Talk Elections

2008 senate by province (except Trentino-Alto Adige, which uses a weird system).

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same election, vote for Lega Nord and MPA

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Why the high LN total in Taranto?

That was MPA, not Lega Nord.

In that case, why the high MPA total in Taranto?

Beautiful results. Such a shame about Tuscany and those pockets of support for the leftists in the south. Luckily, my roots in Sicily and Campania are solidly right wing.  :)

Lol do those Germans wanna join Austria or something? and what about that little yellow corner in the northwest. are they French or something?

Basically

The major party in the South Tyrol province of Trentino-Alto Adige is the Südtiroler Volkspartei. The SVP doesn't really want to join Austria IIRC. There is a smaller party, the Union for South Tyrol, that is nationalist.

Vallee d'Aoste is a Francophone minority region where the two biggest parties are local French parties (one more conservative, the other more liberal). National parties aren't strong in South Tyrol and Aoste.

Current regional governments

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the 2005 Regional elections

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to compare with 2000

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Some past Senate maps coming up.

2006 Senate, by province (I counted SVP within the Union this time. That region is a real dilemma in every map)

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2001 Senate

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1996 Senate (which party polled the most %. In some regions that party didn't necessarily win the most seats)

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and 1976 Senate (best PCI result, 33%)

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Blue is DC, red is PCI o/c.

No! The Province of Enna went for Prodi in 2006? Looks like my area of Campania did, too.  :( 

Excellent work, by the way. Thank you.

Supposedly (of my half italianess) I am mostly Roman, and a little bit Calabrian and wherever Milan is (Lombardi?)


How did those regions go...I can assume Rome is in Green...my geographic skills aren't that bad.

1994 Senate. Same note for '96 applies here, o/c.

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1992 Senate. Blue is DC, red is PDS (Democratic Party of the Left, the democratic-socialist thingee coming out of the PCI).

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1987 Senate

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Calabria is mostly right wing in 2007 and Lombady is Berlusconi's base so it was heavily right wing.

Lazio (the region where Rome is) was close in 2007 but it went left wing. I always thought of Lazio (at least the areas close to Rome) as more leftist but it looks to be a swing area.

Calabria voted PdL, but isn't a right-wing stronghold like Sicily is. Lombardy is a right-wing stronghold, with the Lega Nord polling a respectable second (either high teens or 20s). Milan is also right-wing, but I don't recall the right breaking 60% there recently. The province of Rome is left-wing, as is the city generally (despite it electing a neo-fascist in 2008). The other parts of Lazio are right-wing.

1946 referendum on the monarchy. Red for republic, purple for monarchy.

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1953 Senate election, in which the monarchists got their best result (7.1%)

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Italians abroad vote in Europe and surrounding regions

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I'll do the Americas next.

Ha...pretty predictable.

I can't wait to see how Italians in North America voted!

Some good news and bad news for you, Phil :P

Senate:

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Deputies, Europe:

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Deputies, World:

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Notes on South America: Yellow is for the Italian Associations in South America and red is for the Associative Movement Italians Abroad. Those two thingees don't exist in other continents.

Phil won't like this map.

2004 EU parliament by region. Italy uses, like France, stupid constituencies.

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The 1994 EU election, in which FI got its best result as a party (running alone). Red is PDS.

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Mongolia amuses me.

Eh. I'm confused though. In the Senate elections here, the PdL candidate (a guy from Philadelphia actually named Berardi) won.


I don't understand the color representation. Please explain.  :)

His constituency represents all of North America and Central America. His huge majorities down in Central America, and his victory in Canada carried him over. The PdL didn't win any awful lot though, he won 45.1-43.9.


Red = Left :P

Though frankly, the left won in all regions because the right was more fragmented than the left. FI polled 20%, the fascists polled 11.5%, DC junior won 5.9%, and the Northern Fascists won 5.0% etc. The Olive Tree polled 31%.

Really? That must have been quite a feat.

Indeed it was.

I figured but the right didn't win anywhere? Wow.

IIRC, the Northern Fascists prevented them to win in the north, the Fascists prevented them to win anything in the Lazio area, and the DC junior gang prevented them to win Sicily etc.

