The essay portraits the 1980s as a period of lost opportunities on the ground of necessary changes to the Italian institutional structure. Faced with the diffi culties of systemic balance, all political parties turned their attention to reforms, but the efforts were insuffi cient to offer concreteness to a serious renewal, ending up with throwing the seeds of an exhausting transition to which no end is yet in sight.
Keywords: Italian political system; Constitution; Transition; Political renewal; Prime minister.