n Expedite_,[552] and, most of all, by the
habitual indifference of citizens, who, if the truth be told, for the
most part have never displayed an insatiable yearning for the
possession of the voting privilege. With the exception of the
Socialists, no party has a clear-cut, continuous programme; none, save
again the socialists, attempts systematically to arouse the voters at
election time.

[Footnote 551: King and Okey, Italy To-day, Chap.
12.]

[Footnote 552: See p. 400.]

*415. Electoral Reform.*--Notwithstanding these facts, there has been,
in recent years, a somewhat insistent demand for electoral reform. The
Luzzatti ministry fell, in March, 1911, primarily because a plan of
suffrage extension which it had proposed was not to be put in
operation before 1913. June 10, 1911, the Giolitti ministry which
succeeded laid before the Chamber the text of a measure which, if
adopted, would go far toward the establishment of universal male
suffrage. The proposal was that practically all male citizens over
thirty years of age, and all over twenty-one who have performed the
military service required by the state, should be given the privilege
of voting, irrespective of their ability to read and write. This
project, after being debated at length, was adopted in the Chamber of
Deputies early in 1912 by the enormous majority of 392 to 61. In the
event of its final enactment the existing electorate will be increased
from three millions to two and a half times that number and a general
overhauling of electoral methods and machinery will be rendered
necessary. The grounds upon which the change is urged are, first, (p. 378)
the example of other nations and, second, the political and economic
progress which Italy has achieved within the past generation. Serious
students doubt whether the time is ripe for so radical a step. One
half of the proposed electorate would be wholly illiterate.[553]

[Footnote 553: For the text of the Giolitti
proposals see _Il Seculo_, June 11, 1911. On
Italian electoral reform see A. Piebantoni, La
riforma della legge elettorale (Naples, 1909); G.
Bandini, La riforma elettorale con la
rappresentanza proporzionale nelle elezioni
politiche (Rome, 1910); G. Sabini, La riforma del
sistema elettorale in