Réanimer la démocratie : le cas du référendum constitutionnel italien

Drawing upon the metaphor of a democracy in an artificial comatose state, this paper aims to analyze the different attempts to revive democracy in line with the recent experience of the constitutional referendum organized in Italy in September 2020. From a methodological point of view, the referendum of 2020 is considered a typical case and, therefore, potentially representative for the universe of critiques and solutions provided in the broader debate on how to straighten out contemporary democracy. The analysis traces the origins of this referendum and the positions of the main political parties. Then, it provides an overview of the results. The concluding observations show that the positions adopted go beyond a binary pattern and are above all more responsive to changes in the composition of the governing coalition.