Special issue: Italy transformed: politics, society and institutions at the end of the great recession

Italian politics have undergone momentous change 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 politics in the early 1990s could still be felt in the decade of economic recession, but there were also new challenges prompted by a crisis that had its roots in international financial contagion and which unravelled under the shadow of both recession and austerity. The changes were of an economic, social, cultural, institutional, policy-oriented and political nature. If one central quintessentially political theme stands out by the end of this decade it is the apparent exhaustion of the quest for bipolarisation that was initiated in the early 1990s.

Articles:

+ Italian politics in an era of recession: the end of bipolarism? Martin J. Bull & Gianfranco Pasquino
+ In the eye of the storm: the Italian economy and the Eurozone crisis Martin J. Bull
+ The Italian welfare state in the crisis: learning to adjust? Stefano Sacchi
+ After and beyond amoral familism: the impact of the economic crisis on social capital Italian-style Raimondo Catanzaro
+ Trade unions and employment relations in Italy during the economic crisis Ida Regalia & Marino Regini
+ Electoral reform as an engine of party system change in Italy Marta Regalia
+ Protest in Italy in times of crisis: a cross-government comparison Massimiliano Andretta
+ Italian migration policies in times of crisis: the policy gap reconsidered Tiziana Caponio & Teresa M. Cappiali
+ The disappearance of political cultures in Italy Gianfranco Pasquino
+ Voters without a party: the ‘long decade’ of the Italian centre-right and its uncertain future Marco Tarchi
+ The Italian Five Star Movement during the crisis: towards normalisation? Filippo Tronconi
+ The Italian Democratic Party from merger to personalism Sofia Ventura