Parties and Coalitional Behaviour in Italian Local Politics: Conflict or Convergence?

Conventional coalition theories have applied only to formal or executive coalitions and have tended to be very one‐dimensional in their approach. They do not do justice to the strongly informal element in Italian coalitional behaviour, where a multi‐dimensional framework of analysis is required. Because of Italy's system as a partitocrazia the key variables are inevitably party‐political in nature. In this context, there is a strong case for looking at local coalitional behaviour and its relationship with national politics. In particular, it may be examined whether national patterns have simply been replicated locally. or alternatively whether local government has allowed experimentation in new alliance formations as a possible precursor for national politics with implications for policy change. Despite the strong control that national party élites have over local politics, Italy has experienced left administrations sub‐nationally: however, these have made no dramatic impact because of the institutional and political constraints on local government and also because Italy's worsening economy has further reduced policy options at this level. This analysis therefore supports the thesis of that country's ‘ungovernability’, and the answer to the ‘Italian crisis’ must clearly come from Rome and not the provinces. For general comparative purposes, there is nevertheless a strong case for considering sub‐national politics in coalition studies not least because this level of activity invariably enters the strategic considerations of national party leaders.