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The Formation of a Government and Parliamentary
`Confidence'
According to the principles of `parliamentary government'
enshrined in the Italian constitutional model, the government assumes the power
of political decision with the consent of parliament, which is expressed by a
vote of `confidence' in the government by the two chambers.
The nomination
process begins with a government crisis and ends with the swearing in of the
presidente del consiglio and ministers by the President of the Republic. The
second stage is that of parliamentary `confidence'. It opens with the
presentation of the new government to the chambers, within ten days of
nomination, and closes with a formal vote of confidence, by nominative appeal,
in both chambers of parliament.
When a cabinet crisis occurs the President of
the Republic, according to a well-established constitutional practice, engages
in political consultations with both individual state figures (former presidents
of the republic, the presidents of both chambers and former first ministers) and
representatives and delegations of political parties. At the end of these
soundings the Head of State, if he judges that the political and institutional
conditions exit for forming a government capable of winning parliamentary
confidence, will entrust the creation of a cabinet to the designated first
minister. Usually, the latter accepts provisionally until he has established,
through consultations with the various political forces, the concrete
possibility of being able to form a government supported by the majority of
members of the chambers.
The President of the Republic then nominates the
presidente del consiglio or first minister and, on the latter's proposal, the
individual ministers who all then take the oath of loyalty to the Republic.
Within the ten days allowed by the Constitution the government must present
itself to the chambers who, on hearing the declarations made by the presidente
del consiglio, provide the vote of `confidence'.
The Structure of Government
The government is a complex organ
composed of the presidente del consiglio and the ministers, who together
constitute the consiglio dei ministri. Also belonging to the governmental body,
although without constitutional provision, are the sottosegretari di stato
(under-secretaries of state) who collaborate with the ministers on the basis of
the latter's personal delegation. The unders-secretaries are nominated by decree
of the Head of State, on the proposal of the presidente del consiglio following
deliberation by the consiglio dei ministri, and swear loyalty in the presence of
the presidente del consiglio.
Various ministers participate jointly in the
inter-ministerial committees that handle common issues. Some of these Comitati
di Ministri have assumed particular importance, particularly in the economic and
financial sectors: such as the inter-ministerial committee on prices (CIP), the
inter-ministerial committee for economic planning (CIPE) or the
inter-ministerial committee for credito and savings (CICR).
Ministers are
divided, according to the position they hold, into those with and without
portfolio. The former head one of the branches into which the public
administration is divided: Ministery of the Interior, Defence, Foreing Affairs,
Public Instruction etc. The ministers without portfolio form part of the
government and have particular responsibilities rather than that of a ministery:
minister for parliamentary relations, minister for communal politics etc. Within
each ministery the direzioni generali are of particular importance in the
structural organization, specializing as they do in one particular
administrative sector. At the head of each of these direzioni generali is a
direttore generale.
The Powers of the Government
It is the government who holds the
executive function. The presidente del consiglio co-ordinates the actions of the
various ministers and maintains unity of the general political direction, which
is his first responsibility. The consiglio dei ministri decides on all the
general policies of the government, with specific competence for all the
decisions involving the collective responsibility of the executive. Individual
ministers join in determining the government's political direction,
participating at the sessions of the consiglio dei ministri and taking the
decisions for their respective ministeries. The ministers also take
responsibility for all the formal acts concerning their own ministeries and,
collectively, in the consiglio dei ministri, for the government's own
acts.
The government is in fact the holder of some normative powers: it
decides the form of laws to propose to the Head of State, who must authorize
their presentation to the chambers, and it approves laws by decree in cases of
emergency and legislative decrees on the delegation of parliament. These
`materially legislative' acts are then issued by decree of the President of the
Republic. Finally, the government is responsible for regulating all the
executive activity of the law and the administrative organization. Also
government regulations, resolved in the consiglio dei ministri, are issued by
the President of the Republic, under Article 87 of the Constitution.
Ministerial Responsibility
Ministers have above all a collective
political responsibility for all the government's acts and for a large part of
the acts of political consideration that involve the collective responsibility
of the government. This responsibility can be tested in parliament through the
no confidence motion, whose approval obliges government
resignation.
Parliamentary regulations have also recently introduced the
individual political responsibility of a minister by a motion of individual no
confidence.
As far as the juridical responsibility of ministers is concerned
for offences committed in the execution of their duties, they are subject to the
procedure of the ordinary magistracy and judged in the Corte Costituzionale,
after having been accused by parliament. In all other cases juridical
responsibility is instead decided by ordinary procedure, except for the need to
obtain authority to proceed from the relevant chamber for a member of
parliament. Ministers also assume civil responsibility for unpremeditated
illicit acts or frauds committed against the State or third parties. In the
first case judgement is made by the Corte dei Conti and in the second by
ordinary jurisdiction. |
