2013 Italian General Election (and beyond) - Italian Politics at a Crossroads? -- CALL FOR PAPERS

The Italian politics specialist group invites paper submissions for a one-day conference focussing on the future of Italian politics after the general election of February 2013, which will be hosted by the University of Birmingham in January 2014. 

Attendance to the conference is free of charge but registration will be required (details on how to register will be provided in due course).

Further details on the event can be found below:
 

2013 Italian General Election (and beyond) – Italian politics at a crossroads?

One-day conference, 17 January 2014, University of Birmingham

Organised with the support of the Political Studies Association, the PSA’s Italian Politics Specialist Group and the Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Italian general election of February 2013 can fairly be described as a watershed event, resulting as it did in a political stalemate. With the country more or less divided into three equal segments among which there appeared to be no viable governing combination it was not until the end of April that a government could be formed, and then it was only thanks to the fact that the election’s aftermath coincided with the need to elect a new President of the Republic. The centre-left appeared to have won the election by a wafer-thin margin – but it had no Senate majority and, most importantly, it emerged in front only by virtue of the fact that the haemorrhage in its votes was slightly smaller than the haemorrhage of votes for the centre right. Support for the populist Five-star Movement (M5s), at its first general-election outing, exploded dramatically, to make it the largest single party. As a consequence of the outcome, neither of the logics on which government formation had been based in the ‘First’ and ‘Second Republics’, the consensual and the majoritarian respectively, was any longer available. If therefore, the election seemed to mark the end of an era, the one that appeared to be being ushered in pointed in the direction of a highly uncertain future. The grand coalition that was eventually formed had as its main protagonists two parties that had hitherto found it difficult in the extreme to accord each other legitimacy as potentially governing actors while they were under pressure as never before to bring about reform of the institutions whose mal-functioning had to a significant degree been responsible for the 2013 crisis in the first place.

Against this background papers are invited which in one way or another provide reflection on the long-term effects that such a momentous election have had and are still having on the Italian political system and beyond. The organisers are keen to encourage submissions focussing on a wide range of perspectives/topics related to the elections and any other relevant poltical issue post-February 2013, but conceivably proposals might offer to examine:

• specific parties, their performances and prospects, the most obvious examples to mention here being the M5s, PdL, PD;
• political campaigns – e.g. strategies (including the use of new-media) and impact;
• the wider relationship between media and politics;
• the party system as a whole – bearing in mind the extent to which the events leading up to the election, and its outcome, were so closely bound up with the parties’ loss of authority thanks to disappointment of the expectations that had arisen from the political upheavals of the early 1990s and the initiation of the so-called ‘Second Republic’;
• popular attitudes – and especially the anti-political sentiments to which the parties’ loss of authority had given rise;
• government and policy-making, including the formation and programmes of the governments that immediately preceded and followed the election – both executives, in their different ways, representing novelties;
• post-electoral scenarios and current developments (inlcuding the most recent government crisis); 
• reflections on what many claim to be 'the end of the Second Republic', and future perspectives;
• the personalisation of politics and its long-term impacts on the italian political system;
• the role of Italy’s place in Europe (and beyond) – both from the perspective of its significance as a campaign issue and a factor in the election run-up, from the perspective of the implications for it of the election outcome, and under the Letta government.     

Paper proposals (max 300 words) should be submitted by 18 October to Jim Newell (j.l.newell@salford.ac.uk), Arianna Giovannini (a.giovannini@leedsmet.ac.uk) and Daniele Albertazzi (d.albertazzi@bham.ac.uk) from either of whom further details about the conference can be obtained. Abstracts and papers must be submitted in English but, due to the specialist focus of the conference, this event will be bilingual and papers can be presented either in English or Italian.

The event is supported by the Italian Politics Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association (PSA), the Department of Modern Languages of the University of Birmingham and the Political Studies Association (special activities fund).

PSA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2014 - CALL FOR PAPERS

The Italian Politics Specialist Group is promoting two Call for Papers for the next PSA annual conference, which will be held in Manchester (14-16 April 2014).

Details of the CfPs can be found below:

1)

‘The Day After Tomorrow’ – Italian politics and the long transition

Convenors&Chair:  Arianna Giovannini, Leeds Metropolitan University (a.giovannini@leedsmet.ac.uk); Antonella Seddone, University of Turin, Italy (asedd@tiscali.it)

Discussant:                             Daniele Albertazzi, University of Birmingham

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Italian general election of February 2013 can be described as a watershed event. Its results have been not only unexpected and indecisive – they have also put into question the very key values (and meaning) of the Italian political system.

As many commentators have argued, the startling outcome of these elections has provided ‘a shock to the system’ of Italian politics, especially for what concerns the ‘majoritarian bi-polarism’ which was achieved through a long and thorny process during the so-called Second Republic. And yet, whilst the precepts of the Second Republic may have started to crumble after February 2013, so far there has been no sign either of a clear break with the past, or of an emerging Third Republic. Instead, Italy seems to be muddling through a ‘long phase of transition’ – without a clear path and/or objective.

