Direct Democracy in South Tyrol
Competition for fair regulation between civil society and ruling party
In the Northern part of Italy an initiative is promoting the idea of direct democracy. Today South Tyrol has achieved a solid legislative and administrative autonomy. This is widely considered to have given way to peaceful coexistence, social and economic welfare and political stability in a multiethnic region.
“Mehr Demokratie in Süd-Tirol“ (More democracy in South Tyrol) member of Democracy International. Please read the report by Thomas Benedikter, Bozen (update by Ronald Pabst).
- The initiative is a member of democracy international. Click on the Logo to see the website.
Delopment from 1918 - 1946
South Tyrol is part of Italy since 1918. Almost 70 % of the inhabitants speak German, 4 % Rhaeto-Romanic and about 26 % Italian.
Regarding democracy in the first decades of its belonging to Italy, South Tyrol had first to face the discrimination and oppression unleashed by the fascist regime. After World War II the democratic government in Rome hesitated to implement the autonomy regulations provided by the peace treaty between Italy and Austria (1946). Direct democracy in the form of a referendum on self-determination was not awarded in 1946. With 158.628 signatures collected nearly all adult German speaking inhabitants urged the allied forces with a petition of this content.
Direct Democracy until 2005
The following struggle for autonomy induced a strong concentration of the electorate in the Südtiroler Volkspartei (SVP, South Tyrol’s People’s Party), a kind of "patriotic front", which definitely undermined the development of a full-fledged pluralism in the representative democracy of South Tyrol. In this context it can not astonish that provisions for direct democracy, first introduced in 1957, remained weak and restricted to the so called "abrogative referendum". This was also established on the national level in Italy. In 1972 a regional law enacted the citizen’s right to popular initiatives, but without subsequent compulsory referendum. Thus, in 48 years no referendum has been carried out, and just 6 petitions (initiatives) were presented, only 3 of them have been discussed in the regional parliament. They had no further effects. Both instruments were directed to a final decision taken by the local parliament, which was free to accept or to reject any proposal made by citizens.
On the level of municipalities provisions for referendums are provided. But form and manner are unfair.
Thus, direct democracy in South Tyrol remained a weak and lame instrument.
- South Tyrol
Democratisation brings new chances
In the mid of the nineties things started to change, when a broad coalition of civil associations, active in social, cultural and environmental fields, launched an initiative to adopt a new law for extended direct democracy on the regional level. Surprisingly the initiative gained a majority in the Regional Assembly. But the law approved was still far from being a fair regulation of initiative and referendum. Nevertheless, the central government in Rome rejected this law continuing South Tyrol’s situation of virtual absence of any effective forms of direct democracy.
The introduction of Direct Democracy in 2005
In 2001 South Tyrol’s Autonomy Statute was reformed. Regulations of the electing system and direct democracy were changed.
Based on this reform a new group of pro-direct democracy organisations in 2003 collected about 6.300 signatures under a new initiative for direct democracy on regional level. The proposal favoured a far-reaching regulation inspired by the most advanced European reference models. The initiative was discussed in 2005 in the regional parliament, unfortunately South Tyrol’s strong majority party, the SVP, suggested an alternative approach which did fall short of the expectations of the popular movement for direct democracy.
On 18. November 2005 the parliament voted in favour of the introduction of direct democracy. But the regulations are characterized by a distrust of the legislator in the ability of the people to draw wise decisions (see fundamentals, right column).
The challenge
Currently, the Initiative for more democracy (Initiative für mehr Demokratie) prepares a campaign for a the law regulating the initiative and referendum citizen-friendly (see report).
