Covid-19 and the erosion of politics in Italy

To better understand how the pandemic has so far affected Europe’s democracies, the European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN) has analysed 19 succinct national perspectives. We asked our EPIN partners: what are the effects of different crisis rules or procedures on the democratic character of national governance? This exercise has shown that while in some member states the democratic institutions and electoral processes have proved robust and flexible, outstanding democratic issues across all member states are: an overly powerful executive, limited checks on government, and the side-lining of parliaments. Trust, or the lack of it, in the respective political elites is a particularly divisive issue.