Horses and hippos : Why Italian government bills change in the legislative arena, 1987-2006
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2013
Citazione:
Horses and hippos : Why Italian government bills change in the legislative arena, 1987-2006 / A. Pedrazzani, F. Zucchini. - In: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH. - ISSN 0304-4130. - 52:5(2013), pp. 687-714. [10.1111/1475-6765.12002]
Abstract:
Scholars interested in legislative processes pay relatively little attention to the
changes made to bills in parliamentary democracies.On the one hand, comparative research
has often described parliamentary institutions as ineffectual vis-à-vis cabinets throughout
the lawmaking process; on the other hand, for a long time the rational choice literature has
focused more on the formal rules regulating amendatory activity than on amendatory
activity itself. Hence, very few studies have tried to explain how much government bills are
altered in parliament and why. This article investigates the changes made to governmental
legislation in Italy. Taking the modifications occurring during the legislative process as the
dependent variable, a number of explanatory hypotheses derived from both existing scholarship
and original arguments are discussed and tested.This also allows the identification of
some usually unobserved aspects of the decision-making process within the cabinet. The
findings can also be relevant for comparative research since Italy has been characterised
during the period under scrutiny (1987–2006) by two distinct electoral systems, two
extremely different party systems (pivotal and alternational), governments with various
ideological orientations and range, and both partisan and technical ministers.parliament
and why.
In this paper, we investigate the changes made to governmental legislation in Italy. Taking the
modifications occurring during the legislative process as the dependent variable, we discuss
and test a number of explanatory hypotheses derived from both existing scholarship and
original arguments. By doing so, we also try to indirectly find out some aspects of the often
unobservable decision-making process within the cabinet.
Our findings are also relevant for comparative research. During the period that we have
investigated (1987–2006), Italy has been characterized by two distinct electoral systems, two
extremely different party systems, governments with various ideological orientation and
range, both partisan and technical ministers.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Keywords:
Coalition governance; Executive-legislative relations; Italian political system; Lawmaking
Elenco autori:
A. Pedrazzani, F. Zucchini
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