{"title":"Italian Politics","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the intricate world of Italian politics. Uncover the key events, figures, and ideologies that have shaped Italy's past and present. Browse our collection for insightful perspectives.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"italian-politics-book-robert-leonardi-9781855670471","title":"Italian Politics","description":"The sixth volume on contemporary Italian politics, this details events and changes, places them in both an historical and theoretical context and offers analysis by contributing authors. Topics of this review of 1990 include the Italian Communist Party and the effects of the World Cup.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49607156236561,"sku":"GOR013065678","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/185567047X.jpg?v=1750834234"},{"product_id":"much-ado-about-nothing-book-elisabetta-gualmini-9780857454577","title":"Much Ado About Nothing?","description":"The year 2010 marked the halfway point for Silvio Berlusconi’s fourth government with the solidity of its electoral mandate threatened on a number of occasions by strong clashes with the opposition, ultimately leading to a “divorce” from Gianfranco Fini. The upheaval that followed this rift dominated the second half of the year. This volume examines not only this rift but also the important political and social events of a period full of polemics and tensions, from the regional elections and the debate on fiscal federalism to the state of the opposition parties. The political agenda was consumed by everyday matters, such as the scandals surrounding the Civil Protection Service and the confrontations with the magistracy over phone tapping, and appeared to lack any strategic planning for the longer term. The reform of the university system was approved by a slim margin and still saw violent protests from its opponents. Then, all of the government’s actions were restricted by a return to austerity policies. Through the confidence vote of 14 December, the government retained its tenuous hold on power and left a sense of “much ado about nothing”. The crisis was averted, but possibly only postponed, and now there remains the unresolved, increasingly chronic problems of a country that is limping along without growth, more and more divided according to geographical areas, social and professional categories, and above all, torn between generations.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49611385438481,"sku":"GOR012816862","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49656750702865,"sku":"GOR012815402","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0857454579.jpg?v=1750819842"},{"product_id":"technocrats-in-office-book-aldo-di-virgilio-9781782384298","title":"Technocrats in Office","description":"In 2012, the spotlight was on Prime Minister Monti and his government of non-elected ministers. Early in the year, the new government's economic policy was effective in stopping the international downgrading of the country's credit rating. However, in terms of the entire year, the success of the Monti government appears less definitive. There were no clear achievements in terms of growth, and the structural features of the economy remained weak. Monti successfully initiated some reforms and policy changes, but there were failures as well. Furthermore, the odd majority (made up of the PdL, PD, and UdC) that supported Monti in Parliament performed more weakly than the government. The parties were to change the electoral law, reform the parliamentary institutions, cut costs, and reduce the privileges of the political class, but failed. Their inaction was accompanied by a series of scandals and crimes, all of which facilitated the emergence of new political forces, such as the Five Star Movement. When Monti eventually resigned in December 2012, President Napolitano called for new elections, and the parties redefined their proposals and lists. At the end of the year, the political and economic conditions of the country remained fragile.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49659023032593,"sku":"GOR012819152","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52754688508177,"sku":"NIN9781782384298","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1782384294.jpg?v=1750898357"},{"product_id":"return-of-berlusconi-book-paolo-bellucci-9781571816115","title":"The Return of Berlusconi","description":"In 2001, for the first time in the history of the Italian Republic, an opposition replaced the incumbent government as a consequence of an electoral victory. In the May General Election, the center-left government was ousted and a new right-right majority came into office. It would be premature to suggest that this election represents the birth of a new Italian political system, one that will be based on an ongoing alternation in government between two coalitions and a realignment of voters and parties. Nevertheless, the second Berlusconi government — aside from the various political judgments of it – undoubtedly constitutes an institutional and political novelty. This is not just because the left-left proved unable, in the election campaign, to exploit its achievements in office when confronted with someone with undoubted (if controversial) abilities, but also because of the likely impact of the new government on policy making and Italy's economic, social and international trajectory. This edition of Italian Politics evaluates the 2001 election and impact and analyzes the electoral success of the right, the election campaign, the crisis of the left-left after the defeat, and the composition of the new parliament.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49659039940881,"sku":"GOR012819682","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1571816119.jpg?v=1751244968"},{"product_id":"imaginary-revolution-book-michael-seidman-9781571816856","title":"The Imaginary Revolution","description":"\"[the book] offers a meticulouos and appropriately dispassionate account of the French events of May 1968. Contributing to a more complete picture of what occurred, the book would be worthwhile reading in courses on comparative experiences of the 1960s.