THE PERMANENT COMMITTEES OF THE ITALIAN CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES - PARLIAMENT AT WORK

The permanent, or standing, committees of the Italian Parliament have remained largely unexplored by empirical research. This lack of attent ion reflects the conventional view that the Italian legislature has no t developed institutional autonomy, complexity, and stability. This ar ticle begins to examine legislative behaviour in committees and explor e whether informal rules and patterns may be traced. Evidence suggests that deputies have begun to make full use of the range of formal powe rs at their disposal. Moreover, some institutional specialization and complexity seems to be taking shape within the committee system, raisi ng questions as to whether the problem of Parliament is still that of its institutionalization.