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Parlamento Italiano
Type Bicameral
Houses Senate of the Republic
Chamber of Deputies
President of the Senate Renato Schifani, Popolo della Libertà
since April 29, 2008
President of the Chamber Gianfranco Fini, Popolo della Libertà
since April 30, 2008
Members 945
and 7 Senators for life
Political groups Partito Democratico
Popolo della libertà
UDC
Lega Nord
Italia dei Valori
Gruppo Misto
Meeting place Chamber of Deputies—Palazzo Montecitorio
Senate of the Republic—Palazzo Madama
Italian Republic

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The Parliament of Italy (Italian: Parlamento Italiano) is the national parliament of Italy. In Government, bicameralism (bi + Latin la ''camera'' chamber is the practice of having two legislative or Parliamentary chambers Thus a bicameral The Italian Senate ( Italian: Senato della Repubblica, 'Senate of the Republic' is the Upper house of the Parliament of Italy. The Italian Chamber of Deputies ( Camera dei Deputati) is the Lower house of the Parliament of Italy. Renato Schifani (born 11 May 1950) is an Italian politician and a prominent member of the centre-right People of Freedom. The People of Freedom ( Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL is a liberal-conservative History Premises Following the run-up to the Events 1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Gianfranco Fini (born January 3 1952 is an Italian Politician, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and current leader of National Alliance The People of Freedom ( Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL is a liberal-conservative History Premises Following the run-up to the Events 313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common The Democratic Party ( Partito Democratico, PD is a Centre-left political party in Italy. The People of Freedom ( Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL is a liberal-conservative History Premises Following the run-up to the The Union of Christian and Centre Democrats ( Unione dei Democratici Cristiani e di Centro, UDC is a christian-democratic Italian political party. Lega Nord (Northern League LN whose complete name is Lega Nord per l'Indipendenza della Padania (Northern League for Independence of Padania) is an Italian Italy of Values ( Italia dei Valori, IdV is a populist and anti- corruption Italian political party, headed by former Mani Pulite The Italian Chamber of Deputies ( Camera dei Deputati) is the Lower house of the Parliament of Italy. The Palazzo Montecitorio is a palace in Rome, which is currently the seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The Italian Senate ( Italian: Senato della Repubblica, 'Senate of the Republic' is the Upper house of the Parliament of Italy. For the Savoy residence in Turin, see Palazzo Madama Turin. Palazzo Madama is a palace in Rome, currently house of the Senate Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The politics of Italy take place in a framework of a parliamentary, democratic Republic, and of a Multi-party system. The Constitution of the Italian Republic (Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947 with 453 votes in favour and 62 The President of the Italian Republic (Presidente della Repubblica Italiana is the Head of State of Italy, and as such is intended to represent national unity Giorgio Napolitano (born June 29 1925) is an Italian Politician and former lifetime senator, the eleventh and current President of the Italian In Italy, the Prime Minister of Italy (officially the President of the Council of Ministers, Italian Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri) is the country's (born 29 September 1936 is an Italian politician, Entrepreneur, Real estate and Insurance Tycoon, Bank and Media proprietor In Italy the Council of Ministers is the name of the government composed of the President of the Council (that is the Italian Prime minister) the ministers This is a list of Legislatures of the Italian Republic. The Italian Senate ( Italian: Senato della Repubblica, 'Senate of the Republic' is the Upper house of the Parliament of Italy. The Italian Chamber of Deputies ( Camera dei Deputati) is the Lower house of the Parliament of Italy. The Constitutional Court of Italy (Corte costituzionale della Repubblica Italiana is a Supreme court of Italy, the other being the Court of Cassation The Supreme Court of Cassation (Corte Suprema di Cassazione is the major Court of last resort in Italy. The Corte d'Assise is an Italian court composed of two professional judges Giudici Togati, and six popular judges Giudici Popolari. Several Political parties operate in Italy, and historically they have been even more than today The People of Freedom ( Il Popolo della Libertà, PdL is a liberal-conservative History Premises Following the run-up to the The Democratic Party ( Partito Democratico, PD is a Centre-left political party in Italy. This page gathers the results of Elections in Italy. Italy elects on national level a Parliament consisting of two houses, the Chamber In the Italian general election 2006 for the renewal of the two Chambers of the Parliament of Italy held on April 9 and April 10, 2006 A snap general election was held in Italy on 13 April and 14 April 2008. The Constitution of Italy, provides for only two kinds of legally binding Referenda: a legislative referendum, which can only be called In Italy, a Province (in Italian provincia) is an administrative division of intermediate level between Municipality ( Comune In Italy, the comune, (plural comuni) is the basic Administrative division of both provinces and regions and may be properly approximated in This article describes the foreign relations of Italy. International organization participation AfDB, AsDB, Australia Group, Information on politics by country is available for every Country, including both De jure and De facto independent Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest It is a bicameral legislature with 945 elected members (parlamentari). In Government, bicameralism (bi + Latin la ''camera'' chamber is the practice of having two legislative or Parliamentary chambers Thus a bicameral A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation The Chamber of Deputies, with 630 members (deputati) is the lower house. The Italian Chamber of Deputies ( Camera dei Deputati) is the Lower house of the Parliament of Italy. A lower house is one of two chambers of a Bicameral Legislature, the other chamber being the Upper house. The Senate of the Republic is the upper house and has 315 members (senatori). The Italian Senate ( Italian: Senato della Repubblica, 'Senate of the Republic' is the Upper house of the Parliament of Italy. An upper house is one of two chambers of a Bicameral Legislature, the other chamber being the Lower house.

