Italian elections: Monti vs. Berlusconi and a test of democracy

The related issue is whether Mario Monti should have put himself forward directly as a candidate for prime minister again in the election campaign. Because he is already a "senator for life," Monti cannot technically stand for parliamentary election, but he could be re-appointed as prime minister if his coalition makes adequate gains in parliament.

In an effort to retain his elevated, “above the fray” impartiality, Monti instead has agreed to serve again in government only if the reform agenda he proposes to continue (his structural reforms) gains enough support from the various parties contending for seats to win a sufficient majority. Only then would a new government be able to see them through. Critics argue that if Monti doesn’t “earn” a leadership role as a candidate, he won’t be “legitimate.”

I understand this argument but can also see how Monti’s path makes sense. What is important is the “circuit breaker” agenda. It would be useless to elect a “re-politicized government” without a majority to implement reform. Monti is already a member of parliament as a senator-for-life and thus legitimately eligible for a leadership role in Italy’s parliamentary system.

Also, what Monti is attempting is not so strange in other democracies. When Jerry Brown successfully campaigned for governor of California in 2010, he pledged he would not raise taxes without “asking the people.” One reason he did this is that bipartisan gridlock in the California legislature – where a supermajority two-thirds vote is required to raise taxes – blocked his ability to raise taxes through the legislature.

In his first two years in office, Gov. Brown slashed spending while he sought to obtain supermajority approval – not to raise taxes, but only to get permission from the legislature to put a proposition on the ballot so the voters could decide what to do. That also required a two-thirds vote, which he couldn’t get.

In California’s direct democracy, voters can make laws and change the state constitution without going through the legislature. To do so, they must gather the requisite signatures from the public (around 1 million). Once a measure qualifies for the ballot, it becomes law if it passes.

So, failing to get the legislature to allow the public to vote, the governor set up a civil society committee with the teachers’ unions to propose raising the sales and income tax for a direct vote of the public. Even though he was the governor, his committee had to gather the requisite signatures to qualify the proposition. In November, that tax plan passed, giving California a temporary reprieve from budget bleeding.

I must add, however, that the new tax avoided the challenge of the “Diet Coke habits” of the general public since it was targeted for restoration of education cuts, a good thing, but only applied to “others” – the rich making more than $250,000 per year. In a society edging toward plutocracy, this was a necessary precondition of broader reform, but only that.

The “candidate” in this case was not Governor Brown. The candidate was a tax policy put forward by a civil society group that included the governor.

Mario Monti’s “agenda for reform” being put forward to the voters without a candidacy seems to me very much the same kind of idea. It is an innovation in democratic politics for the tough times we face – a referendum on the future versus the status quo and the past. If that is legitimate in the radical democracy of California, why not in Italy?

Nathan Gardels is editor-in-chief of NPQ and the Global Viewpoint Network of Tribune Media Services. He is co-author with Nicolas Berggruen of “Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: A Middle Way Between West and East.”

© 2013 Global Viewpoint Network/Tribune Media Services. Hosted online by The Christian Science Monitor.

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