The impact of party priorities on Italian law-making from the First to the Second Republic

This paper analyses the correlation between the policy content of party manifestos issued during election campaigns and that of the laws produced after parties gained parliamentary majority. During the period covered by the research (1987-2006), the Italian political system experienced major institutional change, with the passage from the First to the Second Republic whose consequences are epitomised by the introduction of alternation in government. Hence the Italian case provides an opportunity to investigate whether and how the correlation between party and legislative agendas is affected by major institutional change. In the paper we test two expectations. Based on the party mandate theory, our first expectation is that the correlation between party and legislative agendas is higher in the Second Republic than in the First Republic. Following agenda-setting and information-processing theories, our second expectation is that the correlation will decrease throughout the cycle of single legislative terms. While empirical evidence supports the first claim, it seems to contrast with the second expectation.