Since 2005, a Proportional System electoral law is being used in both houses. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation or PR is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes A majority prize is given to the coalition obtaining a plurality: at national level for the Chamber, at regional level for the Senate.

Contents

Function of the Parliament

The Parliament is the representative body of the citizens in the republican Institutions, and act accordingly.

By the Republican Constitution of 1948, the two Houses of the Italian Parliament possess the same rights and powers: this particular form of parliamentary democracy (the so-called perfect bicameralism) has been coded in the current form after the dismissal of the fascist dictatorship of the 1920s and 1930s and after World War II. The Constitution of the Italian Republic (Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947 with 453 votes in favour and 62 Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including
The two Houses are independent from each other and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution. The House of Deputies has 630 members, while the Senate has 315 elected members and a small number of life senators: former Presidents of the Republic and up to five members appointed by the President for having contributed to the Country high achievement in the social or scientific field. A senator for life is a member of the Senate elected or appointed for lifetime As of 15 May 2006 there are seven life senators (of whom three are former presidents). Events 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the Papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes but also limits the Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

The main prerogative of the Parliament is the exercise of legislative power, that is the power to enact laws. A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation For a text to become law, it must receive the vote of both Houses independently in the same form. A bill is discussed in one of the Houses, amended, and approved or rejected: if approved, it is passed to the other House, which can amend it and approve or reject it. If approved without amendments, the text is promulgated by the President of the Republic and becomes law. Promulgation or enactment is the act of formally proclaiming or declaring new statutory or Administrative law when it receives final approval The President of the Italian Republic (Presidente della Repubblica Italiana is the Head of State of Italy, and as such is intended to represent national unity If approved with amendments, it is passed back to the originating House, which can approve the bill as amended, in which case the law is promulgated, or reject it.

The Parliament votes support to the Government, which is appointed by the President of the Republic and usually led by the leader of the coalition winning the elections. For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. The President of the Italian Republic (Presidente della Repubblica Italiana is the Head of State of Italy, and as such is intended to represent national unity The Government must receive a support vote by both Houses before being officially in power, and the Parliament can request a new vote of support at any moment if a quota of any House so requests. Should a Government fail to obtain a vote, it must resign; if it does, either a new Government is formed or the President of the Republic can dissolve the Houses and new elections are held.

The Parliament in joint session of both Houses elects the President of the Republic, five (one third) members of the Corte Costituzionale and one third of the Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura. The President of the Italian Republic (Presidente della Repubblica Italiana is the Head of State of Italy, and as such is intended to represent national unity It can vote to decide an accusation of high treason or attack to the Constitution against the President of the Republic (though this situation has never occurred).

