Abstract

This paper analyses some current tendencies of the Italian political and institutional system that point towards a diminished role for the Italian Parliament. The difficulties that the Italian Parliament encounters range from its inability to cope with complex and longterm policies to its uneasy role in the age of disintermediation; from the declining role of the law as an instrument of policy-making to the (mis)use of political institutions as actors in the so-called «media circus». The paper offers a constructive point of view for each of these issues, with the objective of identifying a new role for parliamentary activity, through the strengthening of mechanisms of evaluation, advice and control, and exploring its potential of becoming a qualified big-data hub.