Electoral rules, partisan fragmentation, instability. Affinity and distances between systems

Abstract

The Italian and Spanish legal systems have recently been characterized by significant changes in the form of government. Faced with the fragmentation and instability of the party structures - new in the experience of the democratic Spain - the responses offered by the two systems seem inspired by different approaches: if in one case they tried to influence the party dynamics, enhancing the consensual logic, in Italy they intervened on the electoral formula, strengthening - in particular with law 52/2015 - the selectivity. The results generated by this strategy (in line with the reforming method of the last decades) have been problematic, aggravating the critical issues that were intended to be solved.