Italy: Parliamentary Elections and the Italian System

Italy will hold elections April 13-14 after the Italian president dissolved parliament Feb. 6. The new prime minister is likely to be Silvio Berlusconi, who in many ways represents the best and worst of the Italian system. The constitutional architecture of that system plus strong regionalism guarantees that Italy will be ruled by unstable coalition governments. A strong bureaucratic class keeps the nation on its feet, however, though it cannot gain Italy the leadership role it could have given its economic weight.