Page 161 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

150 COMMUNICATION AND CITIZENSHIP

and have often seen the exclusion of one of the above parties and the
inclusion of another. Significant in this regard were the short-lasting so-
called ‘national solidarity governments’ which in addition to the support
of the centre-left parties were backed by the Communists as well.
7 This is the case of the so-called ‘left-wing administrations’ governed by
coalitions of the Communist and Socialist Parties which are, instead,
proud adversaries at the national level.
8 The current government majority is sustained by the Christian
Democrats, the Socialists, Republicans, Social Democrats and Liberals.
9 Many political scientists blame the proportional electoral system
for coalition governments and the complexity of the Italian political
system.
10 The interview was interpreted by most journalists to be part of the
Socialist leader’s plan to break off the government alliance with the
Christian Democrats since it would be advantageous for him to do so, as
was borne out by the election results.
11 ‘Communione e Liberazione’ is an organization of Catholic
fundamentalists which has recently gained in power and is capable of
monopolizing and guiding a good number of Christian Democrat votes.
12 These definitions are taken from Patterson (1980) who more exactly
speaks of policy issues and campaign issues.
13 To the 37.5 per cent of the policy issues must be added 26.3 per cent of
the campaign issues which cover all those subjects more strictly related to
the election campaign, such as the reasons for dissolving Parliament
ahead of time, the question of the ‘relay’ or alternating governments, etc.
14 La Repubblica is the most widely circulated daily in Italy.
15 In Italy, however, newspaper sales are still low. Sales have only recently
exceeded 6 million copies a day.
16 For a definition of the different strategies of debate, see M. Martell (1983),
Political Campaign Debates, New York: Longman.
17 Similar operations can be found also in the United States: such
newspapers as the New York Times and the Washington Post carry out the
important role of circulating information and debate among different
political and cultural elites.
18 As already stated, this is only partially true because private networks may
not broadcast information live in the national territory.

REFERENCES

Agostini, A., Fenati, B. and Krol, S. (eds) (1987) Annali della riforma, Turin:
ERI.