Change of power at the narrowest margins: the elections of the Italian parliament of April 9 and 10, 2006

The Italian elections of April 2006 brought both the victory of Romano Prodi's center-left by a surprisingly narrow margin and the defeat of the ruling center-right under Silvio Berlusconi. Again, electoral law and alliance formation proved to be crucial for the election result. For the first t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 2006-12, Vol.37 (4), p.746-762
Main Author: Koppl, Stefan
Format: Article
Language:ger
Subjects:
Age Groups
Alliance
Alliances
Cabinets
Centre Left
Coalitions
Competition
Elections
Electoral law
Electoral results
Government structure
Italy
Legislative Bodies
Parliamentary elections
Political Change
Political parties
Voting Behavior
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Summary:The Italian elections of April 2006 brought both the victory of Romano Prodi's center-left by a surprisingly narrow margin and the defeat of the ruling center-right under Silvio Berlusconi. Again, electoral law and alliance formation proved to be crucial for the election result. For the first time the new electoral law, passed by the Berlusconi government, was applied. And for the first time, center-left and center-right managed to form complete electoral alliances. Despite the narrow vote on the national level, a closer look reveals clear differences between various regions and age groups. The proportions between center-left and center-right remained almost the same while there were significant changes within the two alliances. In spite of narrow majorities in parliament and the heterogeneity of the center-left coalition, Romano Prodi managed to quickly build a new cabinet. Reprinted by permission of the VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Germany
ISSN:0340-1758