The Ongoing Constitutional and Administrative Reforms in Italy

Abstract

The text examines some important reforms under way in Italy: the constitutional reform, approved by Parliament in January 2016, which will be submitted to a popular referendum; the electoral law for the Chamber of Deputies, approved few months earlier; and the administrative reform, which is being implemented.

The constitutional reform bill mainly concerns the parts of the Constitution relating to the Parliament and to the territorial bodies. From the first point of view, it removes the "perfect" bicameralism and changes the composition and functions of the Senate; from the second point of view, it corrects the distribution of legislative power between the State and regions, giving more competences to former.

The electoral law has introduced a majoritarian system which takes into account the defects which led the Constitutional Court to declare the unconstitutionality of the 2005 law. The new law provides for a majority premium for the most voted party that obtains at least forty percent of the votes in the first round or that wins the runoff.

The administrative reform is centered on a delegation law passed in 2015, which provides for several legislative decrees, relating among other to e-government, simplification and reduction of administrative burdens, certainty in the relations between administrations and private parties, the unity of the administrative system, flexibility in the organization of administrative agencies and in human resource management, and codification of law.