That 1946 referendum map was interesting. I know the South was much more rural and backward than the north (no offense Phil), is that the reason they supported the monarchy or was there another reason?

And why was Basilicata one of the only regions in the South to support Veltroni's party this year?

Actually, that is the reason, in my opinion.


It's a traditonally leftist stronghold.

Could go into a really detailed socio-political analysis stretching back to ancient Rome; southern Italy is quite interesting that way. But, yes, you have the gist of it, although the rural factor is not nearly as powerful as the anti-cooperative factor. Some areas of the north which voted in favor are also quite rural. And hatred of the northerners, whom the southerners suspected would dominate a republic. That, too.

Times I know I have issues: when the phrase "really detailed socio-political analysis stretching back to ancient Rome," sounds tantalizing and intriguing.

Thats strange by American standards. Usually the poor, very rural areas are extremely Republican. Except for say, Alabama's black belt and the MS delta (which isn't really a delta).

There's a great book about Basilicata (then named Luciana) called Christ Stopped at Eboli. It was written in 1936 by an author who was banished there by Mussolini for speaking out against the Ethiopian War. I read the first 50 pages but haven't finished it yet.

As Lord Koko says, that does sound interesting. You could give us the short version ;)

Well, the poor around the world typically identify with leftist policies. They're socially conservative but just don't vote that way.

Wow,nice thread.Most of the maps I'd never seen before.Unfortunately I can't really use internet for now,so my support to the discussion will be limited,but,in regard to the European Election,now there are going to be either 5 or a few more constituences in place of the old 3.Also,the MPA has nothing to do with indipendence and Lega Nord really.It's just a mafia-style party,a sort of south-based DC.Only now have they started complaining about Garibaldi with their leader,Sicily's governor,who has said he will remove anything remembering Garibaldi as a hero.But,I repeat,they are just a southern-based modern DC.

Correct. I recall reading somewhere that educated people supported the Republic.


There are already five constituencies, and, IIRC, have been in use for quite some time.

The bottom line is that these EU constituencies are horrible.

The Sicilian Governor really wants to remove anything memorializing Garibaldi? Disgusting. Good luck with that one.

Isn't he also with the mafia or something, IIRC?

The Sicilian Governor? I don't know. I think Berlusconi was all about him and the guy is from a right wing party so he was fine with me...  ;)

Despite his nickname being the Southern Umberto Bossi? (though, frankly, he's much less dangerous and his MPA is a joke party).

BTW, anybody have requests for any maps?

Well, I didn't know about him being all about autonomy.


Whatever else you have.  :)

It's Austrias' rightful territory anyhow.

I shouldn't have even mentioned it, now I'll spend a few hours trying to put things together. Basically has to do with southern Italy's somewhat unique political history as a perpetual backwater combined with its strong historical connections to Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. In really vague terms, southern Italy had never been ruled by anything but autocrats until the Italian republic was declared, which had strongly diluted any sense of community in the region (not just regionally, but at the town level as well). There were brief flowerings of communality at times, such as the short-lived Republic of Amalfi, but by and large such things passed the area by.

While your average person might question the government's motives, for example, and try to fix them if corrupt, the southern Italian assumes the government is corrupt and goes about trying to get as big of a cut from that corruption as possible. There are other places in the world like this, but southern Italy is most studied.

Right now I think it's north,center,south and islands.They will change that.
Anyway,Lombardo isn't right wing,he's a tipically southern centrist politician.
In the south anyway,and especially in Sicily,anything ranging from PdL(especially former FI)to UdC and at times old Daisy members is connected to mafia.

The 5 constituencies are North-West, North-East, Central, Southern, and Islands.

They should get a national constituency will a 5 or 3% threshold for seats, like France had before we got this awful system.

I was reading through this thread and wanted to take you up on this half year old favor.  :P

Any information on the 1983 General election?





I figured I could correct this - Berardi is actually a Deputy, not a Senator but I'm pretty sure that North America has a PdL Senator, too. Berardi hosts this really ritzy Carnevale event for his Italian American PAC every year. I was reading about it in our political newspaper. Berardi brought some Senator as his guest. I ended up researching the guy and he was definitely part of the PdL slate in 2008.

