PROFESSIONAL REPRESENTATION. — Alongside the notion of political representation, that of professional representation, considerably different from it, has become increasingly well defined in recent decades: here representation does not operate in relation to the undifferentiated national society, but rather with regard to particular and circumscribed groups of individuals, distinguished by the common exercise of the same professional activity.
In this connection, it is well known that, in the Italian syndical-corporative system established by Fascism, professional representation assumed very considerable importance with regard to the single trade unions then recognized. These unions (precisely on the basis of the aforementioned legal presumption of representativeness) could conclude collective labor agreements (v.), binding on all those belonging to the corresponding categories; and various authors therefore spoke, in this regard, of representation of interests rather than representation of will. Today, however, following the entry into force of the Constitution of 1947, the situation has changed completely in this respect.
Article 39 of the Constitution in fact introduced full freedom of trade-union organization in Italy: it made the registration, with particular central or local state offices, of the numerous trade-union associations arising from it, even within the same sector, conditional upon their having an “internal organization based on democratic principles” (e.g., the election and social control of their leaders); and it further established that collective labor agreements, binding on all those belonging to the respective categories, could be concluded only by “registered trade unions, represented jointly in proportion to their membership.”
Under the current Italian legal order, trade-union associations may therefore be regarded, in relation to their members, as characterized by a common legal representation, in accordance with the rules contained in their respective statutes; whereas it is accurate to speak of genuine professional representation only with reference to the aforementioned commission, composed of the representatives of the various registered trade unions, which alone is legally placed in a position to interpret the interests of the entire corresponding category through the conclusion of the relevant binding collective agreements.
Finally, the tendency to constitute the second Chamber on a professional basis, by conferring upon the citizens composing each individual economic category the power to elect, in a special constituency, a fixed and proportionate number of their own representatives, although authoritatively supported within the Italian Constituent Assembly (especially by certain Christian Democratic currents), failed to achieve concrete results. Nevertheless, it continues even today to be encouraged in some circles, particularly with the aim of differentiating the two legislative Chambers more radically from one another: opposing to the generic political representation of the Chamber of Deputies the more technical professional representation of the Senate.