Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1990s there has been in Italy a partial and incomplete transition from a consensual to a majoritarian form of democracy. And the traditional interpretations of the «Italian case» have been gradually abandoned without having been substituted by new ones. So, nowadays there are many detailed empirical researches about specific aspects of the Italian political system and transition, but no comprehensive model is available to understand the overall logics of its functioning and development. The thesis of the article is that the models proposed to depict the First Republic can be useful to understand also the Second one, once they have been adequately revisited and updated. Then, three frameworks are analyzed - polarized pluralism, party government, and the theory of democratic consolidation and anchoring - in order to suggest how they can be applied and how to «rediscover» a tradition of research that risks to be lost.