Contemporary Italian Politics最新文献

{"title":"Varieties of criminalization: Italy’s evolving approach to policing sea rescue NGOs","authors":"Federico Alagna, E. Cusumano","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2220186","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2220186","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The appointment of a new right wing cabinet in Italy has caused non-governmental search and rescue organizations once again to be condemned as a supposed pull factor encouraging undocumented migration, and to be subjected to new restrictions on their activities. The attempt to restrict non-governmental sea rescue is, however, far from new. This article describes the evolution of this criminalization process by comparing the policies enacted under four different Italian Interior ministers: Marco Minniti, Matteo Salvini, Luciana Lamorgese and Matteo Piantedosi. We argue that, although important analogies can be found in Salvini’s and Piantedosi’s political discourses, the latest Interior minister has departed from Salvini’s confrontational but ultimately unsuccessful ‘closed ports’ policy by strategically developing some of the subtler tactics adopted by Minniti and Lamorgese. These include, for instance, the imposition of burdensome requirements on organizations rescuing and disembarking migrants and the use of administrative rather than criminal legal instruments to impound ships. As they are less likely to face judicial review and/or cause political backlash than direct criminalization, these indirect hindrances provide more viable avenues for restricting NGOs, but also threaten dire humanitarian consequences, exacerbating the gap in rescue capabilities off the Libyan coast.","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48629602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Presidential power and bargaining complexity in the party selection of Italian heads of state, 1948-2022","authors":"Michelangelo Vercesi","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2197338","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2197338","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Among political scientists, presidents in parliamentary democracies have received little attention as compared to their popularly elected counterparts. Yet, there is evidence of influential heads of state beyond semi-presidential and presidential systems, and the Italian one is a case in point. Scholars agree that the ‘informal power’ of Italian presidents has grown substantially since the early 1990s, due to the combination of weak party organisations, the personalisation of politics, and the mediatisation of the presidency. While the literature shows that the choice of the president has become more salient for parties, hardly anything is known about the impact that the increased presidential power has on the complexity of the selection process. This article argues that, when presidents are powerful, parties face high adverse selection costs and, therefore, party leaders will be less likely to compromise on candidates. This, in turn, can lead to political stalemates. Using a novel measure of bargaining complexity, the empirical analysis supports this argument, which holds also after controlling for the contingent features of the parliamentary party set-up. The findings have implications for the study of political leaders and party behaviour at a time of party government decline.","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":"15 1","pages":"331 - 349"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46324917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Super partes? Ideological leaning of heads of state and their distance from prime ministers","authors":"A. Ceron","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2204259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2204259","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Presidents in parliamentary democracies are commonly perceived as neutral actors, with limited influence on everyday politics. However, Italian heads of state have the widest set of powers among European parliamentary democracies. Recent episodes occurring during the presidential terms of Giorgio Napolitano and Sergio Mattarella suggest that heads of state can indeed play a political role, influencing cabinet formation and day-to-day political events and processes. This article examines whether Italian heads of state can be considered non-partisan political actors or whether, in contrast, their ideological leanings can be inferred from their public speeches and declarations. By compiling and analysing a new and original dataset based on content analysis of presidents’ investiture speeches and New Year’s Eve messages, we mapped the political positions of Italian heads of state over 76 years (1946–2022). As such, the article investigates the conditions under which the position of the President is closer to that of the Prime Minister on the ideological left-right scale and on foreign policy. The analysis reveals that the ideological distance between them is lower when both belong to the same ideological party family and when the Prime Minister has been appointed to form a president’s cabinet, closer to the preferences of the head of state.","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":"15 1","pages":"350 - 364"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44881819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The ‘presidential accordion’ in times of crisis: is it still well tuned?","authors":"M. Tebaldi","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2199184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2199184","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article analyses the role of the President of the Italian Republic (PoR) as it relates to the process of government formation during the political, economic, and pandemic crises of the last three legislatures. The analysis focuses on the political actions of Giorgio Napolitano and Sergio Mattarella, the two Presidents of the Republic elected (and re-elected) as heads of state during those crises. To explain how the PoR operates when forming a government, the article examines the conditions allowing the functioning of the ‘presidential accordion’, i.e. the expansion and contraction of the presidential powers in the process of government formation. The presidential accordion hypothesis has been supported by many empirical studies focussing on the role of the PoR in the Italian parliamentary system. The aim of this study is further empirically to test the hypothesis in order to verify whether profound exogenous crises, such as recent economic and pandemic crises, can be considered as independent or intervening variables strengthening or weakening the PoR in the Italian political system.","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":"15 1","pages":"312 - 330"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46532732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Life, Death, and