Italian party politics had been described for decades as immoderate and highly fractionalized. High distance between the parties on the left-to-right dimension (polarization) and fractionalization are the two well-known syndromes of polarized multiparty politics, according to G. Sartori. Observing the rallying of the Italian parties around two major and opposite poles since the 1994 elections, one would have being tempted to conclude that, despite the persisting fractionalization, the Italian party system was now bipolar. The paper addresses to the peculiarities of the Italian new bipolarism, inquiring theoretically into the contemporary changes of the patterns of party competition in Italy. Moving critically from G. Sartori’s seminal party system theory, an interpretation of the new allignment of the Italian party system is advanced and it is argued that the Italian case has moved from polarized pluralism (1948-1992) to polarized bipolarism (since 1994 elections).
