The Italian electoral law of 1993 (better known as Mattarellum) was a reform of the electoral laws of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, passed on 4 August 1993. The nickname, conceived by

Giovanni Sartori Giovanni Sartori (; 13 May 1924 – 4 April 2017) was an Italian political scientist who specialized in the study of democracy, political parties, and comparative politics. He held faculty positions at University of Florence, European University ...

, derived from its author

Sergio Mattarella Sergio Mattarella (; born 23 July 1941) is an Italian politician and jurist who has served as the president of Italy since 2015. He is the longest-serving president in the history of the Italian Republic. Since Giorgio Napolitano's death in 20 ...

. The law was also nicknamed

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur (, ''Mīnṓtauros''), also known as Asterion, is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "par ...

(from the mythical creature of

Greek Mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

), for being a combination of two different parts (majority and proportional system). The law replaced the

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

used in Italy since 1946, just after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was replaced in 2005 by another law named ''Porcellum'' in reference to a comment by

Roberto Calderoli Roberto Calderoli (born 18 April 1956) is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of the Republic. He was a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet. He previously served as Minister without ...

History

Background

The Mattarella law was technically the accidental result of the combination of different historic events. After World War II, proportional representation (PR) was restored for the election of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

as it was before the

Fascist era Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...

. The Senate of the Republic was at its first democratic election, so a

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

(FPTP) was proposed, but the

supermajority A supermajority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority rules in a democracy can help to prevent a majority from eroding fun ...

clause, which was introduced to win a direct mandate, vanished that aim, and the generality of the Senate seats was itself assigned by PR. Constituencies for the Senate effectively were a ''”pro forma”'' in this mechanism of

localized list Localized or local list systems of party-list proportional representation hold elections in small (local) electoral districts, while still maintaining proportional representation at the national level. Voting takes place in small district, but l ...

s, so they were not changed when in 1963 a constitutional reform expanded the Parliament with a 33% more seats. In the early 1990s, the Italian political system was largely discredited, and PR was seen as a font of corruption. A group of reformers, led by

Mario Segni Mariotto Segni (born 16 May 1939) is a retired Italian politician and professor of civil law. He founded several parties, which focused on fighting for electoral reform through referendums. He is the son of the politician Antonio Segni, one-time ...

, launched the idea of a

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

. However, according to the

Italian constitution The Constitution of the Italian Republic () was ratified on 22 December 1947 by the Constituent Assembly, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against, before coming into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the previous Constitution of the Ki ...

, referendums in Italy cannot be propositional, but they can only abolish a part of a law, so the reformers could only ask to abolish the supermajority clause for the Senate. The

1993 Italian referendum An eight-part abrogative referendum was held in Italy on 18 April 1993.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1048 Voters were asked whether they approved of the repealing of laws on limiting intervent ...

was a large success, transforming the Senate electoral law into a FPTP, but after 1963, there were less constituencies than seats in the Senate, one fourth less of the total needed, so those seats had to be filled by PR amongst the losers of the FPTP races. To ensure government stability, the law of the Chamber of Deputies had to be changed in a similar way, and a

parallel voting In political science, parallel voting or superposition refers to the use of two or more Electoral system, electoral systems to elect different members of a legislature. More precisely, an electoral system is a superposition if it is a mixture o ...

of 3/4 of FPTP and 1/4 of PR was introduced by the ''Matterellum''.

Approval

The new electoral law was approved in August 1993 by DC,

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ or ψ), the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviat ...

, PSDI and

regionalist parties Regionalism may refer to: * Regionalism (art), an American realist modern art movement that was popular during the 1930s * Regionalism (international relations), the expression of a common sense of identity and purpose combined with the creation a ...

LN, SVP (only for the reform of the election of the Senate) and UV.

References

Law of Italy Electoral reform in Italy {{Italy-law-stub

History

Background

Approval

See also

References