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The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics

Online ISBN:
9780191755736
Print ISBN:
9780199669745
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics

Erik Jones (ed.),
Erik Jones
(ed.)
European and Eurasian Studies, SAIS Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University
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Erik Jones is Professor and Director of European Studies, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, and Head of Europe at Oxford Analytica.

Gianfranco Pasquino (ed.)
Gianfranco Pasquino
(ed.)
European and Eurasian Studies, Johns Hopkins University SAIS
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Gianfranco Pasquino is Professor Emeritus in Political Science at the University of Bologna and James Anderson Senior Adjunct Professor at SAIS Europe.

Published online:
11 February 2016
Published in print:
1 November 2015
Online ISBN:
9780191755736
Print ISBN:
9780199669745
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Italian politics offers a rich tableau for students of democracy and advanced industrial societies. Under the hegemonic influence of Christian Democracy in the early post-World War II decades, Italy went through a period of rapid growth and political transformation. In part this resulted in tumult and a crisis of governability; in part, however, it gave rise to innovation in the form of Eurocommunism and new forms of political accommodation. The great strength of Italy lay in its constitution; its great weakness lay in certain legacies of the past. Organized crime—popularly but not exclusively associated with the mafia—is one example. A self-contained and well entrenched “caste” of political and economic elites is another. These weaknesses became apparent in the breakdown of political order in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This ushered in a combination of populist political mobilization and experimentation with electoral systems design. The result has been more evolutionary than transformative. Italian politics today is different from what it was during the immediate post-World War II period, but it still shows many of the influences of the past. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the many different facets of Italian political life, both historical and contemporary.

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