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Party organisational change in Italy (1991–2006)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

Piero Ignazi ,
Luciano Bardi  and
Oreste Massari
Piero Ignazi*
Affiliation:
a University of Bologna, Italy
Luciano Bardi
Affiliation:
b University of Pisa, Italy
Oreste Massari
Affiliation:
c University of Roma La Sapienza, Italy
*
∗ Corresponding author. Email: piero.ignazi@unibo.it
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Abstract

This article analyses, adopting the well-known approach of Katz and Mair, the issue of organizational change within Italian political parties since 1990. In addition to an account of trends in membership, local units, finances, staff, and of changes in party statutes, the article aims at testing the widespread view in the literature that organizational resources–hence power–are becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of party and/or parliamentary leaders, and correspondingly that the territorial presence of parties is declining. The analysis of the change over time of Katz and Mair's party organisational ‘faces’ leads to the confirmation, to a large extent, of the overall hypothesis of a decline of the party at ground level, and a concentration of party resources in the central office, and above all in the party in public office.

Questo articolo tratta del mutamento organizzativo dei partiti italiani a partire dagli anni Novanta, adottando lo schema analitico di Katz e Mair. Oltre a fornire un quadro della loro evoluzione in termini di iscritti, sedi, personale e finanze, nonché delle modifiche statutarie relative ai rapporti tra i vari organi, l'articolo intende verificare la validità della tesi secondo la quale le risorse organizzative–e quindi il potere–sono sempre più concentrate nelle mani dei leader di partito e/o parlamentari e, corrispettivamente, la presenza territoriale del partito è sempre più declinante. Il cambiamento dei partiti nelle tre ‘facce’ individuate da Katz e Mair conferma l'ipotesi prevalente di una riduzione del partito nel territorio, e di una concentrazione di risorse nel partito nelle sedi centrali e, soprattutto, nel partito nelle istituzioni rappresentative.

Keywords

membershipbasic unitsparty financesparty executivesparliamentary groupsItalian parties
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , May 2010 , pp. 197 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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