\"  * Journal of Modern History \"All and all, this is a terrific book written in a lively narrative. Seidman provides us with a breadth and depth of knowledge and a balanced analysis that make his version of May 1968 usable for scholarly study as well as for the classroom.\"  *  H-France Review The events of 1968 have been seen as a decisive turning point in the Western world of even mythical significance. The author takes a critical look at \"May 1968\" and questions whether the events were in fact as \"revolutionary\" as French and foreign commentators have indicated. His conclusions are rather more ambivalent: culturally, he argues, the student movement changed little that had not already been challenged and altered in the late fifties and early sixties. The workers' strikes led to fewer working hours and higher wages, but these reforms reflected the secular demands of the French labor movement. \"May 1968\" was remarkable not because of the actual transformations it wrought but rather by virtue of the revolutionary power that much of the media and most scholars have attributed to it and which turned it into a symbol of a youthful, renewed, and freer society in France and beyond. Michael Seidman received his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of Workers against Work: Labor in Barcelona and Paris during the Popular Fronts, (1991) (Japanese translation, 1998) and of Republic of Egos: A Social History of the Spanish Civil War, (2002) (Spanish translation, 2003. He currently teaches at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49734499500305,"sku":"NGR9781571816856","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50790868844817,"sku":"CIN1571816852G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51427351920913,"sku":"GOR014271007","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51728489971985,"sku":"GOR001971680","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1571816852.jpg?v=1778147957"},{"product_id":"frustrated-aspirations-for-change-book-mark-donovan-9781845456382","title":"Frustrated Aspirations for Change","description":"Uncertainty 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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49735930839313,"sku":"NGR9781845456382","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845456386.jpg?v=1750930136"},{"product_id":"governing-fear-book-gianfranco-baldini-9781845457839","title":"Governing Fear","description":"In 2008, Silvio Berlusconi returned to power — thanks to a decisive electoral victory — to head a slimmer coalition whose cabinet consisted of members very close to him. The year began with the garbage crisis in Naples and ended in a climate dominated by economic uncertainty. In between some unexpected events happened: during the administrative elections, held with the general elections in April, the right in Rome claimed many victories; for the first time ever, a woman, Emma Marcegaglia, was elected President of Confindustria; and the Alitalia airline had to be rescued from the brink of economic collapse. For consecutive months, opinion polls gave Berlusconi an unprecedented level of popular support; those polled attributed their approval to either his ‘decisionism’ or to what they viewed as a successful strategy of continual announcements. Others pointed to the executive’s success in ‘governing the fears’ of Italians, which was helped by a change of register in the way the media dealt with issues of security. This volume shows that the politics of vetoes, which characterised the previous center-left government, could not conceal the structural, economic and social problems that still need to be resolved, a situation not helped by the fact that the opposition parties were still unable to develop an effective political strategy by yearend. With the contribution of Italian and international experts, the volume also addresses the issues of the difficult integration of immigrants, the mismanagement of public health and the reform of the education.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51091311100177,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51091313557777,"sku":"NIN9781845457839","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845457838.jpg?v=1751411602"},{"product_id":"return-of-politics-book-david-hine-9781571817983","title":"The Return of Politics","description":"By the spring of 1998, it had become clear that Italy, after considerable effort, had succeeded in bringing its public finances into line with the Maastricht parameters for joining the European Monetary Union. This was generally viewed as an important success of the Olive Tree coalition government led by Romano Prodi, and a sign that Italian political life had become normal. Nevertheless, the Bicameral Commission, which should have fostered a radical consitutional reform with the aim to stabilize and strengthen the bipolar structure of the party system and the majoritarian functioning of democracy in Italy, was dismantled in June. Moreover, in October 1998 the Prodi government suddenly collapsed because of the internal opposition of the Neo-Communist wing of its parliamentary majority, a further demonstration that the Italian transition towards a more effective democratic rule is far from complete. David Hine is Fellow and Senior Censor at Christ Church College, Oxford. Salvatore Vassallo is senior civil servant in the Emilia-Romagna regional government's Institutional Affairs Bureau and Professor of Public Policy Analysis at the University of Trento.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52751503851793,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52751504146705,"sku":"NIN9781571817983","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781571817983.jpg?v=1763557612"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-ie\/collections\/italian-politics-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}