Here is the 1983 election for the Deputies by province. Quite an interesting map.

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Standard key: DC blue, PCI red.

Any specific reason for your interest in 1983?

Trying to find out which horrible areas helped Craxi become Italy's second longest Prime Minister.  :P

The blue areas of course, since the PCI didn't participate in Craxi's governments.

Hmmm...explain further. I thought this election led to Craxi's election as Prime Minister.

And it did. The DC was so kaputt by then it couldn't settle on any compromise leader from within it so they choose one from another section of the Pentapartito (see also, Aldo Spadolini). The PSI was making gains.

It did. However, Craxi's coalition was composed of DC, PSI, PRI, PSDI and the PLI.

The PCI never participated in an Italian government save for those immediately post-war (de Gasperi I, de Gasperi II), during the Constituent Assembly period. They were almost exclusively an opposition party.

Ah, ok. Thank you, guys.  :)

A map of the 2006 referendum on constitutional reforms. Obviously defeated, it would have given more powers to the PM and to the regions. It was openly supported by the Lega Nord, and only reluctantly supported by most FI/AN MPs, because Bossi had made his continued support of Berlusconi's government dependent on a referendum on the thing. However, the referendum was held after Berlusconi's defeat in 2006.

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5 regions have a special status: they keep a majority of taxes, but they finance healthcare, infrastructure, and education. These 5 regions are the two islands, the Francophone Aoste, the German Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (with a Slovene, German, and Venetian-Friulian linguistic minority).

The other regions have held regional elections since 1970. It looks like the current system of regional elections with a vote for President, a vote for regional council, and the presence of electoral coalitions dates back to 1995. Before that, the President was elected when the legislature met. Therefore, from '70 to '95, in some cases, the President is from a different party than the top vote getter. Wikipedia has a list of regional presidents if anyone is interested.

1970

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1975

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1980

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1985

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1990

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1995

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2000

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2005 is posted earlier in this thread. The next elections are in 2010.

Two regions, Molise and Abruzzo are now dis-synchronized. In 2000, the regional election in Molise was invalidated due to irregularities and the right won the new election in 2001 by a landslide. It was re-elected in 2006.

Abruzzo's left-wing President resigned facing corruption charges in 2008, and the right won the 2008 regional election. Next election is in 2013, IIRC.

Some older maps, first in a series of maps showing % vote for various parties (PCI, PSI, PSDI, PLI, PRI, Radicals, AN, DC/PPI/UDC, PRI) by Camera constituency.

Firstly, an interesting comparison between the 1958 PSI and 1987 PSI (they polled roughly the same amount, 14%).

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Now, for the charming neo-fascists. 1996, where they polled nearly 15%. In Lazio I, aka Rome, they pulled 30%. Excuse me while I barf.

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Some parts of central Italy are just so disgusting politically speaking.

Lazio? They love some AN, since they regret the days of Mussolini, who promoted Rome and Lazio.

No, no. I meant the Communists in Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna (which I guess is more northern) and Umbria.  :P

Ah, the Red Quadrilateral.

The Puritans are at the gates!

Try your best to explain that in a simplistic way, my friend.  :)

1974 Divorce referendum

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YES: Repeal of the divorce law, thus making divorce illegal again. Supported by DC.

% vote Republican Party, 1983

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Is that supposed to be a map of People who vote DC because they like Christian Conservative Values vs People who vote DC because they like Corrupt Values That Are Good For Business?

The world famous election, 1948.

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The PCI and PSI ran a common list, which the Communists heavily turned in their favour (getting like 75% of the seats), called the FDP (ironically).

Also noticeable due to the ingathering of the Right Wing Third Party vote (very high in the South in 1946) into the DC. Which was again partially undone in 1953.

Undone primarily by the PNM and the MSI. The PRI had lost it's original raison-d'etre by then and didn't regain lost votes, and neither did the PLI/Poujadists.

How do we explain Sicily and Sardinia vs "continental" Mezzogiorno ?

Sicilians like corrupt values because they're good for business. Duh.


