But why did our country have so many electoral laws? To give you an idea, from 1993 to today, 5 electoral laws have been approved in Italy (of which 1 has never been applied): in the same time period, there have been 8 political elections to elect members of Parliament.
The answer to this question has to do with various reasons, but one of the most important concerns the balance between the proportional system and the majoritarian system: between 1948 and 1993, in fact, our country had a mainly proportional electoral system (seats divided between the parties in proportion to the votes received), an element which, however, ended up giving rise to weak and fragmented coalition governments. This is why, from ’93 onwards, electoral reforms have tried to find a fair compromise between the two systems.
Among these, also the new electoral law, lo Stabilicumdefinitively approved today 8 October 2026: the proportional system is confirmed, but a majority bonus is inserted for the coalition that reaches at least 42% of the votes (both in the House and in the Senate), equal to 70 additional seats in the Chamber and 35 additional in the Senate.
Why have so many electoral laws changed in Italy?
Throughout its republican history, Italy has reformed its electoral system over and over again: to give you an idea, from 2005 to today, Parliament has approved 4 different electoral laws, Stabilicum included, a rather high number compared to other European countries, where electoral laws remain unchanged for decades.
But why so many? The reasons are different and also depend on the great changes that our country has faced over the years. However, one of the most discussed topics always remains one: deciding between a proportional electoral system (where the seats are calculated in proportion to the votes received) or a majoritarian system (where the candidate who obtains the most votes wins the only seat up for grabs, while the others are excluded).
The point is that the proportional system tends to guarantee maximum representativeness, but risks creating a rather fragmented Parliament, especially if there are numerous parties (as in the Italian case). The majoritarian system, on the other hand, guarantees greater governability and more stable majorities, but sacrifices part of the representativeness.
It is no coincidence that all the major reforms of the electoral system from 1946 to today have always tried to introduce a new balance between the proportional and majoritarian mechanisms, with different ways of transforming voters’ votes into the number of seats in Parliament. Lastly, the Stabilicum, which introduced a “governability bonus”, which is triggered if a coalition obtains at least 42% of the valid votes in both the Chamber and the Senate, obtaining 70 more deputies and 35 senators, in addition to the seats already obtained under the proportional system (with a maximum ceiling of 220 deputies out of 400 and 113 senators out of 200).
The main reforms of the Italian electoral system from 1948 to today
More specifically, from 1948 (the year of the first political elections) until the early 1990s, elections were held on the basis of a proportional system. However, over the course of over 40 years, a series of changes were introduced, of which the most famous is certainly that of 1953, defined as the “Scam Law” (Law 148/1953), which established a majority bonus equal to 65% of the seats for the party or coalition that had obtained at least half of the valid votes (50%+1). In the 1953 elections, however, no party or coalition achieved an absolute majority and, given the enormous criticism, the “Fraud Law” was repealed the following year.
In 1993, in the midst of the political scandals linked to Tangentopoli, a new electoral law was presented, the Mattarellum, which introduced for the first time a mixed electoral system between majoritarian and proportional, with 75% of the seats in the Chamber and Senate assigned according to a single-round majority mechanism and the remaining 25% attributed via proportional system, with a rather complex calculation.
The Mattarellum however, it was abolished in 2005 and replaced with the Porcellumwhich brought the electoral law back to a proportional system, but introduced a majority bonus for the most voted coalition or single party. The objective of this award was to overcome, at least in part, some critical issues of the proportional system which, as we have mentioned, risks forming weak and unstable majorities.
At the end of 2013, however, the Constitutional Court declared the Porcellum due to the blocked lists and the absence of a minimum threshold of votes to obtain the majority prize: the Renzi government therefore developed a new electoral law, theItalicum (approved in 2015 and relating only to the election of members of the Chamber of Deputies) which maintained the proportional system and the majority bonus, this time granted only to the list capable of obtaining at least 40% of the votes.
After a further negative opinion from the Constitutional Court in 2017 (which dismantled part of the electoral law Italicum declaring it unconstitutional run-off round and the possibility for the leaders to arbitrarily choose the constituency in the case of multiple candidacies,) a new electoral law was drawn up, the Rosatellum (the one in force so far), considered a fair compromise between the different positions. More specifically, the Rosato law provides that just over a third of Parliament is elected with a majority system and the remaining approximately two thirds with a proportional system, with a threshold for parties of 3%.
