister Ursula Benincasa and is organiz ...
) stated that "it is to the lawmaker's credit to have been able to make a synthesis of the two principles" of governability and proportionality.
According to
Pasquale Pasquino (
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
), the Italicum "should be preferred over pure majoritarian systems" in which "the electoral law decimates not only small parties, but even parties going close to a 20% of the people's votes".
Among critics,
Gianfranco Pasquino
Gianfranco Pasquino (born April 9, 1942 in Turin) is an Italian political scientist. Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Bologna and Senior Adjunct Professor at SAIS-Europe (Bologna). He studied at the University of Turi ...
(
University of Bologna
The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...
) wrote that "the Italicum is a bad reform with a single merit: the runoff giving real power to electors. As for the rest, the party bonus is wrong, as well as multiple candidatures and the low threshold for the access to the Parliament".
Constitutional law expert
Michele Ainis (
Roma Tre University
Roma Tre University[Uniroma3.it]
( it, Università degli Studi Roma Tre) is an Italian El País
''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...
commented that "the important thing is that the law approved by the Chamber of Deputies obtains stability and governablity, nevertheless respecting the decision coming from the polls as much as possible"
Moshe Arens
Moshe Arens (27 December 1925 – 7 January 2019) was an Israeli aeronautical engineer, researcher, diplomat and Likud politician. A member of the Knesset between 1973 and 1992 and again from 1999 until 2003, he served as Minister of Defense th ...
, writing for
Haaretz
''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...
(the main left-wing journal in Israel), has suggested to use the ''Italicum'' to regulate the election of the
Knesset
The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...
.
Constitutional review
On 24 February 2016 a court in Messina sent the election law for review to the
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
after declaring petitioners' applications admissible.
The judges called for the Constitutional Court to rule on eight out of thirteen claims that the Italicum breached the Italian Constitution.
On 25 January 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled some aspects of the Italicum unconstitutional, including the two-round system and the clause allowing head candidates, who were permitted to run in multiple constituencies, to choose which constituency they wished to represent. The majority bonus was left intact, giving a majority to any party which won over 40% of votes in a single round of voting.
After the ruling, the Italicum essentially provided for pure proportional representation, unless a party was able to win over 40% of the vote and secure a majority.
Repeal
The victory of the "No" votes in the
2016 Italian constitutional referendum
A constitutional referendum was held in Italy on 4 December 2016. Voters were asked whether they approved a constitutional law that amends the Italian Constitution to reform the composition and powers of the Parliament of Italy, as well as the d ...
prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, the chief proponent of both the constitutional reform and the ''Italicum'' law. Electoral law became a pressing issue, as the ''Italicum'' was written under the assumption that the Senate would be an indirectly-elected body by the next general election. As such, the Senate was not addressed in the bill, and remained under the previous election law (''Porcellum''). The issue of two different election laws for the two houses of Parliament was further compounded after the Constitutional Court ruled that the two-round aspect of the ''Italicum'' was unconstitutional, revising part of the law, and effectively removing one of the distinctive aspects of the law, whose main goal was to guarantee the existence of a parliamentary majority.
A new electoral law was needed, however opinions were diverse among political forces. Renzi personally supported a return to a semi-proportional system similar to the 1993 ''Mattarellum'' law. Berlusconi's Forza Italia called for pure proportional representation, while both the
Five Star Movement
The Five Star Movement ( it, Movimento 5 Stelle , M5S) is a political party in Italy. Its leader and president is Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy from 2018 until 2021. The M5S was founded on 4 October 2009 by Beppe Grillo, a comedian an ...
and
Northern League called for snap elections using the revised ''Italicum'', with the same law applied to the Senate.
Multiple proposals were floated, including a
mixed-member proportional
Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...
system similar to the German system, but failed to garner enough support for a serious debate. Ultimately, a
parallel voting
Parallel voting is a type of mixed electoral system in which representatives are voted into a single chamber using two or more different systems, most often first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) with party-list proportional representation (PR). It is ...
system similar to the ''Mattarellum'' was passed in October 2017, succeeding both the ''Italicum'' in the Chamber of Deputies and the ''Porcellum'' in the Senate. This system, known as the ''
Rosatellum'', allocates 37% of seats to single-member constituencies and 61% to proportional lists.
References
External links
{{Italy topics
Election law
Law of Italy
Electoral reform in Italy