On and off the High Road

Tim Parks

  • Voltaire's Coconuts by Ian Buruma
    Weidenfeld, 326 pp, £18.99, March 1999, ISBN 0 297 64312 6

Italy has just come to the end of another referendum campaign. Two general elections ago a new system of voting was introduced. Instead of the extreme form of proportional representation in force since 1948, a first-past-the-post system was introduced for 75 per cent of the seats in the lower house, while 25 per cent would continue to be allotted on a proportional basis. The recent referendum proposed to eliminate that 25 per cent and base voting for the lower house entirely on the British system.

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