Special Issue on Italy: a Contested Polity
Author: Martin J. Bull
Publisher:
Published: 2007
Total Pages: 287
ISBN-13:
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Special Issue on Italy: a Contested Polity
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2007
Total Pages:
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKItaly - A Contested Polity
Author: Martin Bull
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-10-31
Total Pages: 310
ISBN-13: 1317968093
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDespite the promise of the new "Second Republic" launched in the early 1990s, Italy remains Europe’s least well-governed country. Fifteen years ago, politicians on the take and mafiosi on the make were supposedly pushed aside by a new generation of reformers and crusading magistrates. However, in this new book a team of leading experts on Italy uncovers little real progress. Badly needed reforms have foundered on bickering between the parties and their ego-centric 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 shambolic, and decades of periodic devaluation and deficit spending have left the economy structurally weakened. Italy’s politicians are not just masters of trasformismo (an ability to reinvent and present themselves anew to voters), but of stratificazione, or "layering", the introduction of new policies and institutions without replacing those that preceded them. The result is a damaging mix of obsolete and contradictory legislation, the product of bargaining over reform by chronically weak governments in a veto-ridden polity. The outcome – immobilismo – is a system in which all parties, and democratic government itself, are steadily losing legitimacy. This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.
Italy Transformed
Author: Martin Bull
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-06-09
Total Pages: 233
ISBN-13: 0429686277
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe 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. This comprehensive volume covers the impact of the Eurozone crisis on the Italian economy and its relationship with the European Union, the dramatic changes in the political parties (and particularly the rise of a new political force, the Five Star Movement, which became the largest political party in 2013), the changing role of the Trade Unions in the lives of Italian citizens, the Italian migration crisis, electoral reforms and their impact on the Italian party system (where trends towards bipolarisation appear to be exhausted), the rise of new forms of social protest, changes to political culture and social capital and, finally, amidst the crisis, reforms to the welfare state. Overall, the authors reveal a country, which many had assumed was in quiet transition towards a more stable democracy, that suffers an immense shock from the Eurozone crisis and bringing to the fore deep-rooted structural problems which have changed the dynamics of its politics, as confirmed in the outcome to the 2018 National Elections. This book was originally published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.
Italy Today
Author: Andrea Mammone
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010-02-25
Total Pages: 278
ISBN-13: 1135164940
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOffers an analyses of contemporary Italy. This book contains essays that aim to highlight the 'crisis' of the country.
Frustrated Aspirations for Change
Author: Mark Donovan
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2009-02
Total Pages: 308
ISBN-13: 1845456386
DOWNLOAD EBOOKUncertainty about the future of the government and strong anti-political sentiment dominated Italian politics in 2007. Following a government crisis in February, rooted in the question of Italy’s role in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Romano Prodi was able to re-establish his coalition, but in the spring it suffered a clear setback in local elections amidst a climate of growing unpopularity. Initial chapters in this volume analyse these events as well as some important initiatives aimed, in different ways, at containing public disaffection towards the political class: the establishment of the Democratic Party, the electoral referendum campaign, and Silvio Berlusconi’s announcement of the birth of a new, center-right political party. As demonstrated in following chapters, the government did still manage to achieve a degree of success during the year in combating tax evasion and reducing the budget deficit as a result of increased tax revenue and more effective control of public expenditure. A number of redistributive goals were achieved in this way, as the volume’s examination of government social policy makes clear. Final chapters complete the picture of the state of Italian society in a year characterized by a fragile government facing a number challenging issues subject to veto: the liberalization program and the uncompleted introduction of fiscal federalism, the ever-challenging management of the national health system, the role of the Bank of Italy, the relationship with the Catholic Church and the legislation on de facto couples, crime and security.
