Measures of consensual law-making: Italian "consociativismo"

This article has three different aims. Firstly, to identify the distinguishing features of Italian consociativismo, contrasting them with the characteristics of Lijphart’s consociational democracies. Secondly, to introduce the main hypotheses which have been advanced in the literature to interpret this phenomenon; and thirdly to discuss them in the light of new or updated data and indicators of consensual law-making.