The cycle of constitutional reforms does not threaten democracy, but our transformative stability

Despite what we tell ourselves, Italy is one of the most stable countries in the world. This is why a reform project should come to terms with the nature of our institutions, capable of surviving almost anything

Constitutional conservatism is an ugly beast. Under the pretext of saving democracy from man alone in command, we have weakened and then liquidated some important leaders such as Craxi, D’Alema, Berlusconi, Renzi, all people from the centre, from the centre-left or purely from the left. Napoleon III said to the elites of the Second Empire: “Don’t be afraid of the people, they are more conservative than you”, and he was generally right. Over the decades, various jumbles have prevented the constitutional form of government from being changed, reforming it with single-chamber premierships, the hypothesis of direct election of presidents, chancellorships and constructive mistrust, their momentum has always been rewarded by the conservative vote of the majorities. Surprisingly, the only serious but incomplete reform was made by the grillini in a transformative way (with two opposing majorities) and they did it under demagogic guises, which is their original specific habit: cutting the number of parliamentarians. Now a right-wing government is trying, and yet another institutional dialogue is underway with very uncertain outcomes.