Electoral System

The present electoral system, approved on December 14, 2005, is based on proportional representation (PR) with a series of thresholds to encourage parties to form coalitions. Events 1287 - St Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses killing over 50000 people Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation or PR is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes It replaced an Additional Member electoral system which had been introduced in the 1990s. The Additional Member System (AMS is a branch of Voting systems in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under

The proportional system is district-based, rather than nationwide as in some smaller countries. Italy is divided into a certain number of districts for the Chamber of Deputies, and a certain number of districts for the Senate. Each district is assigned a number of seats proportionate to its total of the population of Italy. Within each district, voters choose between lists of candidates which parties or coalitions have registered in advance, and each list is awarded seats based on its percentage of the vote in the district. Candidates on the lists are ranked in order of priority, so if a party wins for example ten seats, the first ten candidates on its list receive seats in parliament.

The law officially recognizes coalitions of parties: to be part of a coalition, a party must sign its official program and indicate its support for the coalition's candidate to the prime-ministership.

Chamber of Deputies

For the Chamber of Deputies, Italy is divided into 26 constituencies: Lombardy has three constituencies, Piedmont, Veneto, Latium, Campania, and Sicily each have two, and all other regions have one. Lombardy (Lombardia Latin: Langobardia, Western Lombard: Lumbardìa, Eastern Lombard: Lombardia) is one of the Piedmont ( Piemonte; Piedmontese and Occitan: Piemont; French: Piémont) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. Veneto or Venetia ( Vèneto) is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Latium was a region of ancient Italy, home to the original Latin people. Campania is a region of Southern Italy in Europe. The region has a population of around 5 Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. These constituencies elect 617 MPs. Another one is elected in Aosta Valley and 12 are elected by a constituency consisting of Italians living abroad.

Seats are allocated to parties proportionate to votes received in each constituency, among the parties that pass thresholds of the total vote on a national basis:

Also, parties representing regional linguistic minorities obtain seats if they receive at least 20% of the ballots in their constituency.

In order to guarantee a working majority, a coalition or party which obtains a plurality of the vote, but less than 340 seats, is assigned additional seats to reach that number, corresponding roughly to a 54% majority.

Senate of the Republic

For the Senate, the constituencies correspond to the 20 regions of Italy, with 6 senators allocated for Italians living abroad. The electoral system is very similar to the one for the lower house, but is in many ways transferred to regional basis. The thresholds are also different, and applied on a regional basis:

The coalition that wins a plurality in a region is automatically given 55% of the region's seats, if it has not reached that percentage already. As this mechanism is region-based, however, and opposing parties or coalitions may benefit from it in different regions, it guarantees no clear majority for any block in the Senate, unlike the national super-assignment system in the Chamber of Deputies.

Criticism

The new electoral law has come under wide criticism from the centre-left opposition since its introduction for a series of reasons:

