Related content

• Anti-fascism
• Benito Mussolini
• Bill of rights
• Birth of the Italian Republic
• British Summer Time
• Cabinet of Italy
• Capital punishment
• Christian democratic
• Common law
• Commons Atlas of Italy
• Communist
• Constituent Assembly of Italy
• Constitution of Abkhazia
• Constitution of Albania
• Constitution of Andorra
• Constitution of Armenia
• Constitution of Austria
• Constitution of Azerbaijan
• Constitution of Belarus
• Constitution of Belgium
• Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Constitution of Bulgaria
• Constitution of Croatia
• Constitution of Cyprus
• Constitution of Denmark
• Constitution of Estonia
• Constitution of European Union
• Constitution of Finland
• Constitution of France
• Constitution of Georgia (country)
• Constitution of Germany
• Constitution of Gibraltar
• Constitution of Greece
• Constitution of Guernsey
• Constitution of Hungary
• Constitution of Iceland
• Constitution of Italy
• Constitution of Jersey
• Constitution of Kazakhstan
• Constitution of Kosovo
• Constitution of Latvia
• Constitution of Liechtenstein
• Constitution of Lithuania
• Constitution of Luxembourg
• Constitution of Malta
• Constitution of Moldova
• Constitution of Monaco
• Constitution of Montenegro
• Constitution of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
• Constitution of Northern Cyprus
• Constitution of Norway
• Constitution of Poland
• Constitution of Portugal
• Constitution of Romania
• Constitution of Russia
• Constitution of San Marino
• Constitution of Serbia
• Constitution of Slovakia
• Constitution of Slovenia
• Constitution of South Ossetia
• Constitution of Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• Constitution of Spain
• Constitution of Svalbard
• Constitution of Sweden
• Constitution of Switzerland
• Constitution of the Czech Republic
• Constitution of the Faroe Islands
• Constitution of the Isle of Man
• Constitution of the Netherlands
• Constitution of the Republic of Ireland
• Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia
• Constitution of the United Kingdom
• Constitution of Transnistria
• Constitution of Turkey
• Constitution of Ukraine
• Constitution of Vatican City
• Constitution of Åland
• Constitutional Court of Italy
• Corte d'Assise
• Council of Europe
• Court of Cassation (Italy)
• Democratic Party (Italy)
• Dependent territory
• Elections in Italy
• Enrico De Nicola
• Foreign relations of Italy
• Gazzetta Ufficiale
• Giorgio Napolitano
• GMT
• House of Savoy
• Italian Chamber of Deputies
• Italian Code of Criminal Procedure
• Italian Council of State
• Italian general election, 1994
• Italian general election, 1996
• Italian general election, 2001
• Italian general election, 2006
• Italian general election, 2008
• Italian language
• Italian referendums, 2011
• Italian Republic
• Italian Senate
• Judiciary of Italy
• Lateran Treaty
• Liberalism and radicalism in Italy
• List of legislatures of the Italian Republic
• List of political parties in Italy
• List of Presidents of the Italian Republic
• List of Prime Ministers of Italy
• List of states with limited recognition
• March on Rome
• Mario Monti
• Municipalities of Italy
• Natural law
• Parliament of Italy
• Piero Calamandrei
• Politics of Abruzzo
• Politics of Aosta Valley
• Politics of Apulia
• Politics of Calabria

Constitution of Italy

The Constitution of the Italian Republic (Italian: Costituzione della Repubblica italiana) was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947. The Constituent Assembly was elected by universal suffrage on 2 June 1946, at the same time as a referendum on the abolition of the monarchy. The Constitution came into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the Statuto Albertino had been enacted. Although the latter remained in force after Benito Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922, it had become devoid of substantive value.

The forces that enlivened debate in the Assembly fell into three groups, Christian democratic, Liberal and left-wing. Because all were deeply anti-fascist, there was general agreement against an authoritarian constitution.

However, each group was concerned about its success in new elections after the promulgation of the Constitution, and fought to insert provisions reflecting their values; the result was that some aspects of the text (for example, concerning marriage and the family) refer to Roman Catholic-oriented natural law themes, whilst others (for example, concerning workers' rights) are more reminiscent of socialist and communist thinking. This has been repeatedly described as the constitutional compromise, and the parties representing the three ideologies that shaped the Constitution were referred to as part of the arco costituzionale (literally, "constitutional arch").