Government of Italy Flashcards
What type of government did Italy have post-unification?
A constitutional monarchy
What rights did the King have?
- Summon and dissolve parliament
- Appoint and dismiss ministers
What did the constitution guarantee?
The rights and freedoms of individual citizens
Whose electoral system was adopted?
Piedmont’s
How large was the electorate and why?
500,000 out of a population of 28 million. This was because age, property and education decided who could vote
What happened to the majority of deputies at election time?
They were re-elected without opposition
What types of governments were formed and why?
Political parties had no chance of forming majority governments, so governments were coalitions made up of factions
Give a statistic to show Italy’s political instability
Italy had 23 different governments between 1870-1915
What did deputies do in parliament?
Represented local interests and cared little for the nation
What was the deputies’ contribution to the lack of progress in government?
With corruption and intrigue commonplace, a bribe, position or an offer of promotion would temot deputies to switch loyalties and move from one faction to the other
What does transformismo mean?
Literally means ‘transformation’. But was more commonly used to describe the system of government by contrivance and duplicity
