Stitching up Italy's democracy

Back in December, Italy's constitutional court ruled that the country's 2005 "porcellum" electoral law - a regionalised party-list system with complicated thresholds and a national "top-up" to provide the biggest party with an automatic absolute majority - was unconstitutional. The reason? The winner's bonus was unfair, while the party-lists gave power to parties rather than voters. Italy's government has promised to reform the law, and now the Democratic Party has got together with former Prime Minister and convicted tax fraudster Silvio Berlusconi for a joint proposal. The details? A winner's bonus, and party lists, of course. Oh, and a higher threshold to eliminate their competition from Parliament. "A total stitch-up" doesn't even come close...

The good news is that any proposal will have to pass through the Parliamentary process, and the small parties are threatening to roll the government if they are excluded. And of course there will likely be another court challenge if the undemocratic features of the porcellum law are simply replicated. Politics in Italy might be about to get very interesting again...