Il voto regionale del 2013 in Lazio e Lombardia: la differenziazione della competizione elettorale

For several years Italian political scientists have been investigating three main dimensions of the regional institutions: the party systems, the political class and the electoral formulae. All of them are relevant to measure if and how regions are able to build up their own political systems different from the national one. Considering that, the 2013 Italian regional elections represent a milestone to test this hypothesis because they give the opportunity to gather data in order to measure the capacity of regions’ political autonomy. This analysis addresses two cases: Lazio and Lombardia. Both regions have had to call early elections as a consequence of judicial scandals. This research, starting from the most relevant literature, will analyse in a comparative way three aspects: how regions build up their political offer, the results of the elections and, finally, the personalization of the regional party systems. In conclusion, this research will evaluate whether regional political systems are autonomous from the national one and if regional elections can be considered “secondary elections”.