Italy - A contested polity

Abstract

Despite the promise of the so-called 'Second Republic' in the early 1990s, Italy remains one of Europe's least well-governed countries. Optimistic expectations were generated in the early 1990s by an apparently new generation of reformers. However, this book, analysing in depth a range of sectors of the Italian polity, uncovers little real progress. Badly needed reforms have foundered on bickering between the political parties and their leaders. Both left and right-wing coalitions have been guilty of impeding the anti-corruption revolution. Little has been done to improve the quality of public expenditure: infrastructure and education systems remain poorly performing, and years of periodic devaluation and deficit spending have left the economy structurally weakened. Italian politics suffers in particular from 'stratificazione' or 'layering': the introduction of new policies and institutions without removing those they are replacing. The result is a damaging mix of obsolete and contradictory legislation, the product of bargaining over reform by weak governments in a veto-ridden polity. The outcome - 'immobolismo' - is a system in which all parties, and democratic government itself, are steadily losing legitimacy. This book brings together a range of Italian specialists who analyse different sectors of the Italy polity and what has changed in the past decade or so.

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2009
• Deposit Date: Feb 15, 2012
• Publisher: Routledge
• Series Title: West European Politics Series
• ISBN: 9780415472647
• Keywords: Italian politics; political change
• Publisher URL: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415472647/
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is a book version of a Special Issue of West European Politics (Vol. 30, No. 4, September 2007) under the same title, 'Italy - A Contested Polity'