What is a 'Good' Democracy? Theory and the Case of Italy.

The first part of the article discusses what is a 'good democracy' according to five dimensions: rule of law, accountability, responsiveness, freedom and equality. The second part analyses these dimensions in the case of Italy. In the Italian case study, the conclusions point to an improvement of vertical accountability because of the new party bipolarization and the actual possibility of change of government. At the same time, there has been a deterioration in the rule of law and horizontal accountability due to the weakening of parties, the extensive influence of the prime minister over the mass media in the early 2000s and some changes in the decision-making process with the weakening of Parliament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]