Lecture 10 Flashcards
Art.1 Constitution (sovereignity, “limits and forms of the Constitution”, instruments of direct democracy, active electorate)
- Sovereignty belongs to the people:
- “belongs”: at every given time (it does not “originate” or “emanate” from the people)
- democratic principle= founding principle of contemporary representative democracy. The people is not directly involved in the administration of the res publica, yet indirectly, through selection of its representatives
- sovereignity LEGALLY belongs to the people: there’s actual relation between members of the Parliament and represented
- representatives are legitimized by the people to create “rules” (rules without legitimization= totalitarism, authoritarianism; legitimization without rules= ceasarism, populism) - “limits” and “forms” of the Constitution :
- elections= universal suffrage
- majoirty rule
- protection of minorities in Parliament and society: the minority must be given a fair chance to become the majority (through democratic means)
- political rights= right of participation: right to vote (active electorate); right to hold public offices (passive electorate); right of association in political parties - DIRECT DEMOCRACY:
- abrogative rederendum (75)
- constitutional referendum (138)
- right of petition (50)
- the people’s legislative initiative (71) - active electorate:
- political, regional, provincial, municipial, european
POLITICAL ELECTIONS:
- direct legitimization of Parliament
- indirect legitimization of other constitutional bodies: Government (confidence), President of the Republic and Constitutional Court (election), Judiciary
Art. 48 “any citizen, male of female, who has attained majority, is entitled to vote”
- only citizens= italian ones
- male or female= universal suffrage
- majority: 18 years old
- system of electoral lists with automatic registration; as soon as one reaches 18, it’s automatically registered
- current problems in the age of intense migratory flows towards Europe
- expection: EU citizens (limited active electorate in case a EU citizen lives in another country, not the one of origin)
Art. 48 “the vote is personal and equal, free and secret. The exercise thereof is a civic duty”
- personal: it must be the expression of the voter’s will (it cannot be delegated/ transferred)
- equal: with regard to the “value (“the “weight”) of the vote
- incoming equality (equality when the votes are casted)
- outgoing equality (equality when the votes are translated into seats); this can be balanced by the need to ensure governabiliy, but its core must be always guaranteed - free: from external influences
- no-coercion
- non-marketable - secret: in order for it to be really “free”
It is possible to implement exceptions to these four in order to protect particular situations (disability, sickness, citizens residing abroad)
- residing abroad: Constitution does not identify any means by which such citizens should vote, neither determines the number of representatives of them - civic duty:
- NOT a legal duty
- until 1993: mild sanctions for those who did not vote without a good reason, from then on right to vote is “free” (no sanctions)
Art. 48 “the right to vote cannot be restricted except for natural incompetency or asa consequence of a final criminal judgement or in cases of moral indignity as laid down by law”
- natural incompetency: nowdays, only minors (once even psychiatric hospitals, legal guardianship)
- final criminal judgment: disenfranchisement as a consequence of some particular crimes
- moral indignity: diesnfranchisedment in exception cases (once, bankruptcy, house savoy, fascist hierarchs)
Art. 51 “any citizen of either sex is eligible for public offices and elected positions on equal terms, according to the conditions established by law. To thise end, the Republic shall adopt specific measures to promote equal opportunities between women and men” (ineligibility, incompatibility, passive electorate, age necessary for Houses)
- right to be elected: passive electorate
- 25 years for the House of Deputies, 40 for the Senate
- ineligibility: if such condition is met then the election is void (disqualification)
- incompatibility: the elected must choose between two incompatible positions, meaning one cannot cover two roles at once
- incandidabilità: the candidate cannot run for office, and they are struck out of the list of candidates (if the condition is found then there’s disqualification). Usually as a consequence of some specific crimes
Art. 49 “any citizen has the right to freely establish parties to contribute to determinin national policies through democratic processes”
- political party: a particular form of association that plays a constitutonally relevant role
1. political parties connect the people (electorate) and the democratic institutions - they collect the demands and desires of the electorate
- they present their manifestos (programs) in the electoral campaign
- their elected representative translate their programs in policies and legislative proposals
- they contribute to the determination of national policies, they do not determine national policies
- some citizens that hold important public offices might be forbid to become members of a political party (members of the judiciary, judges of the Constitutional Court, mambers of the CSM, members of the military)
- through “democratic processes”:
– external dimensions: political parties must adopt democratic “means”, they don’t have to pursue democratic aims (required)
– internal dimension: selection of the leaders or of the party’s platform, expulsions ,etc (encouraged) - funding of political parties:
– once, political parties were pubicly funded
– currently, privately funded (under a tax-relief system)
Electoral system “Prima Repubblica”
= proportional system
- compromise in the Constituent Assembly (the main political parties did not know how would go on to win the first general election)
- proportional system: low governability, coalition Governments
- governments centred on the party that held the relative majority: DC
Electoral system during the “Seconda Repubblica” (+ act of Constitutional Court)
= majoritarian system
- abrogative referendum of 1993
- first majoritarian election law (“Mattarellum”)
- from 2006 general election, election law with a high majority bonus (“Porcellum”)
- two-coalition system, slight increase in governability
“Porcellum” law
found that the majority bonus was unreasonable. It excessively sacrified representativity in favour of governability. It was theoretically possible for a party (list) to gain more than half of the seats in Parliaments by winning an extremely low share of the electoral vote
“Italicum” law
- passed by Parliament in anticipation of the “Renzi-Boschi” constitutional reform. it only regulated the election of the Chamber of Deputies
- proportional system with a majority bonus that would kick-in only if a party (list) gained at least 40% of the votes
- if no party reached 40%: ballot (second round) between the two most-voted parties (lists) to determine the winner of the majority bonus
- Court found that the majority bonus was still unreasonable: there was no minimum threshold of votes to access the ballot (second round)
- Renzi-Boschi reform was not confirmed by the constitutional reform
“Rosatellum” law
Current election law: mixed system
- 37% majoritarian (single position constituency,one round) and 63% proportional (multiple position constituencies with short blocked lists, 2-8 for the Senate, 3-8 for the Chamber of Deputies)
- 3% national threshold for lists (20% regional for the Senate only) or 10% for coalitions of lists
- threshold between 1% and 3% if the list is in a coalition: the votes of that list are transferred to the other parties of the same coalition
- lists of coalition of lists (a list may be part of only one coalition at national level)
- for coalitions: no single leader, no single manifesto
- no panachage: each candidate in one single majoritarian constitutency must be linked with a list or coalistion of lists) in one single proportional constituency and the voter may express only one vote (for the majoritarian candidate OR for the proportional list) which is valid for both the majoritarian and the proportional quota
