'italy' Category
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Sep302009
Which regions supported Bersani?
So, it looks like Bersani has won the first battle in the race for leadership of the PD. The party has released the rough regional vote totals.
If the race between Bersani and Franceschini is a battle between the former Democratici di Sinistra and the Margherita (DL) respectively, then we should expect Bersani to do well [...] -
Sep302009
How the PD elects its secretary
So, I’ve been going on about who’s supporting who for the leadership of the PD, but I haven’t discussed logistics. Let’s do that now.
For those of you who are playing along at home, take a look at the party statute and the electoral rules agreed by the party leadership in June.
The election of the national [...] -
Sep222009
Bersani winning amongst ex-DS, Franceschini with ex-DL and newcomers
I’ve been continuing my tally of endorsements of each of the three candidates for the leadership of the Partito Democratico. I’ve now matched them with information on each deputy’s past political experience — namely, the party they had previously run with prior to the merger of the Margherita (DL) and Democratici di Sinistra (DS). The [...]
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Sep152009
Getting tables out of PDFs in Italy
The Italian Parliament annoys me tremendously. Not for substantial reasons (though it might also annoy me for that reason), but for technical reasons.
They have some nicely formatted XML files for the resoconti (minutes) of each parliamentary sitting.
But their voting information is stuck in crappy PDFs.
Grrr.
So, I have todownload all the PDF files using a horrible [...]
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Sep102009
More on the PD leadership contest
Whilst at APSA a friend asked who would win the PD leadership contest. I explained that I thought Franceschini would still squeak it, but that I didn’t have much hard evidence.
I’ve now found one voting-intention poll, which shows Bersani in front (54%), Franceschini trailing (35%), with Marino putting in a respectable showing (11%). The sample [...] -
Aug052009
Contest for leadership of the PD: who supports who?
So, the contest for the leadership of the PD between Pier Luigi Bersani, Dario Franceschini, and Ignazio Marino is about the only political story that is ongoing as Italy enters its own silly season.
The leader will be chosen by a primary on the 25th October, preceded by a debate at the party’s congress two weeks [...] -
Jul282009
More electoral reform in Italy
I imagine everyone in Italy is tired of electoral reform efforts at the national level, at least for the moment. Here, however, in an interesting example of cross-level diffusion, the Tuscan electoral law is being changed again.
The electoral law of 2004 had a majority bonus, and differing electoral thresholds for electoral lists depending on the [...] -
Jun212009
How the 2001 result would have been with the current electoral law
After our article on Italian electoral reform was published, I was asked how the results of the Italian election of 2001 would have turned out if the current electoral system had been used. Here’s my very rough answer, which ignores the complexities (too many to be counted) of the ‘porcata’.
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Jun162009
Openparlamento.it
From the same people who brought you openpolis, openparlamento.it went live today.
I’m tremendously pleased that sites like this are starting to happen in Italy. The Camera actually has quite well-formated XML files for each of the plenary sessions, and all it needed was for someone to put that to good use.
So wonderful is the site [...] -
May262009
Article on Italian electoral reform out
My article with Alan Renwick and David Hine is out now in Electoral Studies’ “in press” section. Abstract:
In December 2005, Italy’s mixed-member electoral system was replaced with a system of bonus-adjusted proportional representation. The reform conformed with rational-choice models in that it was imposed by the ruling coalition, which sought to bolster its own power [...]