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ITALY and GERMANY (Prompt 1) The political systems of Italy and Germany have unique characteristics that have interested political scientists as well as the rest of the world. Each political system provides a model for comparison of political parties and electoral systems. In each country, electoral systems are constructed to facilitate different outcomes in the success of their governments overall. With Italy and Germany, we will see how their electoral systems have affected the dominance of political parties and their democratization process. ITALY Italy adopted a parliamentary system after World War II and the fall of Mussolini s fascist regime. Its current system consists of a bicameral legislature, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
The Chamber of Deputies has 630 seats, 475 of these seats are elected through single majority districts (SMD) and 155 are elected through proportional representation (PR). The Italian Senate has 315 seats, 232 of these elected through SMD and 83 elected through PR. Italy s mixed electoral system was first implemented in 1994 due to the public s dissatisfaction of the electoral system. During the evolution of Italian politics, distinct divisions and alliances among various parties have formed with differences in party support rest[ing] largely upon cultural and regional variations (Jacobs, 172).
Prior to 1994, the electoral system was strictly proportional representation; voters were able to indicate preferred candidates on their party s list- a practice that contributed to the corruption and electoral fraud with candidates able to better their position by purchasing the support of small numbers of voters. Since districts were large, electing as many as fifty deputies, the Italian system accurately reflected the political spectrum of the population. For example, a party with 25 percent of the vote ended up with 25 percent of the seats in parliament. (Wilson, 305) There was no minimum threshold such as 5 percent requirement in Germany. Since proportional representation minimizes the impact of the slight variations in political support, the electoral system complicated the process of bringing political change: It was always the same parties that formed government.
The parties in Italy that dominated parliament prior to 1994 were the Christian Democrats (DC), the Socialists (PSI), the Communists (PCI) and the Liberals (MSI). FIGURE 1 Italian Political Parties on a Left/Right spectrum (Wilson, 317) (Parties in brackets are those parties that take part in government coalitions) Proletarian Radicals Communists Socialists Social Republicans Christian Liberal Monarchists Democracy Democrats Democrats LEFT RIGHT With the new electoral system implemented, all of these dominating parties virtually disappeared, and new political parties formed, which better represented the Italians. The former Italian Communist Party was the largest communist party operating in a democratic setting. Its platform is not as severe as those of Russia or Eastern European communist regimes, but slightly left of the Socialists. Since 1994, the Communist party has since moved mainstream, now calling themselves the Democratic Party of the Left. Although they were strong, they were never able to obtain the majority coalition due to the public s fear of an authoritative communist regime.
The party has not given up, however, due to its belief of the DC s erosion of traditional bases of support combined with long-term economic and social changes. (Amyot, 55) They are still second behind the dominating Christian Democrats. The Italian Christian Democratic Party was the dominating party in the Italy s old electoral system. Its ties with the Catholic Church were stressed in the old system and because of the proportional representation, it did not allow for any changes in the government. Since then, social trends, such as secularization and the decline of Catholic Church s social and political importance, has allowed for a change in platform for the Christian Democratic Party, now called the Italian Popular Party, the center-right party.
After the electoral system change, the Italian Popular Party still remains the largest party, but now has allowed for voters preference, unlike the past electoral system. The third governing political party of Italy was the MSI, the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement Party. Its platform before the new electoral system was extreme-right. Since then, like the other old political parties, have moved more toward the center, and gained third place in the Italian party system. They renamed themselves as the National Alliance and its platform is now the right political party.
All the other political parties, besides the three DC, MSI, and PCI, were all diluted into the system and identified themselves with the three large parties to form coalitions or formed into smaller parties. The electoral strength is now in two major coalitions. The Olive Tree is made up of the Democratic Party of the Left, the Popular Party, the Greens and several smaller parties. The second is the Freedom Alliance, which is composed of the former remaining members of the Christian Democrats, the National Alliance and other small parties. The rest of legislature belongs to the small Italian political parties and interest groups.
GERMANY East Germany and West Germany unified in 1990 as the Federal Republic of Germany, after the fall of the communism. Germany itself is an unusual case of a successful democratic country. Before unification, the countries had opposing governments: the West s capitalism and the East s communism. Both have gone through rapid transformations and have succeeded in keeping its current government stable under economic, political, and social hardship. Contemporary Germany is a parliamentary and federal system. Its bicameral legislature is comprised of the Bundestag, the popularly elected legislative body, and the Bundesrat, an important agent in maintaining the balance between the federal and state governments.
Executive powers are divided between the head of state, the President, and the government, the Chancellor and the Cabinet of Ministers. The president is unlike the French president; instead he is a more symbolic figurehead. (Wilson, 249) Like the United States, Germany s government also has the Constitutional Court, which serves as another system of checks and balances in the government. The Bundestag consists of 676 popularly elected deputies who each serve four-year terms. The Bundesrat resembles the United States Senate, but its senators are chosen by the state legislatures rather than popularly election. It is a proportional representation system (PR) to assure faithful reflection of the public s political views. To prevent smaller parties gaining seats in legislature, Germany adopted a 5 % threshold.
