VOLUME 7, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 2014 A PREMIER WITHOUT PARLIAMENT: THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS IN THE ITALIAN SECOND REPUBLIC Fortunato MUSELLA ....................................................................................................................... BRINGING THE ‘CENTRE’ CENTRE-STAGE: DEFINING THE CENTRE IN IDEOLOGICAL, ORGANISATIONAL AND POLICY TERMS Guy BURTON ....................................................................................................................... THE PROCESSES OF ECONOMIC CONSOLIDATION IN COUNTRIES OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA Simona KUKOVIČ and Miro HAČEK ....................................................................................................................... TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INSTITUTIONAL PROFILES OF MINISTRIES OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: THE CASE OF EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES Boštjan UDOVIČ and Marko LOVEC ....................................................................................................................... STILL “EURO-PARTY SYSTEMS”? – REPRESENTATIVENESS OF POLITICAL PARTIES ON THE EU-DIMENSION IN DENMARK AND SWEDEN Tamás POLGÁR ....................................................................................................................... ABSTRACTS IN SLOVENIAN LANGUAGE - POVZETKI ČLANKOV V SLOVENSKEM JEZIKU ....................................................................................................................... JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS 2 EDITORIAL TEAM General Editor General Editor Miro Haček Peter Csányi ................................................................. ................................................................ University of Ljubljana Alexander Dubček University Trenčin Faculty of social sciences, CAAPPI Department of Political Science Kardeljeva ploščad 5 Študentská 2 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia 911 50 Trenčin, Slovakia [email protected] [email protected] Assistant Editor Simona Kukovič .................................................................. University of Ljubljana Faculty of social sciences, CAAPPI Kardeljeva ploščad 5 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia [email protected] ...................................................................................... JCP uses two-sided peer review process before publication. Those wishing to submit papers should send their e-version to either of the General Editors at one of the addresses above in compliance with the Submission Guidelines. The views expressed are neither those of either of co-publishers. Authors retain sole copyright. Articles appearing in JCP are abstracted and indexed in JournalSeek, EBSCO, ProQuest Political Science, International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS), UlrichsWeb, International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA) and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). EDITORIAL BOARD Rastislav Tóth, ARC Kolin College, Czech Republic Gary Aguiar, South Dakota State University, USA Davor Boban, University of Zagreb, Croatia Marjan Brezovšek, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Victoria Graham, Monash University Johannesburg, South Africa Reuben Wong, National University of Singapore, Singapore Kenneth Ka-Lok Chan, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China Lars Johannsen, Aarhus University, Denmark Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, University of British Columbia, Canada Arnaldo Gonçalves, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Macau Taro Tsukimura, Doshisha University Kyoto, Japan Nebojša Vladislavljević, University of Belgrade, Serbia Meredith Redlin, South Dakota State University, USA Rudolf Kucharčík, University of Economics Bratislava, Slovakia Michael Tkacik, Stephen F. Austin State University, USA CO-PUBLISHERS Department of Political Science Alexander Dubček University Trenčin Študentská 2, 911 50 Trenčin, Slovakia Centre for analysis of administrative-political processes and institutions University of Ljubljana, Faculty of social sciences Kardeljeva ploščad 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia DESIGN CAAPPI, Ljubljana. Journal of Comparative Politics is published twice a year, in January and July. JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 A PREMIER WITHOUT PARLIAMENT: THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS IN THE ITALIAN SECOND REPUBLIC Fortunato MUSELLA ............................................................................................................................ 18 BRINGING THE ‘CENTRE’ CENTRE- STAGE: DEFINING THE CENTRE IN IDEOLOGICAL, ORGANISATIONAL AND POLICY TERMS Guy BURTON ............................................................................................................................ 36 THE PROCESSES OF ECONOMIC CONSOLIDATION IN COUNTRIES OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA Simona KUKOVIČ and Miro HAČEK ............................................................................................................................ 52 TOWARDS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INSTITUTIONAL PROFILES OF MINISTRIES OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: THE CASE OF EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES Boštjan UDOVIČ and Marko LOVEC ............................................................................................................................ 69 STILL “EURO-PARTY SYSTEMS?” – REPRESENTATIVENESS OF POLITICAL PARTIES ON THE EU-DIMENSION IN DENMARK AND SWEDEN Tamás POLGÁR ............................................................................................................................ 89 ABSTRACTS IN SLOVENIAN LANGUAGE – POVZETKI V SLOVENSKEM JEZIKU ............................................................................................................................ PARTICIPATE For further information on submissions, please consult the guidelines at http://www.jofcp.org. JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS 4 A PREMIER WITHOUT PARLIAMENT: THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS IN THE ITALIAN SECOND REPUBLIC Fortunato MUSELLA1 ………………………………………………………………………………… Italy is rightly considered as an ideal type case of the presidentialization process that is changing many parliamentary democracies, with the quasi-direct election of the Prime Minister and the strengthening of his hold on both the party and the government. Yet, a stronger, premier-centred government also means depriving Parliament of many of its long entrenched prerogatives. This article analyses how the executive has gained control of the legislative function, through the expansion of decree laws and delegated legislation. Executive predominance, however, has also alienated the loyalty of the Prime Minister's majority, thus resulting in a «divided Premier». As it is often the case with the American presidential system, strong leaders may become very weak if they lack parliamentary support. A lesson Silvio Berlusconi has had to learn at his own expenses. Key words: Italy, presidentialization, premier, parliament, legislative process. 1 INTRODUCTION On the 16th of November, the Italian Prime Minister walked up the stairs of the Quirinale to abruptly put an end to the cabinet he had been presiding over for the past three and a half years.2 Berlusconi's resignation came in the wake of a dramatic financial crisis, which had brought his popularity rate down to unprecedented lows. While already shaken by a sequel of scandals relating to the Cavaliere's turbulent sexual life, the government's credibility plummeted once it became clear that its leader had become the laughing stock of the international community. A disastrous public opinion rating was 1 Assistant Professor at the University of Naples Federico II, where he teaches Political Science and Political Systems. Phd in Political Science of the University of Florence, he is currently member of the Executive Committee of the Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica. His main research interests include the study of government, presidential politics, political parties, and concept analysis. Among his recent publications the volumes Governi monocratici. La svolta presidenziale nelle regioni italiane (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009) and Il premier diviso. Italia tra presidenzialismo e parlamentarismo (Milano, Bocconi, 2012). 2 An early version of this article has been presented at the XVII Annual Conference of the Hungarian Political Science Association, Central European University, Budapest, May 20–21, 2011. JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS 5 thus one of the key factors in the downfall of Berlusconi, quite an ironic exit for the man who had ruled Italy for almost twenty years also thanks to his skills as a «great communicator». Another factor, which contributed to the Prime Minister's defeat, was the weakening of his control over his party. In the fall of 2007, in a bold effort to counteract the centre-left coalition's rising consensus, Berlusconi had disbanded his personal party, Forza Italia, only to found a larger party incorporating his former right wing allies. At first, this move seemed to be highly successful. Also thanks to the renewed appeal of Berlusconi's Popolo della libertà, the centre-right coalition managed to turn the spring 2006 national elections into a virtual tie. Prodi's government hardly lasted two years and, at the ensuing elections on 13-14 April of 2008, Berlusconi carried a landslide victory. However, it took only a few months to realize that the Prime Minister's hold on the new party was quite different than the one he had enjoyed over Forza Italia. After a bitter internal fight conducted from his influential institutional seat as the House Speaker, Gianfranco Fini left the party he had co-founded with Berlusconi and gave birth to a new political formation. The man who had deeply innovated Italian party politics by creating an