Although an Italian government remained juridically intact both with the ouster of Mussolini in 1943 and throughout the American and British occupation, it was not until 1946 that political leaders could come to grips with the task of giving shape to the postwar state. In June of that year Italian electors, who now for the first time included women, were summoned to vote on two important issues. One was a referendum on whether to maintain the monarchy. In this, 54 percent of the voters favored a republic. Despite a strong majority for the monarchy in the South and the existence of a Monarchist party there for many years, royalist sentiment evaporated almost immediately. The other issue was the election of an assembly to draft a new constitution. The voting produced a modest majority for parties of the center and right. But no single group dominated the drafting sessions and even in the face of the deepening cleavage at the time between the Communists and Christian Democrats, the final document represented a broad consensus and was approved by virtually all delegates except the Monarchists. It went into effect on the first day of January 1948.

The constitution created governing institutions essentially along the lines of orthodox parliamentary democracy. In their eagerness to erect barriers against the possible rise of another dictatorship, however, the drafters circumscribed these institutions with a variety of checks.