Gli Eletti

Verzichelli, Luca

doi:10.1017/s0048840200023261

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…All in all, the figure tells us that, given the extraordinary result of Forza Italia and the center-right coalition in the 1994 Italian general election, a significant percentage of "new people" entered the Lower House, so much so that more than one-third of all MPs in 1994 can be categorized as Intruders. This is in line with previous discussions about the longitudinal changes in the features of the Italian MPs during the transition from the old partitocrazia to the new bipolar party system in the mid-1990s (Verzichelli, 1994).…”

Section: Mps' Features Survival and Careers In The Decade Of The Cris...supporting

confidence: 92%

“…A first proposition postulates a radical change in the features of the Italian parliamentary elite because of the failure of the previous mechanisms of elite circulation and the advent of new party actors. After all, both Berlusconi's Forza Italia (at least in its early days) and Beppe Grillo's M5S have put forward a model of representation in sharp contrast with the classical partycentered one (e.g., see Verzichelli, 1994Verzichelli, , 1998Lanza and Piazza, 2002;Pinto and Pedrazzani, 2015). The problem with such an interpretation is predicting if a process of institutionalization will follow or, conversely, there will be an endless influx of new party actors and a consequential "impossible stability" for the Italian parliamentary elite.…”

Section: Mutation or Systemic Adaptations? Interpretations Of Parliam...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, the (increasing) trend of Female Beginner MPs records several highs and lows, which have become more and more marked since 1992. The 1994 peak should be somehow connected to the rule of the male-female alternation in the closedlist PR arena in the Lower House (Verzichelli, 1994). Such a rule was then abrogated but partially re-established with the 2005 reform of the Italian electoral law (that introduced a minimum quota of female candidate in the multi-member constituencies used since 2006).…”

Section: Mps' Features Survival and Careers In The Decade Of The Cris...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impossible Stability? The Italian Lower House Parliamentary Elite After a “Decade of Crises”

Verzichelli

Marino²,

Marangoni³

et al. 2022

Front. Polit. Sci.

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The article explores recent changes in the Italian parliamentary elite thanks to a novel set of data on Italian MPs between 1946 and 2018. After a first discussion on some crucial long-term trends of Italian Lower House MPs (their turnover rate, seniority, gender balance, party-related or institutional experience), we focus on the possible explanations of the profound transformation that occurred in the past decade: the rise of new party actors, the realignment between citizens and the parliamentary elites, or the use of different electoral systems. Subsequently, we point at three MP categories, taken as the most relevant proxies of the innovations in the Italian parliamentary elite. These categories are based on the length of MPs' parliamentary career, their previous party or institutional experience, and their gender. We discuss the changing numerical relevance of these categories, their parliamentary career patterns, and some features related to the institutionalization of MPs belonging to such categories. Two implications clearly emerge from our analysis. First, the changes occurred in the so-called “decade of the crises” (after the 2013 and 2018 Italian general elections) are critical in terms of a new influx of political amateur, female, and young MPs. The magnitude of this renewal can hardly be compared to any other relevant turning point of the Italian republican age and might signal the existence of a pattern of “impossible stability” for the parliamentary elite. Second, and partly in contrast with the first implication, despite such changes, the perspectives of parliamentary career and parliamentary survival remain very much subordinated to belonging to strong parliamentary party groups. This signals that, despite broad discussions about the positive role exerted by new political actors and the demand for a stronger descriptive representation, what seems to matter in the Italian Lower House is the presence of powerful political parties.

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Section: Mps' Features Survival and Careers In The Decade Of The Cris...supporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Mutation or Systemic Adaptations? Interpretations Of Parliam...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mps' Features Survival and Careers In The Decade Of The Cris...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Impossible Stability? The Italian Lower House Parliamentary Elite After a “Decade of Crises”

Verzichelli

Marino²,

Marangoni³

et al. 2022

Front. Polit. Sci.

Self Cite

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“…The idea of a total overthrow of traditional, centralized candidate selection procedures was already undermined by initial analyses of the 1994 elections, when the need for renewal and the experience of organizational disarray may have served to enhance the triumph of territorialization (Mattina 1994;Lanza 1995). That said, the recourse to majoritarian competition and to single-member candidatures have led to profound changes in party strategies (Katz 1996), and we can now verify earlier hypotheses on the potential effects of a learning process in the single-member constituency system (Verzichelli 1994) which suggested the possible emergence of a parliamentary class that would be relatively independent of the national political class, and more influenced by the social and economic structures at the local level.…”

Section: -1996: a Complex Period Of Renewalsupporting

confidence: 71%

The parliamentary elite in transition

Verzichelli

1998

European J Political Res

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Only two years after the critical elections of 27 March 1994, the Italian parliamentary election of 1996 marks another important step in the transformation of the political class. The extent of turnover is declining, and the renewal of the parliamentary elite shows some signs of stabilization. This article inquires into the differences in the sociological configuration of the new elite, and whether this means that new consolidated pathways to the parliamentary elite now already exist. The article analyzes the distribution of freshmen in the political class, the return of old backbenchers in the new political parties, the social and occupational background of MPs and, finally, their local and political experiences. In the final section, the article discusses some hypotheses about the perspectives on the recruitment of Italian MPs, focusing in particular on the effects of the structural crisis of political parties and the introduction of the plurality system. An empirically-derived typology of professionalization patterns is also provided. 1994-1996: A complex period of renewalThe recent Italian transition has re-opened questions that in recent years had been ignored by political analysis, such as the transformation of the political class and of its selection and career models. The central question to be posed here is whether a new political class already exists, and if so, what are its characteristics? The difficulty in finding answers to such questions appears paradoxical in a country where, for almost half a century, the degree of continuity recorded in the characteristics of political elites often frustrated the researcher's work (Mastropaolo 1994). Moreover, it is a complex problem, whose solution must be sought in social and political phenomena far removed from the beginning of the Italian transition. These phenomena have, in fact, been identified by analysts, and the theoretical framework of reference can be divided into three major arguments. First, the link between parliamentary change and the decline of mass parties -a phenomenon already evident at the end of the last decade -which has impelled analysts to propose new theoretical models of party forms (e.g. Katz & Mair 1995). The second and third streams are linked to the evolution of the Italian case in particular, and refer respectively to interpretations of the recent crisis and the transition that followed, and the effects of the electoral reforms.

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“…In addition to the references we cite in the remainder of this study, there are many others we read to help us place our work in the context of the literature. In particular, we refer the interested reader to Aberbach, Putnam and Rockman (1981), Bartolini and D'Alimonte (1996), Caciagli and Barnes (1994), Cotta and Isernia (1996), Di Palma (1977), Di Palma and Cotta (1986), Dogan (1975Dogan ( , 1989, Doring (1995), Eldersveld (1989), Ignazi and Ysmal (1998), La Palombara (1987), La Palombara and Weiner (1996), Morlino (1998), Norris (1997), Norris and Lovenduski (1995), Patzelt (1999), Putman (1976), Sartori (1966), Spotts and Wieser (1986), Verzichelli (1994Verzichelli ( , 1996, Vianello and Moor (2000), and Wertman (1988). The economics literature on this topic is more recent and quite smaller, and is surveyed by Merlo (2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%