:D

1946

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Republican, 1946

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Liberal, 1946

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Uomo Qualunque, 1946

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Liberal, 1963

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MSI-DN, 1972

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Radicals, 1979

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The orange in the 1946 is the PSIUP, which split in 1948 over the issue of a common front with the Communists. The minority who refused became the PSDI, and almost instantly became just a corrupt stand-for-very-little minor government partner of the DC. The majority quickly abandoned the alliance with the Commies and became the PSI. When the PSI followed the PSDI on the road to disgustingness 20 years on (and even ran a united slate once), it actually suffered another minor schism.

bumping this old fave' with an answer to this question:

There is some sort of Southern Action League (Ld'AzM), which is a fascist-mafioso outfit led by Giancarlo Cito. It had more success in the past (holding the single-member seat for Taranto 1994 to 2001) and has recently done a bit better. Cito is currently a deputy through a deal with the MPA, although ironically he's staunchly anti-LN.

I even made a map:
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1946 referendum by province:

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red for republic, purple for monarchy

WTF ROME???

Interestingly low monarchist vote in southern Sicily.


That scheme's ever so slightly confusing.

This is pretty common in Southern Italy.Parties that elsewhere are insignificant and are pretty much with no ideology get huge percentages,mostly by voting the friend of the cousin of your wife who promised you something,and so on...basically,there is no ideology behind that,just buying votes.

That's because the Two Sicilies are part of Africa, of course.

Old-ish question: Why is Lucca so much more favorable to the right than the rest of Tuscany (and neighboring areas in Emilia-Romagna)?

I've actually been to Lucca,but I still don't know.It seems like the typical Tuscany city...anyway it has voted center-left in the last few elections,unlike Prato,which elected for the first time a center-right mayor,mostly because of the anti-chinese wave (chinese population there is ridicolous because of all the textile industries)

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Map shows DC lead over FDP (and vice versa). Slightly daft, experimental colour scheme based around the fact that the DC's colour was white. Outline map rather obviously taken from this thread. Constituencies rather than provinces have been used because the online source for the latter isn't working.

It's amazing how such a beautiful place can be so scary politically.

Have you ever been to Eastern Idaho?

The fact that the Interior Ministry's archive of elections has been done for like a week allows me to make a joke in bad taste.

:P

It's up again now. So enjoy:

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I will, of course, end up doing normal maps as well, but this idea fascinated me.

Anyway, there were issues with data breakdowns in a couple of places (not hard to tell which), but, meh.

Hmmm...I wonder what's the deal with northern Puglia. Bari is further south so there goes the only explanation I can think of.

Those maps are really great ! :D Especially for someone like me who knows almost nothing about Italian political geography... :P

Maybe you can satisfy my curiosity, noted in the post above yours.  :)

LOL No, I meant myself. :P

Oh, ok.  :P  Well, any chance you happen to know the answer anyway?

Well, that province is Foggia. Radical agricultural labourers, maybe?

Hmmm...I forgot about that. Makes sense.

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take that insomnia!

Still hoping for an explanation on Lucca, which really stands out on the 1948 map.

The extent to which the Commies and the dissident Socialists did best in different  places is really interesting.

My personal opinion. Lucca's importance declined after XV century, and was shadowed by Florence, or Livorno importance. It was not a merchants or handicrafts' center like the other cities. No rich bankers. Probably the only important element remained the church, and a petty bourgeoise, add the rural environment and you have a conservative approach. Maybe.

So the Catholic Church was stronger there than the rest of Tuscany? That would explain most of it I think.

Rural Tuscany was not conservative.

I'm not too familiar with Italian politics before the 1980s. Could someone explain the US, BN and PNM?

The US was basically what later became the PSDI, and was a right-wing splinter of the Socialists opposed to the FDP coalition. It went on to become a corrupt machine party allied with the DC. 

The BN was a one-election between two southern based parties, the 'Poujadist' (before its time) Uomo Qualunque Front and the Liberal Party. The Liberals were a corrupt right-wing party, and the party of the old southern elite. Later on, its vote shifted towards the north and weakened in the south (the opposite of what happened to the PSI).

The PNM were monarchists.

Eventually things got to the point that, in some respects, the PSDI became the most conservative of the Pentapartito. Though IIRC the only thing they actually stood for (eventually) was maintaining huge pensions for the civil service.

No, I think that was always the PLI.

