Predsjednik republike u talijanskome političkom sustavu 1948.-2006.
President of the Republic in the Italian Political System 1948-2006

Summary/Abstract: The place and the role of the president of the Republic in the Italian political system are looked into. The starting points are the specific features of the historical evolution of the position of the head of state from the monarchist to the republican context. The institution of the Italian president of the Republic is also specific in the context of the West-European political systems, due to the acceptance of the monarchist prerogatives in the constitutional role of the president of the Republic to the anomalous position of the head of state: they belong to the model of parliamentary political systems but at the same time possess some competences typical for semipresidential systems. The author outlines the historico-political and constitutional grounds of the peculiar position of the president of the republic in the context of the recurrent crises of the political system with unstable governments and volatile coalitions, which gives the president of the state a special, central role as the political arbiter super partes, the guardian of the Constitution and the political guarantor of the country’s stability in the permanent legitimation crisis of the Italian political parties during the transition from the First to the Second Republic. Some new variables are introduced into the analysis of the political role of the president of the Republic that significantly differs from the constitutional role, due to the evolution of political communication and the new forms of political conflict which require from the president of the Republic to adjust to the new rules of the democratic game.

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