Instability
The system is considered to be less stable than the previous additional member system. The Additional Member System (AMS is a branch of Voting systems in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under The region-based system in the upper house is not guaranteed to produce a clear majority, and may pave the way for governmental crises (as occurred with the fall of the Prodi government in January 2008).
Large Party Bias
It was widely alleged in the press at the time of its introduction, that the new system had been custom-designed by Silvio Berlusconi's government to give advantage to his House of Freedoms coalition in the 2006 elections, by eliminating seats for the numerous small parties on the Left that might not reach the 2% threshold. (born 29 September 1936 is an Italian politician, Entrepreneur, Real estate and Insurance Tycoon, Bank and Media proprietor Casa delle Libertà ( CDL; Italian for House of Freedoms) was a major Italian Center-right Political alliance led by In the event however, these small parties formed alliances to reach the threshold, and the Center-Left won a surprise victory despite the system.
"Partitocracy"
It has been alleged that Italian parties have retained too much power in the First Republic, screening the choices citizens had in elections; this electoral law would reinstate fixed electoral lists, where voters can only express a preference for a list but not for a specific candidate. The politics of Italy take place in a framework of a parliamentary, democratic Republic, and of a Multi-party system. This can be used by parties to all but guarantee re-election to unpopular but powerful figures, who would be weaker in a first past the post electoral system. The plurality voting system is a Single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member
Adaptation to Gallups
In Italian elections the left-wing tends to fare better in direct confrontation than in proportional voting, a sign there are voters who trust left-wing candidates but right-wing political parties, for reasons that can be debated. An opinion poll is a survey of Public opinion from a particular sample. It is alleged that the centre-right majority in the Parliament undertook this reform to boost their chances in the upcoming elections of 2006 (they indeed lost by a very small margin).
No agreement with the opposition
The law was passed by the majority against the opinion of the opposition. Whereas all recognize their full right to do so, many feel that the "rules of the game" should be agreed upon by everybody, and not imposed by one side.
Expensiveness
The Parliament of Italy is considered one of the world's most expensive governments.

See also this series of articles by La Repubblica and this description by the Forza Italia Web site. la Repubblica (meaning "the Republic" is as of 2006 the largest circulation Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Forza Italia (Forward Italy FI is a Christian-democratic, liberal and liberal-conservative Italian political party led by Silvio

The previous electoral system (August 1993-2005)

Between 1991 and 1993, resulting from two referendums and legislation, Italian electoral law was altered substantially. Electoral law in Italy is determined by Parliament, not the constitution. This, taken with the concurrent collapse of the Italian party system, marks the transition between the First and Second Italian Republics.

Two referenda

The nearly pure proportional representation system of the First Republic had resulted not only in party fragmentation and therefore governmental instability, but also insulation of the parties from the electorate and civil society. Proportional representation (sometimes referred to as full representation or PR is a category of electoral formula aiming at a close match between the percentage of votes This was known in Italian as partitocrazia, in contrast to democracy, and resulted in corruption and pork-barrel politics. The Italian constitution allows, with substantial hurdles, abrogative referendums, enabling citizens to delete laws or parts of laws past by Parliament (with exceptions).

A reform movement known as COREL (Committee to Promote Referendums on Elections), led by maverick DC-member Mario Segni, proposed three referendums, one of which was allowed by the Constitutional Court (at that time packed with members of the PSI and hostile to the movement). Mariotto Segni, better known as Mario, (born May 16 1939 in Sassari) is an Italian politician The June 1991 referendum therefore asked voters if they wanted to reduce the number of preferences, from three or four to one, in the Chamber of Deputies, to reduce the abuse of the open-list system by party elites and ensure accurate delegation of parliamentary seats to candidates popular with voters. Open list describes any variant of Party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected With 62. 5% of the Italian electorate voting, the referendum passed with 95% of those voting in favor. This was seen as a vote against the partitocrazia, which had campaigned against the referendum.

Emboldened by their victory in 1991, and encouraged by the unfolding Mani pulite scandals and the substantial loss of votes for the traditional parties in the 1992 general elections, the reformers pushed forward with another referendum, abolishing the proportional representation system of the Italian Senate, implicitly supporting a plurality system that would theoretically force parties to come together around two ideological poles, thereby providing governmental stability. Mani pulite ( Italian for clean hands) was a nationwide Italian judicial investigation into Political corruption held in the 1990s following This referendum was held in April, 1993, and passed with the support of 80% of those voting. This caused the Amato government to collapse three days later. Municipal elections were held in June, 1993, further illustrating the lack of legitimacy the sitting parliament held. The President of Italy, Francesco Cossiga, thereupon appointed a technocratic government, led by former head of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Ciampi, with the sole task of writing a new electoral law. Francesco Cossiga (born July 26, 1928) is an Italian politician and former President of the Italian Republic. Technocracy: A form of government in which scientists and technical experts are in control "technocracy is described as that society in which those who govern justify themselves (born 9 December 1920) is an Italian politician and banker He was Prime Minister of Italy from 1993 to 1994 and was President from 1999

As it was under no constitutional obligation to enact a purely majoritarian system (nor were they under obligation to promulgate a new electoral law for the Chamber of Deputies), and cognizant of its declining popular support, the sitting parliament enacted a new electoral law in August, 1993 that provided for single-member districts while reflecting their own interests. Despite this, many of them would be voted out of office in the national election in March, 1994.

