This paper asks whether features of party organization help explain Italy’s mixed performance on multiple dimensions of democratic quality, and how Italy compares to other liberal democracies over time. Focusing on two party organizational features—personalization and institutionalization—the authors first map Italy’s ups and downs across democratic dimensions relative to other liberal democracies. They then use regression analysis to test how variation in party personalization and institutionalization relates to measures of democratic quality.
Key focus: party personalization; Comparative regression analysis; Links to rule of law and accountability
Data and methods
The authors compare Italy to other liberal democracies across time and then apply regression analysis to examine associations between party organizational features and democratic-quality indicators. The abstract indicates the study exploits recent empirical data and systematic comparisons but does not list specific datasets, time ranges, or model specifications in the abstract.
Main findings
According to the abstract, Italy’s democratic performance varies by the dimension considered. The authors report that many of Italy’s defects—cited examples include problems in rule of law, accountability, and competition—are linked in their analysis to higher party personalization and lower party institutionalization. The abstract frames these as empirical associations rather than causal claims and notes variation across democratic dimensions.
- Italy is assessed as sometimes a forerunner, latecomer, or outlier depending on the democratic dimension considered.
- Regression results associate high party personalization and low institutionalization with several weaknesses in democratic quality, as reported by the authors.