A note on why the PLI is "Liberal": The ramifications of Italian reunification by Piemont and the annexation of the Papal State (and the Church's post-1870 attitude) meant that pro-government Conservatism (and the other type mostly didn't partake in elections) was "Liberal" and what elsewhere would have been called "Liberal" was variously termed "Democratic", "Radical" or "Republican" (which is where the postwar PRI gets its name from).

Of course, Germany's "National Liberals" weren't much different...

Yeah, probably. I was just parroting what I'd read in a couple of academic works on the subject ;D

I think they may have been thinking most of their position wrt the PCI, or perhaps the irony was too tempting.

Anyway, percentage of parliamentarians by party under investigation in the summer of 1993:

PSDI: 47
PSI: 34
DC: 23
PRI: 20
PLI: 18
PDS: 3
RC: 2
LN: 1

So... yeah. DC had the most in raw terms at 74.

How can a minor party have 1% of its legislators under investigation - or is that including provincial and municipal councils?

Italian politics are extremely interesting. I really need to learn more about it. ;)

It's a rounding issue I think; Lega Nord had 80 deputies and senators after the 1992 elections and one of these was under investigation, so the actual figure is 1.2.

Oh. Right. Sorry.

In some part it was

PLI and PSDI were representing clear positions, social democrats opposite to USSR allied communists (they had scandinavian social democrat as ispiration) and classical liberalism. No corruption at all till 80s.

Haha.

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1963. This was an important election because of its aftermath; for the first time in the history of the Republic the leader of the DC's (Aldo Moro) chose not to become Prime Minister. Of course he ended up as Prime Minister a few months later (Italian politics at the time being what it was), but the principle was important. It was also Togliatti's last election as PCI leader; he died in 1964.

Anyway. Watch the magical, moving PLI vote!

Any idea what's up with Trappani at the western end of Sicily? Only province to vote for the republic, and one of the DC's weakest on the island.

It just is a freedom Place!

I seem to recall something about tenant radicalism there, but my recollection is super vague. Tradition died out over time.

I was looking at different villages' results.

I think that much depends on the workers organization strenght and local personalities especialli for PRI and PLI. PCI is strong in big town with strong presence of fishermen and agricultural workers. But in south Italy any equilibrium usually changes very fast.

A question to the Italian posters here. Are there any maps of the single member constituencies used in the 1994, 1996 and 2001 elections anywhere? Were any ever published/printed?

there's not, I fear. In Italy there's not this electoral maps culture :-( There was a  site, akab.it, but expired.

When the electoral system is as complex and changes as often as Italy's, I'm not surprised. The constituency system there doesn't make any sense to me. In 2006, Berlusconi's constituency was Naples. Two years later, it was Molise. He hasn't lived in either area.

He heads all or almost all his parties' constituency lists. He then has to resign every seat he wins but one.

Yeah, thought not. I might try to make some highly inaccurate maps based on the names of constituencies and just drawing lines around them. Not very good but better than nothing.

Perhaps there's some kind of law somewhere defining boundaries which might be on the interwebs (I don't know if Italy puts its laws on the interwebs like France does).

I assume he wins his actual constituency so I don't understand why he doesn't resign from every seat but that one.

I think I have just discovered a partial solution. What to do about large urban areas though? Guesswork and random lines with an admittance of certain error, I suppose.

I might post examples soon. At some point maps (at PR constituency level) of the delightfully fycked up 1994 election also.

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Bizarre, messy election. The magic of right-click creates a larger version. A lot of parties didn't run everywhere; including Forza Italia.

It might make a bit more sense if the map was white for places that the parties didn't contest.

The only one where it might cause confusion is Forza Italia; in all other cases it's either very obvious or the places were the sort of places that they'd have polled extremely poorly in anyway. There's not much difference in practice between being on the ballot and polling 0.5% and not being on the ballot at all.

This is a ghastly rough map but it illustrates the breakthrough and that's the point:

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Grosseto province. The northern division is Massa Marittima, the southern is Grosseto. Composition of the single member divisions is actually on Interior Ministry's elections archive as they break down results by comune. :)

The only problem is that there's no such useful information for divisions that split municipalities; like those in the larger cities. Still, I think it might be possible to make approximate maps for those as it's likely that they followed internal administrative boundaries to a reasonable extent. Besides, if it's a national map that's made such districts will be so small that it won't matter that much.

