An American Guide To Italian Government
For many of us, if there’s one thing that we remember from every class we’ve ever taken that’s mentioned Italian government, it’s that the Italian government is disfunctional. Since World War II, Italy has had a whopping 61 governments! But in the same time frame, the UK has had 27. What does it even mean “to have a government” in the Italian context? Hopefully this post serves as a primer for you to at least understand what is going on in Rome.
Background
On June 2nd, 1947, Italy voted to replace the monarchy with a republican form of government, giving rise to the current iteration of the Italian state. Within a year, the Constitution that laid the framework for the country was in place, and despite fifteen amendments, the general structure of government is the same as it was then. Just as in the United States, there are three branches (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial), but unlike the US, the branches don’t share power and are far from equal. Another large difference is the comparative lack of federalism, or power sharing, between the central and regional/local governments. Finally, unlike the US, Italy forms part of a sopranational government (The EU) as well.
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