Partis politiques et consensus local. Sicile et Vénétie (1990-2015)

In Italy, representative democracy and political parties are facing more and more hardships. This paper provides an empirical analysis of electoral data from the regional elections in Sicily and Veneto covering the last twenty-five years. Based on such data, it examines some of the systemic issues undermining the representative credibility of policy-makers and, thus, of political parties. The analysis of electoral data is based on four pillars: relations between centre and periphery; electoral supply and demand; presidentialisation and personalisation of the vote; the profiles of locally elected candidates. The emerging picture shows increasing analogies rather than divergences between the two regions under study.