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Constitutional institutions (Italy)

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The constitutional institutions of Italy (Italian: organi costituzionali italiani)
are institutions of the Italian Republic which are defined in the constitution.

Contents
1 Characteristics
2 The institutions
3 Expenditure
4 References
5 See also
Characteristics
In Italian jurisprudence, these are defined as the essential and immutable
institutions of the State, which are foreseen as existing by the Italian
constitution and whose fundamental powers and organisation are directly defined by
the constitution. They have a relationship of mutual parity and they take part in
the so-called "political process" (funzione politica), that is, they directly
determine the goals to be pursued by the state.< name="Luiss">Dr. Massimo Ribaudo -
introduzione al diritto costituzionale</ref>

Because these institutions are directly defined by the constitution, codification


of any of them is a modification of the constitution and therefore requires the
passage of a constitutional law. Their very existence, however, constitutes a limit
on the modification of the constitution.[1]

The institutions
The constitutional institutions are:[1][2]

The President of the Republic


The Parliament, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the
Republic
The Council of Ministers
The Constitutional Court
The Judiciary
The autonomous territorial entities, viz. the comuni, provinces, regions,
metropolitan cities, and the state of Italy as a whole.
Expenditure
Although all public expenses are included in the national budget, which is drafted
by the government and approved by parliament, it is claimed that the constitutional
institutions, which the constitution places outside the administrative control of
the executive, are self-governing and should have control of their own finances.
According to this argument, the budgets of the President, Constitutional Court, and
Parliament cannot be reduced without their consent. A minority opinion, emphasising
the treatment of the regional councils,[3] have questioned this argument.

Although the President, Constitutional Court and the Parliament have full autonomy
in the administration of the resources assigned to them, according to the principle
of "autocriny" (autocrinia),[4] it is now firmly established that their
administrative offices should be composed of employees recruited by public
competition,[5] as set down by the constitutional law on public employment. Legal
provisions directly dealing with these administrations, governing the behaviour of
public employees generally, remain rare.[6] The entire public sector's freedom from
the legal and economic regulations of contracts derives from the principle of
"autodicy" (autodichia), that is, the idea that constitutional institutions should
be in charge of their own internal regulation.[7]

References
"Dr. Massimo Ribaudo - introduzione al diritto costituzionale". Archived from the
original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-01-13.
"Sito ufficiale del Governo italiano" (in Italian). Archived from the original on
13 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
Irene Testa & Alessandro Gerardi, Parlamento zona franca, Rubbettino, 2013, state
that the Constitutional Court judged laws that had limited the budgets of the
autonomous territorial entities (which are constitutional institutions) to be
legitimate, since although it regulated the amount, it left them free to decide how
that was spent.
http://www.termometropolitico.it/1239526_autodichia-lincredibile-mondo-parallelo-
delle-camere.html
The last attempt to reverse this was made by the Quirinal during the presidency of
Francesco Cossiga, whose project "attempting to replace the regular staff with the
personal selection of key officers as done in other administrations, prefigured a
support staff which changed everytime the head of state was replaced... failed due
to the firm opposition of the internal unions and the lack of endorsement from the
ad hoc commission" led by Livio Paladin (Tito Lucrezio Rizzo, Parla il Capo dello
Stato, Gangemi, 2012, p. 183.
One of the first cases was the declaration of the "capability of the
constitutional institutions to recruit their personnel with the aforementioned
process." in Article 10.1(c) of Senate Act no. 1577: the text, contained in a draft
law under the Renzi government, did not appear in the final law, passed as Law no.
124, 7 August 2015
Dipendenti della Camera dei Deputati

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