All Outputs (93)

The Meloni government: consolidation and a return to politics (2025)
Journal Article

The Meloni government during 2024 was characterized by unexpected stability and consolidation of its political dominance. The year 2024 marked a return to ’politics in the strict sense’, following years of anti-politics and technocratic governance, b... Read More about The Meloni government: consolidation and a return to politics.

‘Masked Morality, a new theory variant to explain the changes in British gambling policy 2005-2023' (2025)
Thesis

This thesis considers British gambling policy since the passing of the Gambling Act 2005 until the publication of the Gambling White Paper on the 27th April 2023. It argues that overall, this policy has been a success but that vocal policy actors ha... Read More about ‘Masked Morality, a new theory variant to explain the changes in British gambling policy 2005-2023'.

Maestri of Political Science : Volume 3 (2024)
Book

This books fills a gap in reflective political science literature, but adopts a different focus to the usual thematic debates. It captures the people behind the contributions, their careers and their intellectual journeys. Moreover, in focusing on th... Read More about Maestri of Political Science : Volume 3.

The Italian Communist Party in the 1980s and the denouement of the Italian party system (2022)
Journal Article

The role of the Italian Communist Party (P.C.I.) in the denouement of the Italian party system in the early 1990s was decisive, its dissolution helping to trigger the organizational and electoral collapse of the existing parties. If so, the question... Read More about The Italian Communist Party in the 1980s and the denouement of the Italian party system.

Draghi's very Italian fall (2022)
Journal Article
Bull, M. (2022). Draghi's very Italian fall

The resignation on 21 July 2022 of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi was a classic example of the machinations of Italian politics. The outcome of a manufactured crisis and a manipulation of events by the parties of the right, Draghi’s fall was nei... Read More about Draghi's very Italian fall.

Whatever happened to the Italian Five Star Movement? (2022)
Journal Article
Bull, M. (2022). Whatever happened to the Italian Five Star Movement?

The Italian Five Star Movement – Movimento 5 Stelle – has undergone a formidable split. This, and declining popularity in opinion polls, marks the twilight of Five Star’s decade-long success – and possibly the end of populist politics in Italy Read More about Whatever happened to the Italian Five Star Movement?.

Journal editing and the Italian Political Science Review (2021)
Journal Article
Bull, M. (2021). Journal editing and the Italian Political Science Review. Italian political science, 16(1), 46-51

Martin J. Bull is Professor of Politics and Associate Dean for Research & Innovation at the University of Salford, and former Director of the European Consortium of Political Research. He is currently Editor of the Italian Political Science Review an... Read More about Journal editing and the Italian Political Science Review.

The Italian government response to Covid-19 and the making of a prime minister (2021)
Journal Article
Bull, M. (2021). The Italian government response to Covid-19 and the making of a prime minister. Contemporary Italian Politics, 13(2), 149-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2021.1914453

Italy was the first European democracy to be hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The government’s response, especially in the first wave, was confused, dilatory and inadequate, and the country found itself in an unprecedented public health crisis, leading... Read More about The Italian government response to Covid-19 and the making of a prime minister.

La risposta del governo italiano al Covid-19 e la "costruzione" di un primo ministro (2021)
Book Chapter

This chapter (which is an Italian translation of an article published in Contemporary Italian Politics) analyses the Italian government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the period until the end of 2020, and the impact this had on the political... Read More about La risposta del governo italiano al Covid-19 e la "costruzione" di un primo ministro.

A lesson in Italian democracy from the Maestro (2021)
Journal Article
Bull, M. (2021). A lesson in Italian democracy from the Maestro. Contemporary Italian Politics, 13(3), 384-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2021.1878646

Book review:
A lesson in Italian democracy from the Maestro
Italian democracy. How it works, by Gianfranco Pasquino, London, Routledge, 2019, 248 pp., €41.69 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-138-30186-3

Coronavirus : lessons from Italy on the difficulties of exiting lockdown (2020)
Journal Article
Bull, M. (2020). 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.

Beating Covid-19: the problem with national lockdowns (2020)
Journal Article
Bull, M. (2020). Beating Covid-19: the problem with national lockdowns

Lockdowns have now become a fact of life for many countries across the world, but even if they succeed in halting the spread of Covid-19, are they sustainable? This piece argues that lockdowns pose major challenges for European countries and the appr... Read More about Beating Covid-19: the problem with national lockdowns.

Italy’s “Darkest Hour” – how coronavirus became a very real political problem (2020)
Journal Article
Bull, M. (2020). Italy’s “Darkest Hour” – how coronavirus became a very real political problem

An experiment in following China's lead while trying to respect democratic norms is causing tensions.

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ghosts of West European communism live on (2019)
Journal Article

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... Read More about Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ghosts of West European communism live on.

Parliament has breached the spirit and intent of the Fixed-Term Parliament Act, rendering it meaningless (2019)
Journal Article

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 l... Read More about Parliament has breached the spirit and intent of the Fixed-Term Parliament Act, rendering it meaningless.

Whatever happened to the Westminster Model? The 'Italianisation' of British politics (2019)
Journal Article

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 g... Read More about Whatever happened to the Westminster Model? The 'Italianisation' of British politics.

The radical left since 1989 : decline, transformation, and revival (2019)
Book Chapter

This chapter assesses the trajectory and fortunes of the radical left in the period since 1989 as a means of providing a perspective on the significance of the 1989 events for this political area. After contextualising the importance of the 1989 revo... Read More about The radical left since 1989 : decline, transformation, and revival.

In the eye of the storm : the Italian economy and the eurozone crisis (2018)
Book Chapter

The eurozone crisis had a more significant and longer-lasting impact on Italy than on virtually any other member state, with the effects still visible a decade after. The extent of the shock was surprising in view of progress Italy had apparently mad... Read More about In the eye of the storm : the Italian economy and the eurozone crisis.

Italy Transformed : politics, society and institutions at the end of the great recession (2018)
Book

The decade commencing with the great crash of 2008 was a watershed period for Italian politics, involving fundamental and dramatic changes, many of which had not been anticipated and which are charted in this book, which analyses: the impact of the E... Read More about Italy Transformed : politics, society and institutions at the end of the great recession.

Introduction : Italian politics in an era of recession : the end of bipolarism? (2018)
Book Chapter

Italian politics have undergone momentous changes in the 2007-2017 decade under the impact of the eurozone crisis, whose peak in 2011-2013 could be equated to the earlier watershed years of 1992-1994. The lasting impact of the upheaval in Italian pol... Read More about Introduction : Italian politics in an era of recession : the end of bipolarism?.