The bill, put forward by the then Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi, and his centre-left Democratic Party, was first introduced by the government in the Senate on 8 April 2014.

Opposition parties and well-known jurists (such as Gustavo Zagrebelsky[7] and Stefano Rodotà[8]) harshly criticised the bill, claiming that it was poorly written and would have made the government too powerful.

[16] This proposal, which would also have considerably strengthened the powers of the prime minister, at the same time weakening the role of the President,[17] was ultimately rejected in the 2006 referendum.

In 2011, with the financial crisis ensuing and Berlusconi forced to resign from the position of prime minister,[18] the Parliament reprised discussions on constitutional reforms at the urging of president Giorgio Napolitano.

However, the first real breakthrough occurred when Matteo Renzi, the new Secretary of the Democratic Party, was appointed prime minister in February 2014.

As part of his government's program, Renzi pledged to implement a number of reforms, including the abolition of the perfectly symmetric bicameralism, with a substantial decrease in the membership and power of the Senate.

As well as effectively abolishing the current Senate, the package also included a new electoral law, aimed at giving the party that won the most votes in elections for the Chamber of Deputies a great many additional seats, allowing the formation of a stronger government.

Prime Minister Renzi was accused by some law scholars and politicians, such as Stefano Rodotà and Fausto Bertinotti, of being authoritarian and anti-democratic for proposing this reform.

[54] The main points of criticism the paper raises are the following: Later, in May 2016, other 184 law scholars and professors of various disciplines (among whom Franco Bassanini, Massimo Bordignon, Stefano Ceccanti, Francesco Clementi, Carlo Fusaro, Claudia Mancina, Stefano Mannoni, Angelo Panebianco, Pasquale Pasquino, Francesco Pizzetti, Michele Salvati, Tiziano Treu) signed, instead, an appeal in favour of the constitutional reform.

[95] Sardinia and South Tyrol, both constituent entities of the Italian Republic with special conditions of autonomy, reported overall the highest percentage[96] of No[97][98] and Yes[99] votes respectively.

After the first exit polls, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stated in a midnight press conference that he would resign the next day.

[101] The President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella asked Matteo Renzi to briefly postpone his resignation, to complete the parliamentary approval of the next year's budget law.

[105] To assure Italy stability, on 11 December 2016 President Sergio Mattarella gave Paolo Gentiloni the task of constituting a new government.