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The '''politics of Italy''' take place in a framework of a parliamentary, democratic parliament. The constitution was promulgated on 1 January 1948.'''

==Government== 
The 1948 Constitution of Italy established a bicameral legislature (parliament), an executive branch composed of a Council of Ministers (cabinet), headed by the President of the Council (prime minister), and an independent judicial branch headed by the 'Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura'.

===Head of State===

thumb|left|[[Giorgio Napolitano was elected President on 10 May 2006.]]
As the head of state, the President of the Republic represents the unity of the nation and has many of the duties previously given to the king of Italy. The president serves as a point of connection between the three branches of power: he is elected by the lawmakers, he appoints the executive, and is the president of the judiciary. The president is also the commander-in-chief of armed forces.

The President of the Republic is elected by an electoral college consisting of both houses of Parliament and 58 regional representatives for a seven-year term. His election needs a wide majority that is progressively reduced from two-thirds to one-half plus one of the votes as the ballots progress. The only Presidents ever to be elected on the first ballot are Francesco Cossiga and Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Mr. Ciampi was replaced by Giorgio Napolitano, who was elected on 10 May 2006. While it is not forbidden by law, no president has ever served two terms.

Usually, the President tries to stay out of the political debate, and to be an institutional guarantee for all those involved in the political process. The president can also reject openly anti-constitutional laws by refusing to sign them, since he acts as the ''guardian'' of the Constitution of Italy.

===Executive===

The President of the Republic appoints the Council of Ministers and its President (the prime minister). The prime minister advises the President of the Republic on the composition of the rest of the Council of Ministers (the cabinet), which comprises the ministers in charge of the various governmental departments. In practice, the President accepts prime minister's advice, and submits the proposed Council for a vote of confidence from both parliamentary chambers.

The government has the power to issue decrees. Decrees have to be confirmed in the parliament, and "decree jam" has been a problem in recent years, as governments try to reform the structure of the state using chiefly decrees instead of passing laws directly through the parliament.

The prime minister, through the cabinet, effectively runs the government of Italy. The current Prime Minister is Silvio Berlusconi.

===Legislative branch===

Italy elects a parliament consisting of two houses, the Chamber of Deputies (''Camera dei Deputati''), which has 630 members and the Senate of the Republic (''Senato della Repubblica''), comprising 315 elected members and a small number of senators for life).
As of 15 May 2006, there are seven life senators of whom three are former Presidents. Both houses are elected for a maximum of five years, but they may be dissolved before the expiration of their normal term. 

Legislation may originate in either house and must be passed in identical form by a majority in each.

===Judicial branch===
The Italian judicial system is based on adverserial and inquisitorial civil law systems, although the adversarial system was adopted in the Appeal Courts in 1988. Appeals are treated almost as new trials, and three degrees of trial are present. The third is a legitimating trial.

There is only partial Constitutional Court, or Corte Costituzionale, which can reject anti-constitutional laws after scrutiny.

The Constitutional Court is composed of 15 judges one of which is the U.S. Supreme Court.

Italy has not accepted compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.

==Political parties and elections==

All Italian citizens older than 18 can vote. However, to vote for the senate, the voter must be at least 25 or older.

===Chamber of Deputies===
frame|left|Composition of the elected Chamber of Deputies. The Berlusconi-led coalition won the nationwide [[majority bonus with a 9 point lead over the nearest coalition.]]

===Senate of the Republic===
frame|left|Composition of the elected Senate.

===Political parties===
thumb|right|a poster for the European Parliament election 2004 in Italy, showing party lists

Italy's dramatic self-renewal transformed the political landscape between 1992 and 1997. Scandal investigations touched thousands of politicians, administrators, and businessmen; the shift from a proportional to an Additional Member System (with the requirement to obtain a minimum of 4% of the national vote to obtain representation) also altered the political landscape.

Party changes were sweeping. The Christian Democratic party dissolved; the Italian People's Party and the Christian Democratic Center emerged. Other major parties, such as the Socialists, saw support plummet. A new liberal movement, Forza Italia, gained wide support among moderate voters. The Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance) broke from the (alleged neo-fascist) Italian Social Movement (MSI). A trend toward two large coalitions (one on the center-left and the other on the center-right) emerged from the April 1995 regional elections. For the 1996 national elections, the center-left parties created the Olive Tree coalition while the center-right united again under the House of Freedoms. These coalitions continued into the 2001 and 2006 national elections.

This emerging bipolarity represents a major break from the fragmented, multi-party political landscape of the postwar era, although it appears to have reached a plateau, since efforts via referendums to further curtail the influence of small parties were defeated in 1999 and 2000.

==History of the post-war political landscape==
thumb|left|campaigners working on posters in Milan, Italy, 2004

===First Republic===
There have been frequent government turnovers since 1945, indeed there have been 61 governments in this time.<ref>"Pasta and fries".''The Economist'' (February 24th -March 2nd 2007 Issue) Volume 382, Number 8517</ref> The dominance of the Christian Democratic party during much of the postwar period lent continuity and comparative stability to Italy's political situation, mainly dominated by the attempt of keeping the Italian Communist Party (PCI) out of power, to maintain Cold War equilibrium in the region.

The communists were in the government only in the national unity governments before 1948, in which their party's secretary first democratic elections with Socialists parties, the communist party never returned in the government.

Even though many repeat the cliché that Italy had over fifty governments in its first fifty years of democracy to stigmatise its alleged political instability, Italy's main political problem was actually the opposite: in all the course of the so-called First Republic, the government was in the hands of the Christian Democrats and their allies, since it was unacceptable for a communist party to rule a western country during the Cold war. The system had been nicknamed the ''imperfect bipolarism'', referring to more proper bipolarism in other western countries (the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France etc.) where right-wing and left-wing parties alternated in government.

La '''politique''' de l'Guépard'' de Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (''tout doit changer pour que rien ne change'') s'applique sans doute mieux à la vie politique italienne.

Après des années de domination continue de la Démocratie chrétienne et des alliés de centre-gauche, contrastée par l'existence d'un affaire ''Mani pulite'' (Mains propres). Lors d'un scrutin mixte (majoritaire à 75 %). 

Les principaux partis implosent ou changent de nom et PSI) se lance en politique (il appellera cette décision, la ''descente'') et fonde peu avant les élections de 1994, le mouvement Forza Italia. Il remporte les élections mais doit quitter le gouvernement suite à la défection de certains alliés. Après la chute de Berlusconi il y a un gouvernement institutionnel, formé par des personnages de la vie économique et guidé par Lamberto Dini, directeur général de la Banque d'Italie. 

En 1996 la gauche autour de PDS, Massimo D'Alema forme deux gouvernements. Au final de la législature il y a un autre gouvernement de gauche, guidé par l'ancien président du conseil Giuliano Amato. 

constitutionnelle majeure de la République (plus de 50 articles modifiés), appelée communément la ''devolution'' parce qu'elle aurait instauré un État fédéral, conforme aux vœux de la Maison des Libertés et la Ligue du Nord).

L'influence du pape et des cardinaux de l'Église catholique romaine dans la politique italienne est manifeste. 

== Système constitutionnel actuel ==