Journal Article

The Complexity of the Political Crisis: Two Commentaries

Rusconi, Gian Enrico

1983

Overview

In Crisis dei partiti ([Crisis of the Parties], Bologna, 1980 [see listing in IRPS No. 25]), Gianfranco Pasquino sees Italian political parties in the grip of a double crisis: lack of input from society, which is shifting to \"pressure groups\" as the principal form of articulating its demands, & lack of output from the state, ie in its inability to make decisions. This results in a crisis of representation that primarily affects the parties themselves, which until recently have served as the principal vehicles for articulating social concerns & translating them into effective policies. In their introduction to Il goberno debole. Forme e limiti della nazionalita politica ([The Weak Government: Forms and Limits of Nationalist Politics], Bari, 1981 [see listing in IRPS No. 25]), Carlo Donolo & Franco Fichera see the roots of the crisis in the fact that while the size & responsibilities of the state have grown, the institutional structures are fragmented, problems are viewed selectively & with deferrence to organized interest groups, decisions are incoherent in the short run & lack clear orientation in the long run. As a result, the political system, which normally should serve as an instrument of coordination & planning, appears more often as the problem than as a solution. S. Karganovic.

• Subject: Italy/Italian/Italians / Politics