Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T15:37:16.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘centre’ between structure and agency: The Italian case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Mark Donovan
Mark Donovan*
Affiliation:
Cardiff University, UK
*
∗Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is widely accepted, among political scientists at least, that Italy's so-called ‘First Republic’ (c.1946–1994) had a tripolar party system while the ‘Second Republic’ has had, at least until 2008, a fragmented bipolar one. A superior conceptualisation of the party system of the ‘First Republic’ was provided by Paolo Farneti, and it remains relevant both for a better understanding of the current party system and for exploring party system dynamics, particularly the relationship between structure and agency in such dynamics. Farneti synthesised Sartori's 1976 analysis of tripolar mechanics with Galli's equally famous analysis of the party system (as one of ‘imperfect bipartism’) in terms of the coexistence of a subordinate bipolar dynamic and a dominant tripolar one. This article argues that the dynamics of the party system in the ‘Second Republic’, or at least the transition to it, can be conceptualised in terms of a dominant bipolar dynamic and a subordinate, tripolar one. This latter dynamic is significant, both empirically and theoretically, despite being subordinate.

Keywords

Party systemDominant structureSubordinate structureAgencyBipolarismBlocsMultipolarism
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , November 2008 , pp. 415 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baccetti, Carlo. 2007. I postdemocristiani . Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Bardi, Luciano, and Mair, Peter. 2008. The parameters of party systems. Party Politics 14: 147–166.Google Scholar
Bogaards, Matthijs. 2005. The Italian First Republic: ‘Degenerated consociationalism’ in a polarised party system. West European Politics 28: 503–20.Google Scholar
Budge, Ian, and McDonald, Michael D.. 2006. Choices parties define. Politicy alternatives in representative elections, 17 countries 1945–98. Party Politics 12: 451–466.Google Scholar
Bull, Martin J., and Rhodes, Martin. 2007. Introduction. Italy: A contested polity. Special issue of West European Politics 30: 657–69.Google Scholar
Corbetta, Pietro, Parisi, Arturo, and Schadee, Hans. 1988. Elezioni in Italia. Struttura e tipologia delle consultazioni politiche . Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Crouch, Colin. 2005a. Capitalist diversity and change: Recombinant governance and institutional entrepreneurs . Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Crouch, Colin. 2005b. Models of capitalism. New Political Economy 10, no. April: 439–56.Google Scholar
D'Alimonte, Roberto, and Bartolini, Stefano, eds. 2002. Maggioritario finalmente? La transizione elettorale 1994–2001 . Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
De Mita, Ciriaco. 1984. Ragionando di politica. Le prospettive della democrazia italiana negli anni Ottanta . Rusconi: Milan.Google Scholar
Di Virgilio, Aldo. 2006. Dal cambiamento dei partiti all'evoluzione del sistema partitico. In Partiti e caso italiano , ed. Morlino, L. and Tarchi, M.. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Donovan, Mark. 2004. The governance of the center-right coalition. In Italy between Europeanization and domestic politics , ed. Fabbrini, S. and Della Sala, V.. Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Donovan, Mark. 2005. Intra- and inter-alliance relations after the 2004 European and provincial elections. In Italian Politics. Quo Vadis? , ed Guarnieri, C. and Newell, J.L.. Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Donovan, Mark. 2008. The centre-right: Conflict, unity and permanent mobilization. In Italian politics: The aspiration for change , ed. Donovan, M. and Onofri, P.. Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Farneti, Paolo. 1985. The Italian party system . London: Pinter.Google Scholar
Follini, Marco. 2006. Un nuovo centrosinistra con i riformisti dei due poli. La Repubblica , 15 December.Google Scholar
Galli, Giorgio. 1984 [1966]. Il bipartitismo imperfetto. Comunisti e democristiani in Italia . Milan: Mondadori.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1984. The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration . Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Ginsborg, Paul. 2006. Is Berlusconi finished? London Review of Books , 6 April.Google Scholar
Green-Pedersen, Christoffer. 2004. Center parties, party competition and the implosion of party systems: A study of centripetal tendencies in multiparty systems. Political Studies 52: 324–41.Google Scholar
L'Espresso (2008). Verso il 13 aprile. Le preferenze settimana per settimana, L'Espresso . Available online at: http://speciali.espresso.repubblica.it/grafici/politiche2008/frameset.html (accessed 14 March 2008).Google Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott, and Torcal, Mariano. 2006. Party system institutionalization and party system theory after the third wave of democratization. In Handbook of party politics , ed. Katz, Richard S. and Crotty, William. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Mair, Peter. 1997. E.E. Schattschneider's The Semisovereign People. Political Studies 45: 947–54.Google Scholar
Mannheimer, Roberto. 2008. Destra al 3 per cento. Corriere della sera, 23 March.Google Scholar
Mastropaolo, Alfio. 2006. Antipolitica. Alle origini della crisi italiana . Napoli: L'Ancora.Google Scholar
McAnulla, Stuart D. 2002. Structure and agency. In Theory and methods in political science , ed. Marsh, D. and Stoker, G.. Palgrave: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Müller, Wolfgang. 1993. The relevance of the state for party system change. Journal of Theoretical Politics 5: 419–54.Google Scholar
Newell, James L. 2000. Parties and democracy in Italy . London: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Paolucci, Caterina. 2006. The nature of Forza Italia and the Italian transition. Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans 8: 163–78.Google Scholar
Pappalardo, Adriano. 2006. Italian bipolarism and the elections of 2006: End of the line or just a connecting stop? Journal of Modern Italian Studies 11: 472–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasquino, Gianfranco. 2003. A tale of two parties: Forza Italia and the Left Democrats. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 8: 197–215.Google Scholar
Pasquino, Gianfranco. 2004. The restructuring of the Italian party system. Paper presented at the Conference of the Political Studies Association, Lincoln, 5–8 April. Available online at: http://www.psa.ac.uk/journals/pdf/5/2004/Pasquino.pdf Google Scholar
Pasquino, Gianfranco. 2006. The Italian political system after the 9–10 April 2006 elections. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 11: 465–71.Google Scholar
Piretti, Maria S. 2003. La legge truffa. Il fallimento dell'ingegneria politica . Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Quagliarello, Gaetano. 2003. La legge elettorale del 1953. Dibattiti storici in Parlamento . Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Raniolo, Francesco. 2006. Forza Italia: A leader with a party. South European Society and Politics 11: 439–55.Google Scholar
Salvadori, Massimo. 1996. Storia d'Italia e crisi di regime . 2nd ed. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni. 1976. Parties and party systems: A framework for analysis . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni. 1982. Teoria dei partiti e caso italiano . Milan: SugarCo.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni. 1994. Comparative constitutional engineering: An inquiry into structures, incentives and outcome . London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni. 2006. Il bipolarismo frainteso. Corriere della Sera , 20 April.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni. 2007. Il bipolarismo non si uccide. Corriere della Sera , 21 November.Google Scholar
Smith, Gordon. 1989. Core persistence: Change and the ‘People's Party’. West European Politics 12, no. 4: 157–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verderami, Francesco. 2006. Partito democratico in bilico. Dl e Ds aggrappati alle radici. Corriere della Sera , 9 December.Google Scholar
Beyme, Von, Klaus, . 1985. Political parties in Western democracies . Aldershot: Gower.Google Scholar
Wolinetz, Steven B. 2004. Classifying party systems. Where have all the typologies gone? Paper presented at the Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association, Winnipeg. Available online at: http://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2004/Wolinetz.pdf Google Scholar