NOMENKLATURA RULE UNDER DEMOCRACY - SOLVING THE ITALIAN POLITICAL PUZZLE

This paper attempts to explain the puzzling features of the Italian po litical system up to 1992 by means of an economic model of a democrati c Nomenklatura, in which the normal operation of a democratic system i s distorted by the self-perpetuation of a ruling elite - 'Nomenklatura ' - which co-opts members of the opposition into its ranks to secure r e-election and maximize per capita rent from political office. Competi tion for the field is thus suppressed and competition within the field enhanced. The Nomenklatura regime arose as a response to a non-democr atic opposition and could not survive the downfall of Communism in the early 1990s. Thus the model yields an explanation for the regime's co llapse after 1992.