The First Two Years of Berlusconi's Fourth Government: Activity and Legislative

On 8 May 2010, Silvio Berlusconi's fourth government came to the end of its first two years in office. In this article, we aim to offer an initial analysis of the Government's 'performance' after this period of time, using its legislative activity as the empirical angle of vision, and providing a number of indicators concerning the initiatives and legislative outcomes of the Italian executive during these two years. The volume of legislative proposals produced by the Berlusconi government, and the instruments used to pilot them through Parliament; the topics, issues and policy sectors on which the Cabinet has chosen to focus its legislative activity; the degree of overlap between the Government's legislative proposals and the goals proclaimed in the manifesto presented by the centre-right coalition during the election campaign of 2008; the success rate of Government bills in this first part of the XVI legislative term: these are the main dimensions of analysis on which the various sections of the paper are focused.