To prevent the reduction of linkage between the elected representatives and its voters, the electoral system provides for half of the deputies in the Bundestag in single-member districts. Legislature is divided in a modified two-party system, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, with a smaller third party needed to form a governing coalition. Neither the Christian Democrats nor the Social democrats have a majority in legislature and must rely on the smaller parties, such as the Greens, to form a coalition in parliament. The Christian Democratic parties of Germany were new after World War II. Their platform is the center-right, sharing a common heritage of the Catholic Center party from the Weimar era. Since 1949, the Christian Democrats sought to be the catch-all party attractive to all Germans and won more votes than any other party with the sole exceptions of the 1972 and the 1998 elections.
Even with its popularity, the Christian Democrats had never gained a majority in legislature on its own. They had always formed a majority coalition with the Green Party since the end of WWII, until now. The majority coalition in Germany s legislature is held by the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats of Germany (SPD), represented the center-left in the German legislative body. The SPD faced a series of challenges, most importantly, it has never had the opportunity to form a coalition in the Bundestag, with an exception of 1972 and the present.
The current coalition is formed with the Greens, but with difficulty due to each party s opposing views. Gaining more and more support, the Germans had just elected their new President a Social Democrat. Johannes Rau, a moderate Social Democrat, was elected today to be Germany s eighth postwar President, a largely ceremonial post whose chief significance lies in its influence on the nations conscience. Mr. Rau, 68, won on the second round of voting. (New York Times, Cohen) East and West Germany have endured and is still enduring through many hardships.
The end of the communist regime in East Germany, left the country with poor economic conditions and need of modernization. The West was prosperous and now had to face the challenge of rebuilding the newly unified country and taking on all responsibility to modernize the rest of its country. Not only do the two countries have apparent separate and distinct characteristics of economic and social differences, the people are also of two separated minds of thinking, the West with its capitalist views and the East with its previous authoritarian regimes. With these differences, the electoral system faces the challenge of allowing for a defined majority due to the people s mixture of views. This challenge, however, does not prevent Germany from making legislation effective. ROLE OF PARTIES IN DEMOCRATIZATION IN ITALY AND GERMANY Democratization in Italy was difficult after World War II.
Italy, like Germany, was divided between northerners and southerners because of the social differences of the two regions. The north was far more industrialized than the south and the country had its own invisible barrier that had to be dealt with. The main distinctive political features of the south are its political volatility, and exceptional extent of clienteles and party patronage. (Jacobs, 192) But regardless, Italians were wary of going back to the pre-war conditions, and placed a strong effort in unifying the country. The Christian Democratic Party played a tremendous role in democratization, allowing for a gradual democratization process because of its center-right party platform. The conservative implementations to reform Italy was proven successful in the post-war era. However, as the world entered into secularism, the Catholic Church and conservative ideology was subject to change also, which brought about a change in Italians strive towards implementing a new electoral system.
Unified Germany democratization was rapid, yet ultimately successful in its endeavors. Within a year, the East and West were unified as one, and shortly after, the country participated in national elections. The Christian Democrats were the majority coalition since WWII and has successfully rebuilt West Germany before unification. But with the newly risen problems since unification, the country has shown that it is in need of breaking the familiar streak of the Christian Democratic Party s dominance to address the challenges with a different platform. Italy and Germany share similar characteristics in political party dominance by the Christian Democrats. Both began democratization with the center-right and through the course of time, as its democracies became more stable, the Italians and the Germans are now voting for change with the sign of times.
Both Italian and German governments are stable and effective in responding to their issues. Both are parliamentary systems with mixed PR and SMD and are representative of its voters. The two countries major differences lie in the powers of the political parties in control. Although they both have the Christian Democrats, the Italians have a strong Communist Party in its democracy. The Germans, however, steer clear from having a strong Communist Party in legislation, and is replaced with the Socialists. Germany has a moderate two party system, the center-right and center-left, as opposed to Italy s single and strong center-right party.
Italy has been well on its way of finishing its democratization process, whereas Germany has just begun reforms in democratizing. Although the two countries face different problems within their country, it is important to realize the importance of democracy for each of the countries. Germany, with the present standards of living and ongoing rise of political powers, places modernization and democratization as its most important agenda. Italy s strive towards fair and accurate voter representation in government has proven to be a success in securing their true ideologies in democratization. Italy and Germany have overcome their greatest challenges and have achieved its passion for democratization. REFERENCES: Chapter 3, Italy: Twilight of the DC Regime, G.
Grant Amyot. From Parties and Party Systems in Liberal Democracies, Steven B. WolinetxC 1997 Italy, Francis Jacob From Western European Political Parties: A Comprehensive Guide Chapter 5, Italy; Chapter 4, The Federal Republic of Germany, Frank L. Wilson From European Politics Today: The Democratic Experience Prentice Hall, third edition, c 1999 Chapter 10, Italy: Sunset of a Partitocracy, Maurizio Cotta and Luca VerzichelliFrom Party and Government St.
Martin s Press, Inc. , c 1996 Chapter 5, The Breakdown of the German Democratic Republic, Sten Berglund From The New Democracies in Eastern Europe, Sten Berglund and Jan Ake DellenbrantEdward Elgar Publishing Limited, c 1991 A Social Democrat Is Elected the New President of Germany, Roger Cohen From NewYork Times, Foreign Desk, May 24, 1999, Monday
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Research essay sample on World War Ii Chamber Of Deputies
