Bipolarizace italskeho stranickeho systemu
In: Politologický časopis, Band 12, Heft 2, S. 119-138
ISSN: 1211-3247
The collapse of the Italian "partitocrazia" in the early 1990s was followed by the emergence of a completely new party system. All but one of the relevant parties from the previous regime were affected by corruption scandals & had to struggle for survival. This situation created opportunities for the originally protest parties (LN), for transformed parties (AN, PDS) & for new political actors (FI). Forced by the logic of the mixed electoral system, these parties quickly started to form pre-election coalitions that were intended to guarantee political relevance for the small parties & to secure electoral victory for the bigger parties. The center of the political continuum has consequently been deserted in the last three elections. Any political actor situated between the two principal coalitions would be mercilessly squeezed or absorbed by them. Therefore, the Italian party system has gradually become a bipolar one. This means that the system has turned into a competitive one & has opened a possibility for alternation. Graphs, References. Adapted from the source document.