The Italian electoral law of 1993 (better known as Mattarellum) was a reform of the electoral laws of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, passed on 4 August 1993. The nickname, conceived by

Giovanni Sartori Giovanni Sartori (; 13 May 1924 – 4 April 2017) was an Italian political scientist who specialized in the study of democracy, political parties and comparative politics. Biography Born in Florence in 1924, Sartori graduated in Political and So ...

, derived from its author

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 ...

. The law was also nicknamed Minotaur (from the mythical creature of

Greek Mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

), for being a combination of two different parts (majority and proportional system). The law replaced the

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

used in Italy since 1946, just after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was replaced in 2005 by another law named ''Porcellum'' in reference to a comment by

Roberto Calderoli Roberto Calderoli (born 18 April 1956) is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of the Republic. He was a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet. He previously served as Minister without ...

History

Background

The Mattarella law was technically the accidental result of the combination of different historic events. After World War II, proportional representation (PR) was restored for 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 ...

as it was before the Fascist era. The Senate of the Republic was at its first democratic election, so 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 ...

(FPTP) was proposed, but the

supermajority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

clause, which was introduced to win a direct mandate, vanished that aim, and the generality of the Senate seats was itself assigned by PR. Constituencies for the Senate effectively were a ''”pro forma”'' in this mechanism of

localized list A localized list or local list is a technique used under systems of party-list proportional representation to determine which party candidates are elected from the party list. Local lists differ from open lists or closed lists. As with open lis ...

s, so they were not changed when in 1963 a constitutional reform expanded the Parliament with a 33% more seats. In the early 1990s, the Italian political system was largely discredited, and PR was seen as a font of corruption. A group of reformers, led by

Mario Segni Mariotto Segni (born 16 May 1939) is an Italian politician and professor of civil law. He founded several parties, which focused on fighting for electoral reform through referendums. He is the son of the politician Antonio Segni, one time Presid ...

, launched the idea of a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

. However, according to the

Italian constitution The Constitution of the Italian Republic ( it, Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana) was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended sixteen times, ...

, referendums in Italy cannot be propositional, but they can only abolish a part of a law, so the reformers could only ask to abolish the supermajority clause for the Senate. The 1993 Italian referendum was a large success, transforming the Senate electoral law into a FPTP, but after 1963, there were less constituencies than seats in the Senate, one fourth less of the total needed, so those seats had to be filled by PR amongst the losers of the FPTP races. To ensure government stability, the law of the Chamber of Deputies had to be changed in a similar way, and 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 ...

of 3/4 of FPTP and 1/4 of PR was introduced by the ''Matterellum''.

Approval

The new electoral law was approved in August 1993 by DC,

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...

, PSDI and

regionalist parties Regionalism may refer to: * Regionalism (art), an American realist modern art movement that was popular during the 1930s * Regionalism (international relations), the expression of a common sense of identity and purpose combined with the creation a ...

LN, SVP (only for the reform of the election of the Senate) and UV.

References

Law of Italy Electoral reform in Italy {{Europe-law-stub

History

Background

Approval

See also

References