DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04535
title: Datasets on Charges of Malfeasance, Preference Votes, Government Portfolios, and Characteristics of Legislators, Chamber of Deputies, Republic of Italy, Legislatures I-XI, 1948-1992
title: Archival Version

description: <strong>Overview</strong>
 This study contains three individual datasets, as well as a
 combined dataset in which the component datasets have been merged and
 additional information incorporated.
 <strong>Part 1:</strong>
 The dataset contains preference votes received by Christian
 Democratic (DC) and Socialist Party (PSI) candidates in the Italian
 elections for Legislatures I-XI to the Chamber of Deputies (1948 to
 1992). During this period, Italy used a relatively pure version of
 open-list proportional representation. Until the 1992 parliamentary
 elections, voters could optionally indicate their preference for as
 many as three (or in districts with 16 or more representatives, four)
 candidates from the party list they selected. As of 1992, voters could
 use only a single preference vote. Typically, only about 30 percent of
 Italian voters used any of their available preference votes. Individual
 candidates were seated according to the number of preference votes
 received, while the number of seats won by each party was determined
 by the number of list votes received by the party. The number of seats
 (district magnitude) in Italy's 31 electoral districts using
 proportional representation (a 32nd electoral district, the Valle
 d'Aosta, was a majoritarian single member district) ranged from 4 to
 53, with the average around 20. Parties listed as many candidates as
 there were seats, and individuals could stand in as many as three
 districts simultaneously, as well as simultaneously for the Chamber of
 Deputies and the Senate. Starting with the elections held in 1994, the
 electoral system was substantially altered, and a mixed PR/majoritarian
 system used. It is not possible to match electoral districts before
 and after 1994. (This description of Italy's electoral system is taken
 from Douglas Wertman, "The Italian Electoral Process: The Elections of
 June 1976," in ITALY AT THE POLLS: THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS OF
 1976, ed. Howard R. Penniman, Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise
 Institute, 1977.) The dataset includes the number of individual-level
 preference votes received by each Chamber candidate for the DC and
 PSI, the candidate's party affiliation, the candidate's district
 number, the candidate's legislature number, whether the candidate was
 elected or not, and whether, having won, the individual chose to be
 seated in another district or for the upper house instead. The data
 are arranged by candidate and district within each legislature. There
 may be multiple records of the same candidate within the same
 legislature if the individual ran in multiple districts.
 <strong>Part 2:</strong>
 The dataset on parliamentary malfeasance, contains information on
 all requests by the Italian judiciary to remove parliamentary immunity
 (so-called 'richieste di autorizzazioni a procedure', commonly
 abbreviated in Italian as RAP) from deputies during the first 11
 postwar legislatures (elected in 1948 through 1992), including the
 nature of the judicial charges, the partisan affiliation of the deputy
 charged, the deputy's electoral district and legislature, whether
 immunity was lifted or not, etc. The Italian constitution (Article 68)
 required that the Ministry of Justice transmit requests to remove
 immunity to parliament in order to investigate a legislator for
 suspected criminal wrong-doing or in order to proceed with an arrest
 warrant. A majority vote by the floor of the relevant chamber was
 required to lift immunity. Requests were first dealt with in committee
 (by the 'Guinta per le autorizzazioni a procedere') before proceeding
 to the floor. Most requests over the period on which data are
 available were not granted. Many simply lapsed with the end of the
 legislature, never having been voted on. Legislators were investigated
 and/or charged with crimes ranging from traffic offenses to murder.
 Our coding distinguishes opinion crimes (such as libel and slander)
 from other (more serious) types of malfeasance. A constitutional
 change in November 1993 ended the requirement that the Chamber approve
 all requests to remove parliamentary immunity before the judiciary
 could proceed, and the dataset thus ends with the end of the XI
 Legislature in 1994. The data are arranged by RAP and deputy within
 each legislature. There may be multiple records of the same deputy
 within the same legislature if the individual was named in multiple
 RAP. A single RAP may name multiple deputies.
 <strong>Part 3:</strong>
 The dataset on government portfolios lists all ministers and
 undersecretaries for Legislatures I-XI, Republic of Italy. It includes
 information on whether the minister was drawn from the Chamber of
 Deputies, the Senate, or outside the legislature, as well as in which
 government the individual served. For members of the Chamber of
 Deputies, the individual's party affiliation, electoral district,
 party experience, and other demographic characteristics are also
 included. The data are arranged by individual and government within
 each legislature. There may be multiple records of the same minister
 within the same legislature if the individual was seated in multiple
 governments within the same legislative period.
 <strong>Part 4:</strong>
 The combined dataset on malfeasance, preference votes of DC and PSI
 candidates, government portfolios, and all seated deputies merges the
 three datasets above and incorporates the full universe of deputies.
 The combined dataset contains all the information enumerated above,
 and also includes records for all deputies not otherwise included, as
 well as the number of preference votes received by deputies affiliated
 with parties other than the DC and the PSI. Note that this combined
 dataset is complex because the same individual may appear multiple
 times even within the same legislature, for different reasons. The
 dataset on malfeasance contains a separate observation for each
 individual charge of malfeasance, so that deputies who are charged
 multiple times (either within the same legislative period or in
 different legislatures) appear as multiple separate observations. In
 the dataset on preference votes, the same candidate may appear more
 than once, if he or she stands for election in multiple districts
 and/or legislatures. The same is true, finally, for the dataset of
 government portfolios, because multiple governments were seated within
 a single legislature. Therefore, the same minister may appear more
 than once within a legislature if he or she held office in multiple
 governments. The component datasets were combined under the
 supervision of the Principal Investigator on the basis of a unique
 identifier ("tid") assigned to each individual person/deputy/minister.
 This allows the researcher to track individual deputies over different
 legislatures, as well as to track whether the same deputy was charged
 multiple times with malfeasance or served in multiple
governments.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Dataset on Preference Votes, Chamber of Deputies, Republic of Italy, Legislatures I-XI
DS2: Dataset on Charges of Malfeasance, Chamber of Deputies, Republic of Italy, Legislatures I-XI
DS3: Dataset on Government Portfolios, Chamber of Deputies, Republic of Italy, Legislatures I-XI
DS4: Individual-Level Dataset on Charges of Malfeasance, Preference Votes, Government Portfolios, and Members of the Chamber of Deputies, Republic of Italy, Legislatures I-XI