208 Days and Counting

Italy's relentless investigations into corruption are now focusing on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, himself elected in reaction to the shadiness of his predecessors. If scandal brings down his government any time soon, Berlusconi's will take its place among a long series of famously short-lived postwar governments in Italy, where the citizenry certainly take to heart Thomas Jefferson's dictum "that government governs best which governs least."

PRIME MINISTER

--Guilio Andreotti

(Christian Democrat)

LENGTH OF TERM

9 days (February 1972)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

The government loses a vote of confidence

PRIME MINISTER

--Andreotti, again

LENGTH OF TERM

10 days (March 1979)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

The government loses a vote of confidence

PRIME MINISTER

--Amintore Fanfani (Christian Democrat)

LENGTH OF TERM

11 days (January 1954)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

The government loses a vote of confidence

PRIME MINISTER

--Alcide De Gasperi (Christian Democrat)

LENGTH OF TERM

12 days (July 1953)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

Democratic Socialists refuse to support the government in foreign policy dispute

PRIME MINISTER

--De Gasperi, again

LENGTH OF TERM

120 days (February to May 1947)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

Ruling coalition fractures over economic policy

PRIME MINISTER

--Fernando Tambroni (Christian Democrat)

LENGTH OF TERM

123 days (March to July 1960)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

Controversy surrounds the government's support from neo-Fascists

PRIME MINISTER

--Mariano Rumor (Christian Democrat)

LENGTH OF TERM

130 days (March to August 1970)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

Strife erupts inside the governing coalition amid the specter of a national 24-hour strike

PRIME MINISTER

--Fanfani, again

LENGTH OF TERM

132 days (December 1982 to April 1983)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

The Italian Socialist Party withdraws from the ruling coalition

PRIME MINISTER

--Guiseppe Pella (Christian Democrat)

LENGTH OF TERM

140 days (August 1953 to January 1954)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

Coalition breaks down over right-wing bent of proposed Minister of Agriculture

PRIME MINISTER

--Ferruccio Parri (Action Party)

LENGTH OF TERM

156 days (June to November 1945)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

The Liberal Party withdraws from the governing coalition

PRIME MINISTER

--Giovanni Leone (Christian Democrat)

LENGTH OF TERM

166 days (June to November 1963)

REASON FOR GOVERNMENT'S COLLAPSE

The Christian Democrats form a new coalition with the Socialists