The Italian Politics Specialist Group is organising three panels at next year's PSA Annual Conference, which will take place in Sheffield 30March-1April 2015.
Details of the panels and the respective call for papers can be found below:
1) POPULIST RIGHT IN EUROPE
(Panel organised in collaboration with the Comparative European Politics Specialist Group)
This panel aims at developing reflections on the key issues and trends concerning the populist right in Europe. Ideally, the panel can take the debate in two of our groups' previous publications in the field:
If you are interested in submitting an abstract, please contact Dr. Daniele Albertazzi (d.albertazzi@bham.ac.uk) or Dr. Arianna Giovannini (ariannagiovannini@gmail.com) to discuss the topic of your paper.
Please note that the deadline for abstract submission is Friday 3 October.
2) "THE PARTY OF THE LEADER - PERSONALISATION OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN ITALY: WHAT CONSEQUENCES FOR PARTIES AND PARTY SYSTEMS?"
Italy is
often regarded as an extreme example of the personalisation of politics, which
has been apparent in all or most democratic systems and which has manifested
itself in at least three ways. First, there has been a growing focus on, and
significance for, election outcomes of individual candidates and their
characteristics. Second, there has been a presidentialisation of party politics
as processes of mediatisation, the deconstruction of traditional cleavages and
therefore the alleged competitive advantages of charismatic leaders have
allowed them to acquire greater autonomy from their party machines to become
chiefly responsible for the substance of their campaigns and the policies they
intend to implement. Third, there has been the emergence of “personal and/or
personalised parties”, meaning organisations set up by individuals exclusively
to further their personal political ambitions and run on a more or less
patrimonial basis, of which Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, is of course the classic example. Besides, most
recently, the rise of (post-modern) leaders such as Matteo Renzi (Democratic
Party) and Beppe Grillo (5Star Movement) suggests that the personalisation of
political leadership is now becoming the norm – with huge impacts on the power
structures within the Italian political system and its parties.
While the
causes of such personalisation have been extensively studied and are well
known, rather less is known about its consequences
for political parties or for party systems. Certainly, there have been several
attempts to imitate the Berlusconi model in significant respects, but one can
envisage at least two alternative scenarios: either personalisation leads to
increased professionalization, centralisation and therefore cohesiveness of
political parties; or else it renders them increasingly fragile as the growing
independence of leaders from their parties leads their parties to feel more
independent of their leaders and therefore more inclined to rebel.
Against this
background, we invite papers that explore one or more of these themes focussing
either on Italy or on Italy in comparative perspective. Papers may focus on
individual parties or party systems. We are particularly interested in papers
offering to explore the above themes for the light they throw on the “Renzi
phenomenon” and how it is to be interpreted.
Paper
abstracts (circa 250 words) should be e-mailed by 1 October to: Arianna
Giovannini (ariannagiovannini@gmail.com)
and Jim Newell (j.l.newell@salford.ac.uk).
3) "CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN ITALY AND GREECE IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE EU ELECTIONS"
(Panel organised in collaboration with the Greek Politics Specialist Group)
The
consequences of the 2008 financial and economic crisis are still felt sharply
by EU citizens across the continent, and have given rise to a pronounced
polarisation of political, economic and social attitudes, both within and
across national polities. Within this context, Italy and Greece provide clear
examples of European countries whose economies have long been (and are still)
struggling to emerge from stagnation. In both countries, this has hugely
impacted on the stability, credibility and strength of their respective
political systems. Anti-politics feelings, and a general sense of
disillusionment towards ‘mainstream politics’, have spread very fast within the
Italian and Greek societies, often at the benefit of radical/extremist anti-EU
parties such as the 5Star Movement in Italy or the Golden Dawn in Greece.
Against
this background, the March 2014 European elections were expected to provide a
significant test for the ‘health’ of democracy in Italy and Greece. Many
political commentators and pundits saw the election of the EU Parliament as a
perfect platform for anti-establishment and protest vote – predicting the rise
of euro-sceptical forces in the two countries.
In
both Italy and Greece the results of the elections offered a number of
surprises. In Italy, it was the Democratic Party (a mainstream, pro-EU party)
that gained a large majority of the vote (40%), fending off Berlusconi’s Forza
Italia (17%) and, to some extent, managing to contain the recent rise of Beppe
Grillo’s anti-EU and anti-establishment 5Star Movement (20%). On the other
hand, in Greece, the results of the EU elections backed the EU wide trend. The
Golden Dawn elected its first MEPs, while SYRIZA, the Radical Left party,
managed to win the elections. This has been the first time that such a party
has won elections in Post-War Greece. In the meantime, the share of the votes
of the so-called mainstream parties (ND and PASOK) continued to fall.
Hence,
interestingly, despite the fact that Greece and Italy have experienced, to a
certain extent, similar conditions stemming from the economic and social crisis
and the austerity measures imposed on the two countries, there has been a
degree of political divergence. The political system in Italy has, perhaps
unexpectedly, shown signs of resilience and a certain degree of continuity,
whereas the deeply traumatised Greek political system is on the verge of
remarkable change. Nevertheless, beyond the first reading of the recent
electoral results, one needs to note that conflicting signs have emerged from
both countries with potentially unforeseen consequences.
The
aim of this panel is to provide a timely discussion on the developments in the
political landscape of Italy and Greece in the aftermath of the EU elections,
focussing in particular on how they have impacted/affected parties and party
systems; policies and reforms; the relationship between the two national
governments and the EU institutions; and, more in general, the state of
democracy. To this end, we invite papers that explore one or more of the
aforementioned themes focussing on Italy and Greece in comparative perspective.
Your
paper proposal (paper title, 250-word abstract, institutional affiliation and
full contact details) should be e-mailed by
6 October to: Dr Vasilis Leontitsis (v.leontitsis@sheffield.ac.uk)
and Dr Arianna Giovannini (ariannagiovannini@gmail.com).