The aim of this panel is to develop a timely reflection on the Italian political system at this critical conjuncture, focussing on the idea that the current phase of transition is characterised on the one hand by new developments and on the other by strong signs of ‘resistance’ towards the radical change that much of the Italian electorate seems to be asking for.

Against this background, we welcome papers that will help to throw light on this momentous point in Italian politics, by exploring such issues as:

• New tendencies—looking in particular at: i) how traditional parties have tried to respond to the current climate, especially by redefining their organisational structures (e.g. primary elections within the PD; or the extent to which the PDL is trying/will have to develop strategies to overcome its over-personalisation, especially in light of Berlusconi’s recent trials); ii) the emergence of new movements/forms of parties (e.g. M5S) which have more fluid organisational dynamics, and use new-media as means and channels of participation/discussion
• The electoral law and its reform—focussing on the proposals put forward by the main political actors within the current government and the long-term effects these may have
• Political communication and its changing forms/dynamics—looking in particular at the relationship and/or the tension between new social media (such as twitter and facebook—which, many argue, are gaining more and more prominence) and TV and newspapers (which played a crucial role during the Second Republic and still provide a key source of political information for the electorate)
• Institutional change—looking at the effect that the recent reform of meso-level bodies (i.e. the disbandment of Provinces and re-allocation of their powers to Regions) will have on the decentralised structures/measures previously put in place and on the power geometry inherent to these
• The role of Europe and the changing attitudes towards the EU—focussing on how, whilst the Second Republic started with a strong emphasis on Europe (in spite of the austerity measures imposed by the parameters of the Maastricht Treaty), twenty years later the EU seems to have lost its appeal (and to some extent its legitimacy) amongst the Italian electorate, giving rise to more controversial feelings and perceptions of the European dimension.

Paper abstracts (250 words) should be submitted via email by 17 October to Antonella Seddone and AriannaGiovannini, from either of whom further details about the panel can be obtained.


2)

The Italian Politics Specialist Group (IPSG) and the Greek Politics Specialist Group (GPSG) intend to co-organise a panel at the 2014 PSA Annual Conference (Manchester 14-16 April 2014) under the theme “Economic and Political crisis in Greece and Italy in the context of Europe”.

In the last few years, Europe has faced its deepest crisis in decades. The crisis is predominantly economic in nature, but it has wider political and social implications. The countries of the South of Europe have been particularly hit by it and they have consequently been asked to implement tough austerity measures under mounting political and social pressure. The crisis has been discussed at length both within academia and the media. However, much less attention has been paid to the possible ways out of it and the extent to which the crisis itself might constitute a chance to ameliorate the long-standing politico-economic issues of the countries concerned. This panel aims at filling this gap.

Italy is the biggest country in both economic and population terms in the South of Europe and a key state in the European Union. Greece has been the country hit the hardest by the crisis and has faced the deepest austerity measures and reactions to them. Hence, comparing the experience of these two countries could yield some interesting insights on the ‘way forward’.

We thus welcome papers on the economic and political crisis in Greece and Italy against the background of Europe. The papers should follow a comparative approach and may discuss, but are not limited to:

• Policy reforms in Greece and Italy
• New political parties/forces that have emerged as a response/reaction to the crisis
• The way in which traditional parties have reacted to or adjusted their strategies in light of the crisis
• The role of media in the two countries in portraying the crisis and in spreading  specific perceptions of the EU and austerity measures
• The emergence of anti-politics feelings and their impact on the institution of democracy in Italy and Greece
• The future role and place of Italy and Greece in the EU

Proposals should include: title and name, e-mail address and affiliation of each author, and a paper title and abstract of not more than 250 words. Paper proposals should be sent by Thursday 17 October 2013 to Vasilis Leontitsis (Vas.Leontitsis@gmail.com) and Arianna Giovannini (a.giovannini@leedsmet.ac.uk) from either of whom further details about the panel can be obtained.

CALL FOR PAPERS

21st International Conference of Europeanists, organised by the Council of European Studies, 14-16 March 2014,  Washington DC.

CONGRIPS are organising a panel at this event and are looking for abstract proposals centred on the theme of the conference: ‘resurrections’ (full conference call here: 

http://councilforeuropeanstudies.org/conferences/2014-ces-conference/2014-conference-call).

We are looking for contributions from a variety of perspectives (from Italian politics in general, to political economy and public policy, territorial politics, party and electoral dynamics etc.), but comparative papers, which contrast and compare Italy with other European and also non-European countries will be favoured.

If you are interested in presenting a paper at this conference, please send the title and brief abstract of your proposed paper (max 250 words), by Monday 30 September to

laura.polverari@strath.ac.uk