Devolution: Change and No Change
Regional government, in the period between 1970 (when it was first
introduced) and the early 1990s, failed to live up to expectations, because it
was constrained by central controls, inadequate funding and the parties’
determination that existing practices should not be disturbed. In fact,
regional matters tended often to become bargaining points between the
parties at national level. These failed expectations, combined with the
682 M. Bull and G. Pasquino
continued poor economic performance of the south and the emergence of
the Third Italy, contributed to growing demands for greater decentralisation,
if not federalism. These demands took on an explicitly political
partisan character through the emergence of the Northern League, which –
exploiting latent hostility to southerners and the declining strength of anticommunism
as a factor influencing voting – argued for federalism in order
to break what it viewed as the exploitation of the north’s resources by a
corrupt political class in Rome, which, it argued, used those resources to
maintain its own power in the underdeveloped south. The League’s electoral
success, and particularly the manner in which it drained away support
for the principal parties, thereby contributing to the dramatic changes of
the early 1990s, brought the issue of decentralisation and federalism back on
to the political agenda, and by the 1990s all the parties (except for
Communist Refoundation) were proposing some form of federalism or, as it
became later fashionable to dub it, ‘devolution’.10 The transformation of
the party system opened the way to the carrying through of several
reforms, as well as political competition over passing such reforms into
legislation.
In 1993, legislation was passed providing for the direct election of mayors,
as well as attempting to increase the effectiveness of local and provincial
governments by concentrating more power in their executives. This reform,
combined with the ending of many careers on the back of the corruption
revelations, brought to the fore a new political class at the municipal level,
and had a ‘depoliticising’ effect on local policymaking (Dente 1997: 184).
This was followed in 1994 by the introduction of a local property tax (the ICI
imposta comunale sugli immobili), giving local government greater financial
autonomy, and, in 1997, by two reforms formulated by the Minister for
Regional Affairs and Public Administration (Franco Bassanini), which both
empowered central government to transfer administrative responsibilities to
the regions in areas of their competence, and placed limits on the exercise of
central and bureaucratic controls (Newell 1998). At the same time, the
transformation of the party system during the 1990s resulted in a reduction
of central party control over sub-national coalition formation, traditionally
subject to the dictates of national-level party brokering.
These reforms laid the groundwork for what was expected to be a
constitutional modification of Title V of the Constitution through the
Bicameral Commission of 1997–98. The sinking of the Commission’s
proposals in parliament in 1998 did not stop the reform process, and, under
the centre-left, a constitutional law was passed in 1999 which, modifying
four articles of the Constitution, strengthened the role of regional presidents
principally through changing their method of election. This not only
transformed the nature of regional government, but also maintained the
pressure for reforms of a federalist type, since many of the regional
presidents exploited their new positions to this effect. In addition, this and
the Bassanini laws made necessary certain constitutional adjustments to
Institutional Reforms in Italy 683
Title V to complete these reforms. Finally, the centre-left, aware of the likely
political capital that the Northern League would make in the national
election from its federalist proposals, saw the opportunity of cutting the
ground from under its feet. Effectively reintroducing the defunct proposals
of the Bicameral Commission, the centre-left passed through parliament a
reform of Title V of the Constitution, receiving final approval by the House
on 28 February 2001 and the Senate on 8 March 2001.
Besides the further reduction of central controls (through the abolition of
the Regional Commissioners and the exercise of any control of ‘merit’ over
regional acts), the reform’s principal change was to the manner of distribution
of legislative powers between the state and the regions. It
purported to balance the competing needs of regional autonomy and
national equality of provision, but was generally regarded as politically
motivated and technically deficient.11
Since article 138 of the Constitution was used to achieve this reform
(which provides for revision of constitutional laws if the proposals are
approved by each house twice over with an interval of three months between
each, on absolute majorities in each house on the second vote) the centreright,
fiercely opposed to the reform, used the second part of the same article
to call for the first ‘confirmative’ (as opposed to ‘abrogative’) referendum in
the history of the Republic. The possibility of a ‘confirmative’ (as opposed
to ‘abrogative’) referendum is provided for in circumstances where the law
has not been passed with a two-thirds majority (the assumption being that a
two-thirds parliamentary majority could be considered as representative of
public opinion). In these circumstances, a referendum will be held if, within
three months of the law’s approval, it is requested either by a fifth of
members of one house, or half a million voters or five regional councils. In
this event, the law is not ratified unless a majority votes for it. The
assumption behind this clause is that a simple parliamentary majority may
not be sufficiently representative of public opinion, and, in any case, a public
debate on the pros and cons of the reform will provide voters with a better
understanding of them.
The referendum of 7 October 2001 approved the change, 64.2 per cent
voting for and 35.8 per cent against, albeit on a low turnout of 34 per cent.
However, by then the April 2001 national elections had been held, the centreright
coalition was back in office and Umberto Bossi, the new ‘Minister for
Reforms and Devolution’ (the Northern League having replaced ‘federalism’
with ‘devolution’ as their watchword), had already (in July) presented
proposals to supersede what he dubbed the centre-left’s ‘mini-federalism’
with a new law. These proposals, amended and watered down through
compromise, eventually became the core of the centre-right’s constitutional
reform passed in November 2005. They granted exclusive legislative powers
to the regions in various key sectors, including health, education and police.
The state was granted exclusive legislative competence in the other areas of
national strategic interest (as defined in the revised article 117 of Title V of
684 M. Bull and G. Pasquino
the Constitution) while other areas were subject to concurrent legislative
powers between both regions and the state. The state retained the right to
veto regional laws if it deemed them to be against the national interest, first
inviting the regional council to repeal the law and then, if necessary,
annulling it by a combined sitting of both chambers. Within three years of
the approval of the reform, fiscal federalism was to be introduced, although
within specified financial limits to prevent an overall increase in fiscal
pressure. The Senate was to be renamed the Federal Senate, with members
elected in each region (at the same time as the election of regional councils).
The 42 delegates from the regions were to participate in the work of the
Federal Senate but without voting rights.
In a manner analogous to that of the centre-left, these proposals were
denounced for their political origins and technical deficiencies, with the difference
that there was more widespread alarm regarding the possible
implications of the implementation of this reform. The granting of exclusive
legislative power to regional governments in the areas of health, education
and policing introduced the possibility of 20 different levels of provision
being developed, depending on different regions’ resources. This would
produce a growing inequality in provision for citizens across the peninsula, a
‘broken-up Republic’ (Repubblica spezzatino) with the most likely outcome
an exacerbation of the north–south divide. The two principles of exclusive
legislative regional power and a ‘national interest’ veto laid the foundation
for serious conflict between national and local levels, thereby potentially
straining national unity and provoking institutional paralysis. There would
likely be a rise in overall expenditure, in addition to the cost of introducing
the new system. Finally, the new Senate could hardly be defined as ‘federal’
insofar as the regional and local representatives did not have voting rights,
thus removing the essential characteristic of a federal body: that it acts as a
representative of territory.12
If these proposals – in a modified form – had been the core around which
the rest of the centre-right’s constitutional reform had originally been based,
they remained dominant throughout the referendum campaign. Indeed,
despite Berlusconi’s efforts to ‘dilute’ the visibility of devolution in amongst
a larger package, it was generally dubbed the ‘devolution referendum’, and
the Northern League, which had more at stake than any other party, played
the most prominent role of all parties in the campaign, calling on people to
vote ‘yes’ on these grounds alone. More importantly, analysis of the turnout
and voting outcomes across the peninsula suggest that the theme also had a
determining effect on the vote.
The Political Scrap over the Constitution
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