The Italian Liberal Political System
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The Italian Liberal Political System
As in Britain, Parliament comprised two Houses. The upper chamber, the Senate, was rather like our House of Lords. It was full of old men who had been rewarded with the position for life when they became too senile to be elected. For this reason the Senate was rather ignored. The lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies, was directly elected, with one representative per constituency, rather like the House of Commons. Unlike the modern House of Commons, the members had a direct influence on government and policy, and disaffected backbenchers could easily trigger a change of leadership. There were no parties; only groups of politicians clinging for support to one more prominent politician. The faction-gathering and -grouping is an early example of the haggling that precedes the formation of a government in countries using proportional representation today. If a man (for women were excluded from politics) gained the support of enough other members, he could become Prime Minister. Simple. Good ways to get the support of fellow members included:
· Promise them a good job in government
· Reward them with a law making their constituents richer and therefore more likely to vote for the incumbent at the next election
The lack of parties, and a more personality-focused legislature, led to 29 changes of Prime Minister between 1870 and 1922. While this does not appear stable, many individuals kept their offices from one administration to the next. This, and the similarities between each Prime Minister's policies, meant that the interruption to government was much less than might have been expected.
There were no parties largely because there was no need for them when almost everyone had the same policy; getting elected again. The politicians were all from a narrow sociological band, and mostly woolly-minded liberals too confused about their own opinions to disagree with anyone else's (unless it was with the Pope). The poorest 60 per cent had no...
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