Dwuizbowy parlament i reformy instytucjonalne w Republice Włoskiej
The bicameral parliament and the institutional reforms in the Republic of Italy

Summary/Abstract: Parliaments are dual institutions by nature, as they connect society with the legal structure of thestate power. An analysis of the structural properties of contemporary legislative bodies indicates theparticular importance of the factor of internal organization, which makes it possible to distinguisha symmetrical bicameralism. The case of Italy is attractive for researchers of political systems formany reasons. One of them is a fact, that both chambers hold the identical legal and political positions, have the same five years’ terms of office and identical scopes of authority. The proportionalvoting system guaranteed (with two exceptions) that the legislative branch was a mirror image ofsociety, allowing the meeting of various ideologies, including the most radical ones. Italy’s bicameral parliament manifested its ability to absorb a peaceful confrontation between the opposite polesof the political life in the conditions of a politically and culturally divided society.

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