Evidence from Italy shows that electoral reforms can often have the opposite effect of what is intended

The current Italian electoral law, passed in 2005, has been criticised on the basis that it is likely to produce an unstable government, with different parties in control of the two chambers of the Italian parliament. Massimo Bordignon and Andrea Monticini assess the effects of electoral reforms by studying a previous change to the Italian electoral system: the partial adoption of ‘first past the post’ voting in 1993. They write that while the reform was aimed at making governments more stable, and reducing the number of smaller parties, the new system largely had the opposite effect. It is important to recognise that the reality of electoral reform can often be very different from its original intention.