Super partes? Ideological leaning of heads of state and their distance from prime ministers

ABSTRACT

Presidents in parliamentary democracies are commonly perceived as neutral actors, with limited influence on everyday politics. However, Italian heads of state have the widest set of powers among European parliamentary democracies. Recent episodes occurring during the presidential terms of Giorgio Napolitano and Sergio Mattarella suggest that heads of state can indeed play a political role, influencing cabinet formation and day-to-day political events and processes. This article examines whether Italian heads of state can be considered non-partisan political actors or whether, in contrast, their ideological leanings can be inferred from their public speeches and declarations. By compiling and analysing a new and original dataset based on content analysis of presidents’ investiture speeches and New Year’s Eve messages, we mapped the political positions of Italian heads of state over 76 years (1946–2022). As such, the article investigates the conditions under which the position of the President is closer to that of the Prime Minister on the ideological left-right scale and on foreign policy. The analysis reveals that the ideological distance between them is lower when both belong to the same ideological party family and when the Prime Minister has been appointed to form a president’s cabinet, closer to the preferences of the head of state.

KEYWORDS:

• Head of state
• prime minister
• ideology
• legislative speeches
• New year’s eve messages
• content analysis

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the Special Issue editors and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. See also: https://www.corriere.it/politica/11_novembre_09/mario-monti-senatore-a-vita_87ba0e7c-0aff-11e1–8371-eb51678ca784.shtml.

2. Ceccanti (2013); Innamorati (2016); Tedaldi (2018); Valenti (2021). See also: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governo_del_presidente.

3. See: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-01/giuseppe-conte-to-lead-populist-government-in-italy/9823700.

4. See: https://www.thelocal.it/20180529/italy-president-sergio-matterella-statement-english/.

5. Note that the President may not exercise such a right during the final six months of the presidential term, unless such period coincides in full or in part with the final six months of Parliament.

6. The only exceptions might be the PMs Giuseppe Conte and Giorgia Meloni.

7. The HIPSTEXT database will be made available at: https://andreaceron.com/projects/hipstext/

8. Consequently, for the first (provisional) head of state, Enrico De Nicola (1946–1947), we estimated his position by relying on his investiture speech only.

9. Note that this did not happen when Napolitano was elected, on 15 May 2006, since he appointed a new cabinet immediately after his election (the Prodi II cabinet on 16 May 2006).

Additional information

Funding

This work has been carried out with the framework of the PRIN 2020 Project DEMOPE DEMOcracy under PressurE (Prot. 2020NK2YHL), funded by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research.

Notes on contributors

Andrea Ceron

Andrea Ceron is Associate Professor at the University of Milan.