The New Politics of Italy

Why have repeated attempts at reform in Italy since 1994 failed? What has happened to the Second Republic? This short and engaging text goes beyond standard empirical accounts of the current workings of government to offer a new interpretative analysis that develops arguments to locate Italy's missing Second Republic within the comparative context of European Politics. Twenty years after the Tangentopoli corruption scandal, the dissolution of the ruling Christian Democrat party, the emergence of a major new centre-right party and the introduction of a new electoral system, Italy continues to face many of the same social, economic and political problems. The dominant discourse has been of a second Republic, emerging in the 1990s and failing now, which was to have delivered major constitutional reform and a more representative relationship between politicians and voters. Since this has not happened, Italy is now said to face transition to a Third Republic. Paul Furlong argues that there has, in fact been no Second Republic, only a period of dissolution, in which some of what was positive as well as some of what was negative has disappeared. Furlong tracks the continuities with the First Republic as well as the major institutional changes in Italian politics, society and political economy since 1994, analysing how, why, and with what effects the Second Republic has gone missing and at what can be done. He argues that a Republic founded on commitment to European integration needs to find a new way of dealing with Europe and that many of the positive values of the First Republic - social equality, representative democracy pluralist citizenship and regional diversity must be reclaimed for Italy to regain confidence on the European and world stage.