James L. Newell - Italys Contemporary Politics

James L. Newell

First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2021 James L. Newell

The right of James L. Newell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Newell, James, author. | Routledge (Firm)
Title: Italys contemporary politics / James L. Newell.
Description: First Edition. | New York: Routledge, 2020. | Series:
Europa introduction to | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020027090 (print) | LCCN 2020027091 (ebook)
| ISBN 9780367471323 (Hardback) | ISBN 9781003041900
(eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: ItalyPolitics and government2018
Classification: LCC JN5453 .N48 2020 (print) | LCC JN5453
(ebook) | DDC 320.945dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027090
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020027091

ISBN: 978-0-367-47132-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04190-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Taylor & Francis Books

My aim in writing this book has been to make Italian politics since the Second World War comprehensible to the interested outsider. The way I have chosen to go about this is by telling a story: a story that begins with the dismissal and arrest of Benito Mussolini on 25 July 1943, and ends with the return home of a 24-year-old aid worker, Silvia Romano, on 10 May 2020, nearly 77 years later. The reason I have chosen to go about the task in this way is that to tell a story is to present a narrative. Narratives tell us who we are, where we have come from, where we are now and where we are going; and whether we are aware of it or not, we live in, through and by narratives. They are what make social life meaningful. So, my invitation is to read the book as if it were a novel. If I have carried out my task successfully, then by the end of the book the reader should have achieved understanding. That is, Italian politics should be comprehensible in the sense that the reader is able to appreciate both the underlying mechanisms and causal links connecting the event with which we start and the one with which we end, as well as the reasons for the actions of the principal protagonists of the story.

Narratives inevitably reflect the biases of their creators in terms of what they include and what they leave out. The present one is no exception, and because of space limitations it could not have been otherwise. If having read this text the reader decides to delve into the subject matter in greater depth, then historical figures, institutions and processes which could have been but are not mentioned in the text can be explored first by considering the texts mentioned in the guide to further reading at the end of the final chapter and then by consulting the lists of references in those books.

I decided to write this book at the invitation of Routledges Europa Commissioning Editor, Cathy Hartley. The writing of the book was made practically possible thanks to periods as a visiting scholar at the universities of Torino, Urbino and Luiss Guido Carli between 2019 and the beginning of 2020. Franca Roncarolo, Luigi Ceccarini and Lorenzo De Sio were responsible for securing these visiting periods for me. To all three of these people I owe a debt of gratitude. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Alison Phillips for her painstaking work in copy-editing the manuscript. The result is a real improvement over the original. The responsibility for any errors in the text remains with me alone.

James L. Newell

June 2020

AN Alleanza Nazionale (National Alliance)

AP Alernativa Popolare (Popular Alternative)

BR Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades)

CAF Craxi-Andreotti-Forlani agreement

CGIL Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (Italian General Confederation of Labour)