Democracia y partidos: el caso italiano desde una perspectiva comparativa

Abstract

The Italian democracy –from the second post-war period to today– has been marked, in the good and in the evil, from the dominant role of the political parties. The relationship between Italian democracy and political parties is analyzed on the theoretical, comparative and historical ground. Particularly the difficult passage is examined, still in progress, from the proportional democracy (1945-1992), characterized by the mass parties before and the partitocracy then, to the majority democracy (1994-), characterized before by the coalition bipolarism and by the attempt to build majority parties in recent times. In the last part of the article the PDL (People of the Liberty), dominated by the populism of Berlusconi, and the PD (Democratic Party), initially planned as party of the leader and for this still in crisis, are critically examined.