Mr. Veltroni’s and Mr. Berlusconi’s courageous decisions to create more uniformity within their coalitions is viewed with favour by all moderates. I believe that this simplification implies also some costs.

Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition will govern Italy with a strong majority in both chambers of parliament. The results of these general elections are extraordinary for at least two main reasons, both connected to a higher simplification of the political scene.

First, Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition will have a comfortable majority in parliament even though this time his coalition does not include Mr. Casini’s “Unione di Centro”, the party responsible of the “internal opposition” which, Mr. Berlusconi claims, limited the structural reforms that he intended to do in his previous government. In addition, the two major parties of the former centre-right coalition (Mr. Berlusconi’s “Forza Italia” and Mr. Fini’s “Alleanza Nazionale”) merged in a single party (“Popolo delle Libertà”, led by Mr. Berlusconi). In other words, even though the “Popolo della Libertà” will have to coexist with the loyal “Northern League” (the federalist party which nearly doubled its consensus), it seems that this time Mr. Berlusocni will have no excuse for not carrying out the structural reforms he promised during the electoral campaign.

Second (but probably first in terms of importance), given the existing thresholds (8% at the Senate and 4% at the House of Deputies), the hard-line communists will have no political representation whatsoever in Parliament. This outcome is the result of Mr Veltroni’s decision to run without them in order to create a centre-left party more modern and more similar to its European counterparts (though it should be noted that Mr. Veltroni’s “Partito Democratico” runs with the hard-line communists at local level).

It is the first time in Italian post-war history that a political party explicitly “communist” is not represented in the Italian parliament (this historical fact implies the question of where, and more importantly how, this non-represented, negative political energy will express itself).

Mr. Veltroni’s and Mr. Berlusconi’s courageous decisions to create more uniformity within their coalitions is viewed with favour by all moderates: “simplification” is the most common word one hears on TV in these days. On the one hand, this simplification has important advantages: some already verified (the elimination of the communists from the political scene), others expected (higher and better governability).

I believe that this simplification implies also some costs. Neither of the two, now more uniform, coalitions is even slightly coherent with fundamental principles of liberalism: for example, one is still strongly driven by objectives of “social justice”, the other by a use of legislation, political power and resources for private purposes. In other words, as it was in past elections, the only difference between the two coalitions (and indeed any candidate party) are the particular interests promoted by the elected bodies. Behind this “simplification” there is a strong barrier against anything that is genuinely new, coming from “outside”:  in other words, it is a step forward towards mass-uniformity, and the possibility of the emergence of a truly liberal political party in Italy now is even more difficult.

Whether the costs of this simplification offset the benefits, especially in the long run, depends on the relative weights one places on each of them.

© Institut Hayek, 2008