Bipolarizace italského stranického systému
The Bipolarization of the Italian Party System

Summary/Abstract: The collapse of the Italian “partitocrazia” in the early 1990s was followed by the emergence of a completely new party system. All but one of the relevant parties from the previous regime were affected by corruption scandals and had to struggle for survival. This situation created opportunities for the originally protest parties (LN), for transformed parties (AN, PDS) and for new political actors (FI). Forced by the logic of the mixed electoral system, these parties quickly started to form pre-election coalitions that were intended to guarantee political relevance for the small parties and to secure electoral victory for the bigger parties. The center of the political continuum has consequently been deserted in the last three elections. Any political actor situated between the two principal coalitions would be mercilessly squeezed or absorbed by them. Therefore, the Italian party system has gradually become a bipolar one. This means that the system has turned into a competitive one and has opened a possibility for alternation.

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