Power or policy: a comparative study of the cohesion of Italian coalition governments in the First and Second Republics

In the 1990s the Italian political system witnessed momentous changes that have severely impinged upon the country's political parties and party system. What has been the resulting effect on the cohesion of Italian governing coalitions? Has the effect on the nature and workings of governing coalitions been a product of the changing motivations of political parties? This article attempts to tackle the following questions by using the general framework of several formal coalition theories complemented with an analysis of the specific features of the Italian political context.