But why did our country have so many electoral laws? To get an idea, from 1993 to today in Italy they were well approved 5 electoral laws (of which 1 never applied): in the same time period, there were 8 political elections to elect members of Parliament.
The answer to this question has to do with several reasons, but one of the most important concerns the balance between proportional system and majoritarian system: between 1948 and 1993, in fact, our country has had a mainly type electoral system proportional (seats divided between the parties in proportion to the votes received), an element which, however, ended up giving rise to weak and fragmented coalition governments. That’s why, since ’93 onwards, electoral reforms tried to find a right compromise between the two systems.
Among these, also the new electoral law, lo Stabilicumdefinitively approved today 8 October 2026: the proportional system is confirmed, but a majority bonus for the coalition that reaches at least the 42% of the votes (both in the House and the Senate), equal to 70 additional seats in the House and 35 additional seats in the Senate.
Why have so many electoral laws changed in Italy?
Over the course of its republican history, Italy has reformed its electoral system over and over again: to get an idea, from 2005 to present Parliament approved 4 different electoral lawsStabilicum included, a rather high number compared to other European countries, where electoral laws remain unchanged for decades.
But why so many? The reasons are different and also depend on the great changes that our country has faced over the years. However, one of the most discussed topics always remains one: decide between a proportional electoral system (where seats are calculated proportionally to the votes received) or a majoritarian system (where the candidate who obtains the most votes wins the only seat up for grabs, while the others are excluded).
The point is that the proportional system tends to guarantee the maximum representativenessbut it risks creating a rather fragmented Parliament, especially if there are numerous parties (as in the Italian case). The majority system, however, guarantees greater governability and more stable majorities, while sacrificing part of the representativeness.
It is no coincidence that all the major reforms of the electoral system from 1946 to today have always sought to introduce a new equilibrium between the proportional and majority mechanisms, with different ways of transforming voters’ votes into the number of seats in Parliament. Lastly, the Stabilicum, which introduced a “governability bonus“, which is triggered if a coalition obtains at least 42% of the valid votes in both the Chamber and the Senate, obtaining 70 more deputies and 35 senators, in addition to the seats already obtained based on the proportional system (with a maximum limit of 220 deputies out of 400 and 113 senators out of 200).
The main reforms of the Italian electoral system from 1948 to today
More specifically, from 1948 (the year of the first political elections) and until the early 1990s, elections were held on the basis of a proportional system. However, over the course of over 40 years, a series of changes were introduced, of which the most famous was certainly that of 1953, defined as “Fraud Law” (Law 148/1953), which established a majority bonus equal to 65% of the seats for the party or coalition that obtained at least half of the valid votes (50%+1). In the 1953 elections, however, no party or coalition achieved an absolute majority and, given the enormous criticism, the “Scam Law” was repealed the following year.
In 1993, in the midst of the political scandals linked to Tangentopoli, a new one was presented electoral law, the Mattarellum, which introduced for the first time a mixed electoral system between majoritarian and proportional, with 75% of the seats in the Chamber and Senate assigned according to a single-round majority mechanism and the remaining 25% assigned via proportional system, with a rather complex calculation.
The Mattarellum however, it was abolished in 2005 and replaced with the Porcellumwhich brought the electoral law back to a proportional system, but introduced a majority bonus for the most voted coalition or single party. The objective of this award was to overcome, at least in part, some critical issues of the proportional system which, as we have mentioned, risks forming weak and unstable majorities.
At the end of 2013, however, the Constitutional Court declared the Porcellum due to the blocked lists and the absence of a minimum threshold of votes to obtain the majority prize: the Renzi government therefore developed a new electoral law, theItalicum (approved in 2015 and relating only to the election of members of the Chamber of Deputies) which maintained the proportional system e The majority bonusthis time granted only to the list capable of obtaining at least 40% of the votes.
After a further negative opinion from the Constitutional Court in 2017 (which dismantled part of the electoral law Italicum declaring it unconstitutional run-off round and the possibility for the leaders to arbitrarily choose the constituency in the case of multiple candidacies,) a new electoral law was drawn up, the Rosatellum (the one in force so far), considered fair compromise between the different positions. More specifically, the Rosato law provides that just over a third of the Parliament is elected with a majority system e the remaining approximately two thirds with a proportional system, with a threshold for parties of 3%.
