Italy and Its Discontents

Ginsborg, Paul

doi:10.1007/978-1-137-11741-0

Cited by 130 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…This model of corrupt financing of bureaucratic mass parties collapsed in the early 1990s, for reasons that have been extensively discussed elsewhere (Bardi and Morlino 1994;Gundle and Parker 1996;Bufacchi and Burgess 2001;Ginsborg 2001). The system of corrupt exchange ('Tangentopoli') could no longer be sustained by the public finances, and the Mani pulite ('Clean Hands') investigations by magistrates in Milan and some other cities led to key political leaders being placed on trial.…”

Section: Business and Politics: The 'American Model'mentioning

confidence: 95%

Towards a chequebook democracy? Business, parties and the funding of politics in Italy and the United States

Hopkin

2005

Journal of Modern Italian Studies

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Journal of Modern Italian StudiesPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: AbstractThis article seeks to establish to what extent Silvio Berlusconi's entry into electoral politics as leader of Forza Italia signals an 'Americanization' of Italian politics. It argues that Italian party democracy is moving in an 'American' direction in two ways. First, Italian party organizations are declining, leading to a more candidatecentred type of electoral politics. Second, the decline of parties is enhancing the ability of business to use its financial clout to tailor public policy to its own requirements. However, these trends do not have identical effects in Italy and the United States. This article will also show that this process of 'Americanization' interacts with the existing political praxis and institutional framework of Italian politics to produce an outcome which differs from both the traditional Western European model and the American model of party democracy. It will be concluded that this outcome seriously undermines representative democracy in Italy.

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Section: Business and Politics: The 'American Model'mentioning

confidence: 95%

Towards a chequebook democracy? Business, parties and the funding of politics in Italy and the United States

Hopkin

2005

Journal of Modern Italian Studies

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“…In Italy, similarly, could be found many connections of family and personnel between the Fascist and the Republican elites. 126 The popular protests of '68 did not of itself refashion the technocracy of power, but it unquestionably turned a spotlight on the remaining elements of anti-democratic culture that marinated the technicians of power, and promoted a kind of purge by retirement, death, and replacement. In the backwash of '68, the authoritarian regimes of Greece, Portugal and Spain collapsed.…”

Section: IXmentioning

confidence: 98%

Revolution and the Whip of Reaction: Technicians of Power and the Dialectic of Radicalisation

Mulholland

2016

J Historical Sociology

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This article argues that sociologically informed studies of revolution tend to underestimate the importance of counter-revolution and 'reaction' in generating radicalisation. Revolutions are inherently political. Most accounts recognise this, but emphasise the executive organs of state -such as monarch, cabinet or ministers -at the expense of the intermediary 'technicians of power'. Revolutions, however, typically seek to refashion an entire technocracy of power, and in so doing struggle against embedded and powerful sites of reaction. Central to the dynamic of revolution is the 'purge' of the technocracy of power. As governing structures are not easily transformed at a stroke, revolutions may be seen as punctuating long processes of struggle. Historically, the governing apparatus has been most effectively revolutionised under conditions of military occupation. The thesis is illustrated here by a narrative of revolution in Europe from the English Civil War to the Liberation of the 1940s, with a coda on '68.

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“…Indeed, during the 2001 electoral campaign these international actors campaigned so explicitly against Berlusconi that the election was described as the first internationally contested Italian election. 63 On 4 May 2001 The Economist famously depicted Berlusconi as "unfit to lead Italy". These media outlets indirectly reinforced Italy's domestic opposition via Italian media.…”

Section: International Actorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Italy: a case of mutating populism?

Verbeek

Zaslove

2015

Democratization

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Italy is often presented as a showcase of populist parties. In the 2013 parliamentary elections, half of the Italian electorate voted for a party that has been labelled populist. During the 1994 -2011 period, Italy witnessed four coalition governments dominated by populists. In line with the framework guiding this special issue, Italy thus offers a unique opportunity to trace the reactions of political and societal actors to populists in government. We propose that it is necessary to examine not only how populism's opponents react, but also how fellow populists respond. Indeed, we observe in Italy, on the one hand, what we will call mutating populism and, on the other hand, a peculiar mixture of paralysis, antagonism, and imitation by their opponents. This contribution is structured as follows: first, we describe Italian populism in the context of the end of the Italian First Republic and the emergence of the new party system under the Second Republic. In the process we discuss events under the four Berlusconi governments (

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Italy and Its Discontents

Cited by 130 publications

References 0 publications

Towards a chequebook democracy? Business, parties and the funding of politics in Italy and the United States

Towards a chequebook democracy? Business, parties and the funding of politics in Italy and the United States

Revolution and the Whip of Reaction: Technicians of Power and the Dialectic of Radicalisation

Italy: a case of mutating populism?

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