Stabilizing Italy: 1945–1989

Abstract

In the study of settlement and stabilization, what is Italy’s claim on our attention? By stereotype, it may appear to be so politically unstable and unpredictable as to merit puzzlement rather than serious comparative analysis. All theories have to acknowledge outliers, but that should not be a licence thereafter to ignore them. A proper understanding of this issue should include the difficult cases as well as those held to be main stream. This chapter contends among other things that though its friends and its critics alike have argued to the contrary, Italy is not an exception, but has been and remains part of Western Europe in its politics as in so much else. Within that context, Italy is not a small or peripheral nation in economic terms. Here again, exceptionalism raises its head. Though it is the fourth largest economy in the EU, and a member of the G8 group of leading world economies, Italy’s voice is not a strong one in international circles. It is often argued that Italy punches below its weight in international and European affairs, and hence there is a tendency for it to be neglected as an international actor by academics. Domestic political factors, including the government’s instability and the lack of alternation among the governing parties, certainly encouraged commentators to treat it as an aberrant case in comparative political studies.