Le commissioni parlamentari di inchiesta: recenti sviluppi e osservazioni alla luce della prassi

Parliamentary inquiry committees have been and are still today a fundamental institution of the 1948 Italian Republican Constitution. But then, what about parliamentary minorities role and their capacity to influence the inquiry committees activities, in particular regarding «conflict» with the government and the parliamentary majority? Parliamentary minorities have rarely played a significant role in parliamentary inquisition since they have not had a real capacity in this context, for the reason that the article 82 of the 1948 Italian Constitution decrees that parliamentary inquiry committees composition must reflect the same political groups numerical ratio represented in the two Chambers and the same kind of situation occurs considering both single-chamber committees and two-chamber ones. The paper focuses on the relationship between parliamentary minorities and inquiry committees along the Parliamentary history of the Italian Republic. It will highlight the limits and effectiveness of minorities in inquiry committees introducing a statistical analysis of majorities and minorities presence in the parliamentary inquiry committees and their matters of inquisition. In the final paragraph it examines the different possible scenarios where the Constitutional reform proposal would have been approved through the 2016 Constitutional referendum.