The writer was in the past a supporter of the majoritarian modelThe curtain fell on the convent ad excludendum overwhelmed by the fall of the Berlin Wall, it seemed like an obligatory path. However, as (perhaps) Keynes said, "when the facts change, I change my mind." And the facts say that the season of the majority system has been stingy with results not only in terms of means (governability), but also in terms of ends (structural reforms, as they were once called, economic, social and institutional).
The history of the Second Republic has thus become the history of a generous illusion, that is, of a hope, revealed to be vain, which with operations of electoral engineering it was possible to cure endemic ills of the political system. In two cases (Porcellum e Rosatellum), conceived to cut the nails, respectively, of the centre-left and the Five Star Movement; and, more generally, aimed at creating a two-party model from above, without however having the courage to impose it completely, but by building a convoluted mechanism of pre-electoral coalitionsA mechanism that has tribalized, not civilized, the competition between parties and factions, favoring the emergence of mixed and contradictory majorities, particularly on major international issues (the division over Ukraine is paradigmatic).
This system forced the moderate and reformist, Atlanticist and pro-European forces, to cohabit as followers within groups dominated either by a sovereignist right or a maximalist left. Well, to get out of this impasse there is only one way: abandon the dogma that "on election night we must know the winner" and accept the idea - in harmony, moreover, with the Constitution - that is the Parliament the place where government alliances are formed without programmatic frills.
Il Melonellum (o Stabilicum (whatever you want to call it) is just the final act of a thirty-year affair which has seen the birth of power pacts cemented by the sole objective of preventing the opponent's victoryThis explains why the forces that boast about their government's record-breaking longevity have decided to change the rules of the game. Having entered Palazzo Chigi in 2022 thanks to an opposition that ran divided in single-member constituencies, they immediately took action at the prospect of its renewed unity.
The text of the Melonellum approved by the Senate It now awaits confirmation from the Chamber. Afterward, barring any last-minute surprises, yet another version of the "Italian-style majoritarian system" will become law. Of course, the introduction of the so-called "majority bonus" is entirely legitimate, as it is permitted within certain limits by the Constitutional Court itself (Ruling No. 1 of 2014). It is argued, on the other hand, that the bonus is being introduced to ensure stability. But is stability more important than the democratic principle? The democratic principle ("one person, one vote") is enshrined in the 1948 Constitution, while stability is not a constitutional principle. If you want to ensure government stability, you should change the form of government.
Among the rules of democracy – in second place in importance – Bobbio indicated precisely the “equal weight” of the vote, and without this one could no longer even speak, at least in a procedural sense, of democracyHowever, lunch is now served and we will have to sit down at the table. Unless (but this is unlikely), due to that heterogenesis of ends which is far from uncommon in human history, no one reaches the threshold of 42 percent of the consensus, the prize is not awarded and the seats are assigned with (almost) pure proportional representation.