Sicily really loves them some Silvio.

I'm a little surprised by the strength of the Greens in Naples. I guess it makes sense since that constituency is mostly the city itself but even still. Their strength in the Northeast is really odd.

Is that 1994 ?

And what makes FI so strong in Sicilia ? ???

The Mafia endorsement. :P (Or just the usual "yeah, we aren't that bad. Damn outsiders not understanding anything" mood.)


Who was AD?

I guess Sicily also liked the "new guy that can solve all of our problems" in spite (or maybe because) of the fact that he was a northern businessman.

"New" in the sense of "old wine, new bottle"? :P

I kind of like the PSI/PSDI maps. More ordinary southern folk who thought the north and the media had their knickers in a twist.

The big name in La Rete was Leoluca Orlando, who's in Italia dei Valori now (and still an MP).

Some centrist outfit that hoovered up people from the lay parties, briefly seemed to threaten doing alright, but then faded. Its policies seem to have been roughly those that the PRI used to stand for in theory, so I've used their colours.

I enjoyed making them; actually had to adjust the keys when I saw that the PSI managed 8% in Basilicata and the PSDI 4% in Molise (which is... um... actually an increase on 1992). After laughing, of course.

In South almost everything depends on local candidates. Especially in 1994 when big parties failed, and the bew ones like Forza Italia had not the time to deepen thei roots everywhere, so in more rural places only local personalities counted.
 now there's a proportional system, not costituencies. so party's leader basically are candidate everywhere at the first or second place and then they choose depending on the people they want to favour in the regions.

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1976; the PCI's best ever showing, though not actually the closet they came to finishing ahead of the DC's. Actually I think that 34% might be the highest ever polled by a Communist party in a General Election in 'Western' Europe, though someone will now come along and prove me wrong. Either way, an extraordinary result that led to the unusual political arrangements of the late 1970s in which the PCI actually propped up DC governments.

Couple of minor notes; there might be some small rounding inconsistencies in a couple of places for the minor parties because I've mostly been making this set while unable to sleep, and the deputy elected in Val d'Aosta ran on a joint PCI-PSI slate.

You can't say these things and then not elaborate, although I think I might have an inkling as to what you're talking about.

To avoid tensions DC and PCI for three years cooperated in the government, through communist abstensions in Parliament.
It's incohomprensible for a foreigner, and a little also for me.

The only thing that's incomprehensible is why the PCI agreed to it.

It was part of Berlinguer's attempt to move the PCI out of the political ghetto; the so-called 'Historic Compromise'. It made a degree of sense, but it was based on a misinterpretation of the nature and structures of the DC regime (regrettably).

Ghetto is the natural place for a communist party. Unfotunately in Italy, unique case in europe, communist were the main opposizion to christian democats, not socialdemocratic. Take care in definitions, like "regime", being DC democratically elected as any othe party in Europe.

It was worth it. Look at the Italian Left now.  :)

Look what? They changed now, but just because they HAD to change. they couldn't remain even behind Russia and Eastern Europe trend

I'm saying that they are a joke now even as a more sane bunch.  ;)

Is that a statement of fact or an opinion of the way things ought to have been? (past tense important; there are no communist parties now. At least not in the sense that there was before the fall of the wall). I suspect you probably meant both, but the first is what's actually interesting, mostly because the leadership of the PCI were acutely aware of that and (unlike the leadership of, for example, the PCF) attempted to do something about it. Of course they got stuck and eventually split because it turned out that the gap between being a social democratic party and a Marxist-Leninist organisation was actually a wall. Interesting experiment, though it's difficult to see how it could have ever turned out differently.


Well there's no doubt that they always topped the poll in general elections, so at that level, yeah. Beyond that things are at best debatable.

But I routinely use 'regime' to describe governments that I don't especially care for, even when elected so I'm not making those aspersions, anyway.

Very interesting discussion, and compliments for everibody, because the Italian politic is very difficoult to understand (is difficoult for an Italian, and I think for a foreigner is too difficoult!).