The Italian transition that never was

The recent argument that the notion of ‘transition’ should be set aside in attempting to explain the trajectory of Italian politics in the past two decades is to be welcomed, but does not go far enough in explaining why we, as Italianists, got our case wrong and how exactly we might get our case right today. The transitional ‘myth’ was born and maintained despite growing evidence of its inherently problematic nature, both in conceptual and empirical terms. The concept of ‘transition’ needs more serious conceptual treatment and empirical application, but even with this work it is unlikely to be concluded that Italy is in transition. Freeing Italy and Italianists from this conventional wisdom, while, at the same time, not abandoning the idea that something exceptional happened to Italian politics in the early 1990s, will help enrich the debate on the nature of the political change that Italy has experienced in the past seventeen years

Editorial. A new venture

Even if there ever existed a time when it could be argued that ‘interdisciplinary’ research was unnecessary or a luxury, there can be little doubt that today it is essential to helping understand and solve the world’s problems. And the first building block of trans-disciplinary research must be raising knowledge and awareness of what other disciplines are doing. It could be said that this is what lies at the heart of this new venture, for this journal aims to publish work from an extensive range of fields, thus bringing scholars from a variety of disciplines ‘together’, promoting greater cross-disciplinary awareness of major themes and debates, and hopefully prompting inter-disciplinary projects in the future. This, moreover, is very much needed because the challenges facing the social sciences today are probably greater than at any time in their history

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ghosts of West European communism live on

Germany marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 2019. This article argues that alongside the sweeping changes that occurred in central and eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War also had a lasting legacy for western European states. While the demise of western Europe’s communist parties after 1989 appeared to signify the passing of a burnt-out cause, it acted as a catalyst for change in the political space to the left of social democracy, generating new ideas and configurations that continue to shape politics today

Italy election : how populist Five Star Movement is wrecking government hopes for the mainstream

Italy's political future hangs in the balance – will it see another chaotic grand coalition, or take an anti-EU populist step into the unknown

Whatever happened to the Westminster Model? The 'Italianisation' of British politics

The UK was once viewed by political scientists as embodying a distinct majoritarian form of politics – the ‘Westminster Model’ – that stood in contrast to the ‘consensus’ democracies found elsewhere in Europe. Several of the countries in the latter group, such as Italy, were often assumed to be inherently prone to instability in comparison to the UK. Yet as this article explains, politics in Westminster now has some striking similarities with the Italian approach that once invited scorn from British observers

Parliament has breached the spirit and intent of the Fixed-Term Parliament Act, rendering it meaningless

By calling an early election, government and parliament have effectively breached both the spirit and intent of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act. The implications of this outcome are significant and suggest that the act is unlikely to survive another legislative session

Is Italy about to feel the Trump effect? Matteo Renzi's referendum and the populist threat

This article, published in the run-up to a constitutional referendum held in Italy on 4 December 2016, analyses the impact of the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency on the unfolding referendum campaign in Italy. It argues that it has made Matteo Renzi's attempt to get Italians to vote for the reform more difficult, as well as creating a situation of potential crisis if the vote goes against the reform and he resigns as Prime Minister as he has promised to do if defeated

Italy's new Prime Minister can't shake off the stench of a stitch-up

Only days after its prime minister resigned over a lost referendum, Italy found itself with a new government and a new prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni. But however smooth the transition was, the turbulent circumstances that led up to it were far from resolved. Despite the vote having widely been regarded as a political vote against former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, the new government resembles very much its predecessor, leading to accusations of a stitch-up

Coronavirus : lessons from Italy on the difficulties of exiting lockdown

Having brought cases of infection significantly down, the country is preparing to loosen lockdown measures