Anti-party sentiment and party system change in Italy

This article attempts to assess (a) the extent to which anti-party sentiment has been a factor in Italy's current political changes, with particular reference to the party system; (b) whether such changes can in turn be considered to be a preliminary step towards the rejection of the party-based model of democracy. Elite and mass indicators, whose values rose sharply at the end of the 1980s and culminated in the early 1990s, reveal that anti-party sentiment was indeed a factor in Italy's recent party system changes. The ability of anti-party and anti-system lists to attract many dissatisfied electors resulted in the major 1992-1991 Party system realignment. Mass anti-party sentiment, however, appears to have ebbed after the 1993 referendums on party financing and on the electoral law, which were arguably the highest manifestations of popular rejection of the old party-system. It would seem that with realignment popular anti-party sentiment has reached its goals. Perhaps as a consequence, at least some of the successful anti-party parties are already becoming more party-like. In the transition between Italy's first and second Republics, the party-based model of democracy has not yet been replaced.