Maccanico began his career at the
Chamber of Deputies as a referendary in June 1947 during the
Constituent Assembly of Italy period. He succeeded
Enrico Cuccia in the aforementioned post. Maccanico was appointed
Minister for Regional Affairs and Institutional Problems on 13 April 1988, and was in office until 13 April 1991; He was elected a member of the
Senate of the Republic on 6 April 1992 for the
Italian Republican Party and served in the post until 1994. Maccanico strongly argued that all parties should agree on the required reforms before the formation of the government. To overcome the television problem,
Telecom Italia presented an ambitious project for cabling Italian cities that would have allowed cable transmission, thus overcoming the reservations expressed by the
Constitutional Court of Italy on over-the-air television broadcasts; the government attempt failed due to the almost complete opposition of the opposing parliamentary groups. In the cabinet, he was part of the
Democratic Union, to which he had established earlier in 1996. He was the father of law no. 249 dated 31 July 1997 that was the basis of Italy's communications authority. It is also called the Maccanico Law. In 2008, he did not run for re-election as a deputy. ==Death and legacy==