The Politics of Work-Family Policy Reforms in Germany and Italy
Author: Agnes Blome
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-11-25
Total Pages: 270
ISBN-13: 131755437X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOne of the fundamental challenges facing modern welfare states is the question of work-family reconciliation. An increasing share of mothers work, but many European welfare states do not adequately support the dual-earner model, especially in southern Europe. After 2005, German policy-makers transformed the nature of Germany’s family policy regime through a number of legislative measures, whilst Italy, a country with many similarities, witnessed little change. Using a multi-methods approach, this book addresses the puzzle of why Germany was able to implement far-reaching reforms in this policy area after a long impasse and Italy was not. As such, it delivers a broad, systematic account of these reforms and sheds light on why similar reforms were not also adopted in other similar welfare states at the same time. More generally, it contributes to understanding the determinants of welfare policy change in modern European welfare states. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and professionals working on topics linked to European politics, welfare and work-family policies, comparative politics, social policy, and more broadly to political science and gender studies.
European Politics
Author: Klaus H Goetz
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-09-13
Total Pages: 422
ISBN-13: 1317990005
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book arises out of a specially commissioned issue of West European Politics marking the journal's 30th anniversary. It examines the profound changes in the European political landscape over the last three decades, including the fall of Communism; progressive European integration; territorial restructuring; public sector reforms at European, national, regional and local levels; changes in democratic participation, protest, elections, political communication, political parties and party competition; and challenges to the welfare state. The book also discusses how political science has responded to these changes in terms of its substantive focus, concepts, methods and theories. Many of the 17 contributions included identify important challenges for the future, including those stemming from EU integration, the reduced electoral accountability of politicians, the problematic legitimation of party government and the sharpening of the edges of the state. Contributors include K. A. Anderson, F. C. Castles, C. Crouch, M. Egeberg. M. Ferrera, H. Goetz, L. Hooghe, E. M. Immergut, R. F. Inglehart, M. Keating, H.-D. Klingemann H. Kriesi, M. Lodge, J. Lovenduski, P. Mair, G. Marks, Y. Mény, L. Morlino, H. Obinger, V. A. Schmidt, P. C. Schmitter, and G. Smith. This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.
After Lisbon: National Parliaments in the European Union
Author: Katrin Auel
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-10-02
Total Pages: 179
ISBN-13: 1317380843
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe role of national parliaments in EU matters has become an important subject in the debate over the democratic legitimacy of European Union decision-making. Strengthening parliamentary scrutiny and participation rights at both the domestic and the European level is often seen as an effective measure to address the perceived ‘democratic deficit’ of the EU – the reason for affording them a prominent place in the newly introduced ‘Provisions on Democratic Principles’ of the Union (in particular Article 12 TEU). Whether this aim can be met, however, depends crucially on the degree to which, and the manner in which, national parliaments actually make use of their institutional rights. This volume therefore aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the activities of national parliaments in the post-Lisbon Treaty era. This includes the ‘classic’ scrutiny of EU legislation, but also parliamentary involvement in EU foreign policy, the use of new parliamentary participation rights of the Lisbon Treaty (Early Warning System), their role regarding the EU’s response to the Eurozone crisis, and the, so far under-researched, role of parliamentary administrators in scrutiny processes. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.
Dynamics of Change in the European Union
Author: Daniel Naurin
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-09-13
Total Pages: 243
ISBN-13: 113571391X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAgreements concerning inter-institutional rules in the treaties of the European Union often give rise to reactions and processes of adaptation within the EU institutions. Recent literature on EU legislative politics has increasingly examined decision-making within the EU institutions, but has largely overlooked how these internal processes react and adapt to changes in relations between the EU bodies. To fill this gap the authors present a series of empirical studies that examine how shifts in inter-institutional rules and procedures affect intra-institutional politics. They show that the resulting intrainstitutional adaptations may in turn both have distributive consequences and affect the efficiency of the initial inter-institutional reforms. In addition, they provide some stepping stones for theory-building on how treaty reforms affect organizational structure and decision-making within the EU institutions by outlining a series of mediating variables that link these two types of change processes. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.
