Arianna Giovannini
and James L. Newell
Seen from here in Britain, the elections to decide the next leader of
the PD, due to be held on 8 December, suggest that the party is attempting to
undergo a process of profound, but also very difficult, change. Certainly, it
has to be said that the British media have not so far given much space to the
debate surrounding (s)elections of this type. The reason is simple. On the one
hand, newspapers and other media outlets on this side of the Channel often
discuss Italian politics in negative terms. They focus on elections without
winners and with too many winners; on Berlusconi and his court cases; on
scandals and political corruption etc. The election of the next leader of the
PD represents a contrast to all of this – an attempt to restructure the PD and
the Italian political system more broadly. Probably, therefore, the results
will be discussed once they are known; but, reflecting a degree of British
cynicism, little space is currently being given to the mechanisms and power
games that have been taking shape during the organisational phase preceding the
elections.
On the other hand, primaries and “secretaries” (to use the neologism
coined by Marco Valbruzzi) are interpreted differently in the United Kingdom.
Here, this type of election is used mainly by the Labour Party (the
Conservatives have introduced them only recently), but with procedures and aims
that are very different as compared with Italy. In particular, they are
(especially) closed. In fact only Labour Party members and members of the
affiliated trade unions can vote, and the party conference has significant weight
in the selection process. For this reason, primaries and “secretaries” are for
the most part seen as procedures internal to the party – whose purpose is to
give “appropriate weight” to the various political and trade-union stakeholders
and which are only partially open to ordinary members. In Italy, by contrast,
they have a completely different significance – having been conceived
principally as instruments which have become almost necessary in order to (re)legitimise the principles, structures and
values of the country’s weak system of representative democracy. The PD
thus uses them as a device for reinforcing its links with the electorate as a whole, and to (attempt to) increase
the level of citizens’ trust in politics. The British media then say little
about Italy’s primary and “secretary” elections but also about their own,
perhaps because, in accordance with traditional guiding principles, they tend
to look at other cases from the perspective of their own, without grasping the
significant differences of meaning and procedure.
From an academic point of view, however – as the authors are members of
a group of die-hards obstinately seeking to understand the Italian political
system from a base in the United Kingdom – debate surrounding the elections has
given rise to certain reflections worthy of attention.
Seen from Britain, the most striking aspects of the elections are
two-fold, one negative, the other positive. The negative aspect concerns what
the competition tells us about the depth of the divisions within a party that
is attempting (almost desperately) to re-engage with its voters and supporters.
As the PD was a party that came into existence as the simple merger of two
bureaucratic apparatuses rather than through any real process of organisational
or ideological innovation, the dominant coalitions within each of the two
parent parties agreed tacitly to share positions of power within what, as a
consequence, has always been a highly factionalised entity. In the aftermath of
the February general election, internal divisions were exacerbated by the
failure to forge any kind of governing alliance with the Five-star Movement; by
the failure to act compactly in the election of a new President, and by the
consequent formation of the government of larghe
intese which Bersani and his supporters had very much opposed, convinced as
they were that Berlusconi’s conflict of interests made him and his party
inherently illegitimate as contenders for public office. Recently, internal
conflict has even led to exchanges of accusations among the leadership
candidates concerning artificial inflation of the party enrolments that will
help them through the pre-election phase of the leadership contest and provide
the ground troops for their campaigns.
More positively, by embracing elections for leadership selection open to
the participation of citizens as well as members – thus making it a unique case
in Europe – the PD has made a downward concession of power, one that is
interpretable from a cross-national perspective as part of a family of changes
designed to address the “crisis of party”. It is significant, then, that the
last leadership contest, held in October 2009, was a clear success: genuinely
competitive, it was able, despite scandals and recent national and European
election defeats, to secure the participation of over 3 million voters.
This time, however, the fact that the contest is being held in December
and looks like being a foregone conclusion must throw at least a question mark
over the likely turnout. In other words it is legitimate to ask whether, in
this situation, Italian citizens who are PD members or supporters will be
mobilised in large numbers – showing a desire to (re)legitimise the PD and the
institutions of representative democracy – or whether they will take refuge
behind anti-political sentiments or simple apathy.
One must also wonder about the impact of the likely outcome: Renzi wants
a dismantling of the party factions, but also a party that devolves power to
local-level leaders. While a less centralised party might make it easier to
attract votes from outside the party’s traditional catchment areas, the two
aspirations together arguably point in different directions in terms of party
cohesion. And while the Florentine mayor mobilises the support of those hoping
he will revolutionise the party’s fortunes by an attack on its traditional
oligarchies, the latter have already begun to jump on the Renzi bandwagon.
Party renewal therefore seems now to be less of a priority than some months ago
for a politician who knows that he will need to have all wings of the party
united in their support of him if he is to retain the charisma he needs to
satisfy his ambition to become Italy’s next prime
minister.
In short, it is difficult when viewed from Britain to disentangle the
various knots underlying the debate surrounding the election of the next PD
leader. On the one hand, the prospects do not seem especially rosy, a number of
issues and problems remaining unresolved. On the other hand, if the PD is able genuinely to overhaul itself, starting
with its top leadership groups, and to open itself to influence from below,
then these elections for the party secretary could represent an important
turning point, and not only for the centre-left. They could signal the first
step towards the re-legitimation of the Italian political system in the eyes of
its citizens – and, perhaps, also in the eyes of the publics that observe
Italian politics from abroad.
