Università Roma Tre

"Eligere," in Latin, means "to choose." Elections, in a broad sense, are "institutionalized procedures for the choice of representatives selected from some or all recognized members of an organization" (according to a concise and effective definition by Stein Rokkan).

In the political field, 'institutionalised procedures' are currently based on the use of 'voting' to designate the holder of a monocratic office or the members of a collegiate body. Election, now almost everywhere by universal suffrage (direct or indirect), is the central institution of democratic political systems, a source of legitimization of what is defined as "representative government": which concretely realizes the statement of principle of "popular sovereignty". And votes (but it would often be preferable to define "plebiscites") are held, with the aim of confirming the current power structure, even in non-democratic political regimes.

The first part of the course focuses on the remote origins of the methods of attributing public offices or taking collective decisions, by drawing lots or acclamation, and in any case with limited recourse to the counting of votes, on the assumption of a (real or apparent) "unanimity" of the community, political or religious. And it reconstructs the troubled affirmation of the "majority principle", with the relevant contribution given, on the subject, by the evolution of canon law.

The "great bourgeois revolutions" (English, American and French) mark the starting point of the processes that, subsequently, over a period of about one hundred and fifty years, between the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries, have progressively produced the birth and development of an electoral legislation for the formation of parliaments and local administrative or consultative institutions, the enlargement of the electoral body, the improvement of techniques and organizational structures of voting; at the same time as the formation of party aggregations, within the elected assemblies or representatives of the social classes that required access.

From the second half of the Nineteenth century, moreover, the debate on the most appropriate methods to transform the preferences of voters into representative offices began: not only of the prevailing number of citizens; but, possibly, and as faithfully as possible, of the opinions of the various minority components, within social or territorial, national or local communities.

The central and predominant part of the course is focused the electoral systems in the strict sense. That concerns the procedures aimed at regulating the expression of the vote, the territorial areas of the competition, the conditions required by the rules to achieve the proclamation of the elected.

The course follows a technical classification criterion for large "families" of "electoral formulas" (inspired by majority, proportionalist or combinatorial principles - to varying degrees and effects - of the two previous ones), identifying, from time to time, the historical and theoretical motivations of their conception, and the actual conditions of application, adaptation and evolution, in relation to the changing contexts of political culture and institutional structuring.

This part concludes with an analysis of the legislation currently in force for the parliamentary (and possibly presidential) elections of some contemporary democracies.

Finally, ample and specific attention is given to the evolution of electoral legislation, both parliamentary and local, in Italy, from Unification to Fascism and Liberation to the present day; with particular attention devoted to themes and problems brought to the attention by attending students.

A)
Gianfranco PASQUINO, I sistemi elettorali, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2006;

B)
Bernard MANIN, Principi del governo rappresentativo, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2010;
or
Giovanni SARTORI, Ingegneria costituzionale comparata, Il Mulino, Bologna, (ultima edizione);

C)
Alessandro CHIARAMONTE e Giovanni TARLI BARBIERI (a cura di), Il premio di maggioranza. Origini, applicazioni e implicazioni di una peculiarità italiana, Carocci, Roma, 2011;
or
Oreste MASSARI e Gianfranco PASQUINO (a cura di), Rappresentare e governare, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994 (i capitoli su: Gran Bretagna, USA, Francia, Spagna, Germania).