after the approval of the budget and the stability law, the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who had led the government for the longest period in the history of the Italian Republic, formally resigned. 1 Twenty-four hours later, the president of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, invited Mario Monti, whom he had made a Life Senator just four days earlier, to form the next government. 2 An academic and president of the Bocconi University in Milan, Monti had been the European commissioner chosen by the Berlusconi government in 1994 and reappointed by the Massimo D'Alema centerleft government in 1999. On 16 November, having accepted the president's nomination, Monti presented a list of ministers, none of whom were members of Parliament, and they were all sworn in on that very day. Thus, one of the shortest government crises ever was resolved in less than three days. 3 In Italy, which has seen 58 governments since 1948, the formation of a new Cabinet is not in itself deserving of particular attention. However, the formation of the Monti government immediately raised great interest. It appeared to mark the end of a long political era and of a majority that only three years earlier had obtained a large electoral success. Secondly, the new executive was led by a figure selected from outside the parties and was made up of people who are

El parlamentarismo —la forma de gobierno europea por excelencia— está manifestando en muchos países europeos graves dificultades de funcionamiento. Italia, cuya Constitución de 1948 carece de instrumentos de racionalización del sistema (tanto como para haber tenido 63 gobiernos en menos de 70 años), se ha decantado por leyes electorales específicamente estudiadas para hacer frente a este problema. Este artículo ofrece una contextualización histórica y constitucional, y describe características, virtudes y defectos de la ley 52/2015, que es del tipo denominado majorityassuring.Parliamentary regimes, the most adopted in Europe, are showing serious dysfunctions in many countries. Italy, whose 1948 Constitution does not provide any solution meant to stabilize the political and institutional system (the country has counted 63 cabinets in less than 70 years), has tried to solve these issues recurring to specifically crafted electoral laws. This article provides contextual historical and political analysis and describes features, merits and flaws of Law 52/2015, which introduces as.c. majority assuring electoral formula.

This intellectual project owes a great debt to all the people in South Africa that have agreed to spend their time with us, being interviewed, explaining their points of view, sharing with us their thoughts, their hopes and their fears for the future. Without their crucial contribution our intellectual hypothesis would have remained nothing but theoretical speculations. In particular, we want to thank again the School of Social Sciences of the University of the Witwatersrand for having welcomed once again Dr Veronica Federico, and having provided her with the logistic support she needed in order to carry out her field work researches. There, Veronica has benefited a lot from the interaction with colleagues and students, as well as from the active participation in the School's activities. As we will mention in the Introduction, the research project underlying the study presented here is co-financed by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the University of Florence. The opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USIP. Our gratitude goes first to Dr Judy Barsalou, USIP program officer responsible for the project, who has followed the research since its very beginning. Our thanks are also due to the Department of Public Law of the University of Florence for having hosted the project and supported it with its efficient administrative staff. In particular, we thank Fabrizio Parissi for his precious contribution in the final paging of the volume.

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IntroduzioneLa legge 10 dicembre 1993, n. 515 costituisce un vero e proprio «sistema elettorale di contorno». Pur constando di soli 20 articoli, si tratta di un testo di notevole complessità e assai eterogeneo. Questo saggio si propone di illustrarne genesi e contenuti, di mettere in luce alcune delle problematiche che ha sollevato e di esprimere qualche valutazione sulla sua prima applicazione in occasione delle elezioni del 1994.