A Royal President

Ever since the financial situation has led to a change of government in Italy, the role of Mr. Napolitano has been defined as central.

The so-called anti-Berlusconi's praised his role and position as moderate and profoundly foresighted caring only for the good of Italy.

The members of the center-right have praised his position but kept a deep silence about his "interventions".

Personally, I would consider a different perspective associated more with the "job description" and then with the present profile.

One basic rule of Western Democracy (is there an Eastern model developed somewhere???!!!) is based on the key principle of Separation of Powers that should lead to, geometrically speaking an equilibrium.

Legislative, Executive and Judiciary are the 3 branches of a Democratic Country powers.

Let's see how they are allocated and ultimately managed in the present Italian Constitution.

Judiciary: The members of CSM (Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura) are elected as representatives of the judiciary body through internal elections. It is well-known that political parties and  currents strongly influence the main groups (cfr. Magistratura Democratica). The President of the CSM is the President of the Republic.

Legislative:  the members of the House and the Senate are elected by the People through general elections. They establish themselves as groups in the Parliament. As such they are called up by the President of the Republic to indicate and declare their positions upon defining a political majority. The President of the Republic only has the power of closing the Parliament down and calling for general elections. The members of the legislative branch (and not the People directly) vote to elect a President of the Republic.

Executive: at the beginning of a new legislature or during a resident majority crisis, the groups of representatives indicate to the President of the Republic a majority leader as potential prime Minister. If the President of the Republic finds that a stable majority exists to support one candidate will charge this latter one to design a Government. If the candidate is successful in his task, he will propose a list of Ministers to the President of the Republic to nominate them. So each Minister is only indicated by the Prime Minister and officially nominated by the President of the Republic.

Consequently, the President of the Republic has the power to nominate the Prime Ministers and all the Ministers; define whether a majority exists or not in the Parliament and, potentially, call for new elections; lead and influence the Judicial branch as President of the Judiciary governing body; last but not least he is in charge of the military.

Would you call this Separation of Powers? is there any other Western Democracy with such a structural concentration of powers? (cfr: Why Spain is different than Italy?)

Well, the latest events in Italy, show that the President of the Republic could and eventually did concentrate on him key decisions that limited the actual Democratic course of events (read also: Death of Democracy).

It is, as a bottom line, evident that a Reform of the Italian Constitution is needed to a different model that would make political decision-making more efficient and the internal bureaucracy lighter and cheaper.

Fail of reforming the State would favor the concentration of powers, typical of a Royal President (cfr Palco Reale), and nourish inefficiency and consequently raise costs.