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Charges of Malfeasance, Preference Votes, Government Portfolios, and Characteristics of Legislators, Chamber of Deputies, Republic of Italy, Legislatures I-XI (1948-1994): Parliamentary Malfeasance

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Charges of Malfeasance, Preference Votes, Government Portfolios, and Characteristics of Legislators, Chamber of Deputies, Republic of Italy, Legislatures I-XI (1948-1994): Parliamentary Malfeasance
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/8ORQTO
 
Creator Miriam Golden
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Dataset on parliamentary malfeasance, containing information on all requests by the Italian judiciary to remove parliamentary immunity (so-called richieste di autorizzazioni a procedure, commonly abbreviated in Italian as RAP) from deputies during the first eleven postwar legislatures (elected in 1948 through 1992), including the nature of the judicial charges, the partisan affiliation of the deputy charged, the deputy's electoral district and legislature, whether immunity was lifted or not, etc. The Italian constitution (Article 68) required that the Ministry of Justice transmit requests to remove immunity to parliament in order to investigate a legislator for suspected criminal wrongdoing or in order to proceed with an arrest warrant. A majority vote by the floor of the relevant chamber was required to lift immunity. Requests were first dealt with in committee (by the Giunta per le autorizzazioni a procedere) before proceeding to the floor. Most requests over the period on which data are available were not granted; many simply lapsed with the end of the legislature, never having been voted. Legislators were investigated and/or charged with crimes ranging from traffic offenses to murder. Our coding distinguishes opinion crimes (such as libel and slander) from other (more serious) types of malfeasance. A constitutional change in November 1993 ended the requirement that the Chamber approve all requests to remove parliamentary immunity before the judiciary could proceed, and the dataset thus ends with the end of the XI L
egislature in 1994.
 
Date 2007