This introduction explains how the contributors to this special issue draw on interdisciplinary approaches to explain why after 1992 -94 Italy never experienced a true transition and why the crisis has become systemic, affecting the entire Italian political, economic, financial and institutional system with far-reaching consequences for Italian society and its future.
In the early 1990s, Italy was drawn into a spiral of unprecedented transformation precipitated by changes that were taking place both inside Italy and on the international scene. Financial, political and institutional crises were superimposed in ways that brought into question the survival of the whole Italian system. This occurred at a moment when world geo-political relations were shifting dramatically and radically changing established relations, attitudes and policies and marked the beginning of a long period that is often described as a 'transition'. But since the outcomes still remain far from certain, it is necessary to consider how accurately this term describes what has been taking place in Italy over the last two decades. This paper shows how more careful identification of the different phases and components of the crisis enable us to understand why the upheavals of 1992-94 have led to a systemic crisis of the Italian economy and politics.
Hypothesis of periodizationIn the early 1990s, Italy embarked on a period of profound domestic crisis at a moment of international structural change. Everything seemed to be moving at the same time, making it difficult to place the crises and priorities that emerged within just a few months in any convincing order of magnitude. As the financial, political and institutional crises overlapped, controversy raged over the political system's prospects for survival and the political classes' ability to respond
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