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Examines the 1989 electoral reform, reintroducing a system allowing voters to express one preference among the candidates of a given party's list and bringing the electoral system closer to a formula of pure proportional representation. Summary in English.

During the last decade, political communication (particularly through TV) has become a key issue in Italian politics. It has been argued by politicians & observers that partisan bias in the broadcasts of the two major networks operating in the country has had a strong influence on the outcome of elections. This article presents evidence pertaining to this controversy collected in the course of the 2001 campaign. Analysis of archived data on TV programs shows that public network (Rai) & Mediaset channels differed in terms of the amount of "visibility" granted to the leaders of the two major electoral coalitions. Analysis of survey data from the archive of the Ispo Instit shows the existence of a fairly strong association between voting choices & viewing preferences for the various channels. In conclusion, the authors present alternative models of the linkages between selective exposure to different sources & political preferences. 6 Tables, 5 Figures, 28 References. Adapted from the source document.

Owing to globalization processes, the nation-state is facing the problem of re-examining its ability to create & maintain order through legislation & law enforcement, as well as its capacity to direct the economy in line with citizens' choices. The use of globalized economic & juridical patterns by private individuals is a great leap forward in economics & personal freedom, considering that the state is continuously loosing its monitoring & checking ability. At the same time, these individuals still live within the framework of the state & also acknowledge its power. Ironically, while trying to sidestep the state, the citizens still look to it to solve their everyday problems. The author investigates the reasons behind the crisis into which a specific model of state -- the Kelsenian & Keynesianan model -- has fallen in recent years. Nevertheless, the crisis of that model does not imply the loss of the possibility of managing the economy & globalization processes. The nation-state remains the most important producer of a great many services & its role in promoting advancements in knowledge & technological innovation is still a central one. One of the most important roles of the nation-state in the global era is that of removing the barriers to the global economy & pursuing the efficiency & innovation of its infrastructures & bureaucratic machinery. In the light of global changes, it is important to rethink the idea that the production of law & institutions can only be legitimated by ballots, or at least that voting always represents the best solution. Other kinds of legitimating processes should instead be considered by contemporary political theory -- for example, considering how people make their political choices like consumers in the free market. Adapted from the source document.

The paper studies the relation between the social class of an individual & his (her) party vote in Italy in four elections: 1972, 1983, 2001 & 2006. The analyses are based on (electoral) survey data, including for 2006 a rolling cross section survey. Independence indices, Kappa indices, cumulative logit models & binomial logit models are used in the analyses. Results show that, theories about the "death of class" notwithstanding, the association between class & vote continues to exist & it matters, though it is not very strong. A slight decline of the association across elections can be detected, as well as some interesting variations in the aggregate vote of certain classes. Adapted from the source document.

This article analyses government popularity in Italy during the post-1992 period. In earlier times public opinion approval of the government had little political & electoral relevance. With the enactment of a new electoral law & the change of the party system, the ensuing alternation in government of different political coalitions makes meaningful a study of what drives government approval. The analysis is grounded in the "reasoning voter/valence politics" paradigm, according to which government performance can reinforce or discount voters' party preference profiles. Two analyses are carried out, one at the aggregate level & one at the individual level. Regarding the former, a time-series model of monthly government ratings is fitted to both Centre-Left (1996-2001) & Centre-Right (2001-2006) governments, with findings showing that economic (consumers') expectations & international events mainly explain government popularity. Such conclusion is confirmed also from the individual level analysis: voters' approval of the government depends on the perception of economic conditions which, in turns, influences the assessment of government competence. Both outgoing Centre-Left (2001) & Centre-Right (2006) political coalitions were then defeated because of the low standing in the popular approval. Finally, the article discusses the importance of government leadership in contemporary Italian politics. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

A review essay on books by (1) James H. Kulinski (Ed), Citizens and Politics: Perspectives from Political Psychology (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 2001); & (2) George E. Marcus, W. Russel Neumann & Michael MacKuen, Affective Intelligence and Political Judgement (Chicago: U Chicago Press, 2000). These recent works raise some of the major current problems & hypotheses relating to political psychology, cognitive sciences, & public opinion research. In particular, attention is paid to the controversy opposing the "combinatorial" perspective of Paul Sniderman et al to the "constructionist" approach of John Zaller on opinion formation & change. We argue that Zaller's accent on situational frames & Sniderman's emphasis on the underlying political dispositions are much more complementary than mutually exclusive. Therefore, it seems difficult to deny in toto the plausibuity of the "ambivalence" hypothesis, especially with regard to specific low-involvement segments of citizens & to various new, nonobtrusive, & not yet crystallized, political issues. 14 References. Adapted from the source document.

The changes in the electoral & party system at the beginning of the 1990s had clear consequences on attitudes & behavior of Italian ordinary citizens. By looking at the feature of political competition through the analysis of several public opinion surveys, three main results can be shown. First, with respect to the self-placement on the Left-Right dimension, Italian voters "discovered the Right." Second, party locations on the Left-Right continuum became an unsettled aspect of the electoral competition: in particular, citizen perception of party placement changed according with the overall pattern of their alliances. Finally, several cues suggest that a new political entity appeared on the Italian political landscape: the coalition. From the voter perspective, Center-Left & Center-Right alliances (including their candidates) turned out to be among the main actors of the electoral competition. At least a fourth of Italian voters made use of a judgment criterion based on an amicus/hostis logic. Hence, we concluded that the (perceived) fight between party coalitions is exploited as an easy shortcut for electoral choice. 2 Tables, 6 Figures, 58 References. Adapted from the source document.