The electoral law

The national elections used an Additional Member System, which in Italy was a mixed system, with 75% of seats allocated using a First Past the Post electoral system and 25% using a proportional method, with one round of voting. The Additional Member System (AMS is a branch of Voting systems in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under The plurality voting system is a Single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies differed in the way they allocated the proportional seats, although both used the D'Hondt method of allocating seats. The D'Hondt method (mathematically but not operationally equivalent to Jefferson's method, and Bader-Ofer method) is a Highest averages method for

The Senate includes 315 elected members, of whom:

The Senate was elected on a single ballot. All those votes not contributing to a winning candidate were thrown into a regional pool (of which there were 40), and within that district were then used to allocate the seats proportionally. There was no electoral threshold for the Senate. In Party-list proportional representation systems an election threshold is a clause that stipulates that a party must receive a minimum percentage of votes either

The Italian Chamber of Deputies has 630 members, of whom

The Chamber of Deputies used two ballots. The first ballot elected that district's member, on a purely plurality basis. The second ballot, in which only parties and party-lists were listed, was used to determine the proportional seats, allocated within one single national constituency, with a 4% minimum threshold for party representation.

A complicated mechanism known as scorporo, a previously unknown word in Italian politics, was used to tabulate PR votes. The number of votes cast for candidates coming in second place on the first ballot (SMD) would be subtracted from the (obviously much larger) number of votes earned on the second ballot (PR) by the party of the winning candidate in the first ballot. This would be repeated for each single-member district. This was developed -- against the overwhelming opinion expressed in the referendums -- to dampen the effect of the first-past-the-post system, which it was feared might promote the prevalence of one political party, especially parties that were strong in one geographical area.

The law also introduced a closed list system for the party lists on the second ballot, i. Closed list describes the variant of Party-list proportional representation where voters can (effectively only vote for political parties as a whole and thus e. , excluding voters from the decision as to which members of that party would enter parliament, thereby guaranteeing reelection of party leaders whose popular support was rapidly declining (new elections were to be held once the new electoral law was fully implemented). Ironically, that is what allowed Mario Segni, the leader of the reform movement, to enter parliament on the proportional ballot after the March, 1994, elections, having broken with his party in March, 1993, and then reunited with one of its shattered remnants that December.

In practice, the system has proven egregiously useless, even for its own corrupt purposes. First-past-the-post candidates usually declare their formal allegiance to some decoy list that will collect no votes, known as liste civetta, thereby relieving their own party of a reduction in votes in the proportional quota. The Additional Member System (AMS is a branch of Voting systems in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under The bypass worked so well that in the elections of 2001 Forza Italia had not enough candidates to fill all the seats it was assigned. A national general election was held in Italy on May 13, 2001 to elect members of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic Forza Italia (Forward Italy FI is a Christian-democratic, liberal and liberal-conservative Italian political party led by Silvio

Nor has the system accomplished the goals desired by the voters. The first parliament elected after the electoral reform produced Silvio Berlusconi's first government, which lasted eight months. Small parties still enter parliament and form unstable coalitions. On the other hand, political parties in Italy seem to be coalescing around two poles, if imperfectly so, and governments have lasted much longer, at least by Italian standards. On that level, the electoral reform can be seen as an improvement over the electoral law prior to it, even if Italy has now returned to a PR system.