the Western Way of War","authors":"Davide Fammenghi","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2201465","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2201465","url":null,"abstract":"politics based on the conflict between the indignant people and the privileged élite, considered responsible for the worsening of the living conditions of the many. In this sense, Damiani (along with authors such as Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe) shows how the populist appeal is used differently by left-wing parties compared to the ultra-conservative right: inclusively rather than exclusively. An element that unites the parties considered is the emphasis placed on broadening the social bases of democratic participation. In particular, Podemos and FI have focused heavily on the involvement of their interlocutors through information technology platforms, in search of a party model that can replace, at least in part, traditional organizational forms. In the second part of the book, the author devotes three important chapters (‘Organization’, ‘Leadership’ and ‘Participation’) to precisely these issues, well showing how a possible new party model is still in the planning stage. In addition to organizational problems, other ‘dilemmas’ stand in the way of radical left parties, from their stances on the European Union to the delineation of a possible democratic sovereignty, and relations with other left or centre-left parties. Born with very radical and anti-establishment objectives, all three parties considered by Damiani have undergone complex processes of evolution. Syriza led an executive, effectively replacing Pasok as the largest party on the Greek left; Podemos has chosen to participate in a governing coalition with the PSOE, and in France, the Popular Union, promoted by France Insoumise, was a coalition agreement for the 2022 legislative elections between FI and the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the Greens. The longterm effect of these processes is still uncertain, but it is probable that the meaning of what the left might be in Europe in the future also depends on the contribution that the radical parties, well described in Damiani’s book, will be able to make.","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":"15 1","pages":"383 - 385"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45610399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"EU Migration System of Governance – Justice on the Move","authors":"Andrea Pettrachin","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2201898","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2201898","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44001206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The deinstitutionalization of Western European party systems","authors":"F. Venturino","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2201533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2201533","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44931667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"La mano invisibile dello stato sociale. Il welfare fiscale in Italia","authors":"Igor Guardiancich","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2201466","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2201466","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":"15 1","pages":"385 - 386"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49658540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparative Health Systems: A New Framework","authors":"P. Mattei","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2201467","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2201467","url":null,"abstract":"Americanization of the Italian welfare state, amid the timid protests of part of the labour movement. The distributive effects of fiscal welfare in Italy are studied by Figari and Matsaganis (chapter X) through EUROMOD simulations. The overall verdict is merciless: with regard to all tax expenditures, the poorest households (1 decile) receive 3% of the total, the wealthiest ones (10 decile) as much as 15%; that is, five times as much. Regressivity is not, however, equally distributed by social policy. The biggest offender is housing policy, where the ratio of benefits received by the wealthy vis-à-vis the poor is 10 to 1. Family benefits are instead mildly progressive and income support for workers mainly benefits the middle classes. The latter finding points to one of the major shortcomings of tax expenditures: those households, overwhelmingly poor, that pay no personal income taxes due to insufficient earnings are by default excluded from the majority of fiscal welfare measures. As for the volume’s final aim, Natili and Jessoula (chapter VI) provide a summary of the ‘quiet’ politics underpinning the expansion of fiscal welfare. Changes in tax expenditures are first and foremost difficult to trace, due to their technical nature and the need for only marginal legislative interventions, such as modifying obscure articles within yearly budget laws. This implies that the salience of such measures is low, as opposed to the fierce public debates that erupt around pensions or healthcare, and that the fora where fiscal welfare is debated are dominated by the technocrats of the finance ministry rather than by officials dealing with labour and social affairs. In sum, the impressive array of contributions assembled by Jessoula and Pavolini may become a key reference for Italian welfare state studies. Conceiving the volume as a point of departure for further research, I see three main avenues for improvement. First, more effort should be directed towards defining where fiscal welfare’s external boundaries lie and why. At times, the reader has the impression that the concept is excessively stretched. Second, tax expenditures should be studied within a European multilevel governance context. How has the expansion of tax allowances interacted with the rules set by the (now suspended) Stability and Growth Pact? Was it a deliberate strategy to shake off the shackles of externally-imposed austerity? Third, and related to the previous point, shedding social for fiscal welfare may be conceptualized as a novel type of obfuscation tactic, one aimed not at retrenching welfare, but paradoxically at expanding it.","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":"15 1","pages":"386 - 388"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49365172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Una democrazia possibile. Politica e territorio nell’Italia contemporanea","authors":"M. Sorice","doi":"10.1080/23248823.2023.2201468","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23248823.2023.2201468","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37572,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Italian Politics","volume":"31 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41303505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}