Abstract

In this paper the author faces some preliminary methodological issues. According to him the constitutional lawyer cannot base his/her judgment only upon the formal text of the written constitution, but must necessarily take into account the living constitution (which includes conventions of the constitution, customs and actual behaviour of political institutions): in particular when the aim is to determine which happens to be the true role of the President of the Republic within the Italian legal system. Subsequently the author asserts that the seven years of President Napolitano's mandate have definitely established a dualist interpretation of the Italian political regime, especially taking into account the formation of Monti's cabinet. He ends his paper suggesting that a more functional political system should be pursued by limited changes to the constitution to better regulate a parliamentary form of government within which the role of the President as part of the executive is openly recognized. The myth of a President impartial and neutral guarantor, a sort of nanny of the entire political system, should be abandoned once and for all.