The 1947-1993 electoral system

Between 1947 and 1993, Italy used an electoral system that was a nearly pure proportional representation system, which was subject to two insignificant thresholds:

1) that a party needed to achieve 300,000 votes at the national level;

2) Italy was divided into 27 electoral regions (circoscrizione), of unequal size, which were awarded a certain number of seats in Parliament based on population (e. g. , Rome received more than 50). Within these regions, seats were divided proportionally; in order to become a member of parliament, a party member needed to be directly elected within one of these regions - approximately 60,000 votes. This system allocated 90% of the seats in both houses of parliament. The votes that did not go to a winning candidate were then thrown into one national electoral district, which was then divided proportionally and used to determine the remaining 10%, thereby going to candidates not directly elected.

Furthermore, voters were able to list their preferences for candidates on a party list, in order to prevent the parties from exploiting the power they acquired from being able to write their party lists. In practice, however, parties were able to manipulate these numbers to that preferred members, i. e. , members loyal to one faction within a party, could enter parliament.

As neither of these thresholds was difficult to achieve, this system naturally benefitted the small parties. This was exacerbated by the fact that the Lower House has 630 seats. Because of the design of the electoral law did not provide for any mechanism to exclude small parties (indeed it seemed designed to encourage them) or provide any incentives to avoid splintering, by the 1970s the Italian party system had become completely fragmented, with 17 parties represented in parliament in contrast to the eight represented in 1947. This resulted in highly unstable coalition governments (the average length was nine months) and political turbulence. And because voters had little control over which candidates entered parliament, political parties were insulated from the wishes civil society. Relations between political elites and the masses therefore became clientelistic; voter behavior and politics in general became a contest as to which party could secure more pork-barrel investment for a specific region. It also allowed politicians to become corrupt.

Overseas constituency

The Italian Parliament is one of the few legislatures in the world to reserve seats for citizens residing abroad. An expatriate (in abbreviated form expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing There are twelve such seats in the Chamber of Deputies and six in the Senate.

The Overseas Constituency consists of four electoral zones, each of which elect at least one Deputy and one Senator:

The remaining seats are distributed between the same overseas electoral zones in proportion to the number of Italian citizens resident in each. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a

Italian citizens living outside of Italy have always had the right to vote in all referendums and elections being held in Italy (provided they had registered their residence abroad with their relevant consulate). However until late 2001, any citizens wishing to vote, were required physically to return to the city or town in Italy where he or she was registered on the electoral roll. The electoral roll (or electoral register) is a listing of all those registered to vote in a particular area The only exception to this rule was for the Italian elections to the European Parliament in which voters could cast their ballot at their nearest consulate but only if they had their residence in one of the other EU countries. The European Parliament ( Europarl or EP) is the only directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in

Until 2001 the Italian state offered citizens living abroad a free return train journey to their home town in Italy in order to vote, however the only portion of the train journey that was free of charge was on Italian soil. Any costs incurred in getting from their place of residence abroad to the Italian border had to be covered by the citizen wanting to vote, therefore a free return train journery was hardly an incentive for the large Italian communities living as far away as in the United States, Argentina or Australia. In Economics, an incentive is any factor (financial or non-financial that provides a motive for a particular course of action or counts as a reason for preferring one choice The United States of America —commonly referred to as the For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. For this reason very few Italians abroad made use of this right to vote, unless they lived in cities and towns that bordered to Italy such as in Germany, Switzerland, France and Austria. Various Italian minorities living abroad (notably in the United States) protested frequently at this lack of political representation especially if they paid taxes on property owned in Italy. In Politics, representation describes how political power is alienated from most of the members of a group and vested for a certain time period in the hands of a small subset

After numerous years of petetioning and fierce debate, the Italian government, in late 2001, finally passed a law allowing Italian citizens living abroad to vote in elections in Italy by postal ballot. An absentee ballot is a Vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official Polling station. Italians wishing to excise this right must first register their residence abroad with their relevant consulate. The first vote by Italians living aboard by postal ballot was for 2 referendums in 2003 and for both chambers of the Italian parliament in 2006.

References

See also

External links

The politics of Italy take place in a framework of a parliamentary, democratic Republic, and of a Multi-party system. In Italy, the Prime Minister of Italy (officially the President of the Council of Ministers, Italian Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri) is the country's The Roman Senate was a political institution in Ancient Rome.
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