Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

(2003). A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 115-115.

A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14494035.2020.1783790

Policy design and state capacity in the COVID-19 emergency in Italy: if you are not prepared for the (un)expected, you can be only what you already are

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fap.2013.14.pdf

When citizens decide: Lessons from citizen assemblies on electoral reform

The economic crisis has triggered a process of political convergence between Italy and Greece. The simultaneous downfall of the Italian and Greek governments, following the public withdrawal of European confidence in their ability to handle the crisis, was followed by the establishment of technocrat-led governments based on parliamentary ‘super-majorities’ and then by ‘protest elections’, marked by unprecedented levels of electoral volatility. By apparently ending bipolarism, the crisis has completely changed patterns of national government formation and resulted in experiments with unusual government types. Both political systems have entered a transitional phase whose outcome is anything but certain, especially in the continuing context of economic crisis.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13608746.2014.883192

Living Parallel Lives: Italy and Greece in an Age of Austerity

Whilst the Lega Nord has traditionally been defined as a regionalist populist party, since Matteo Salvini became its leader in 2013 it has undergone a process of profound ideological transformation...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13597566.2018.1512977

‘No regionalism please, we are Leghisti !’ The transformation of the Italian Lega Nord under the leadership of Matteo Salvini

Within the context of the devolution process in England, Cornwall and the North-East stand out in contrasting comparison. The North-East was given the opportunity to vote for a regional assembly, which it rejected in 2004, while the strong popular movement for an assembly in Cornwall was ignored by central government. This is reflected in the literature on the English question and regionalism in the UK, which focuses on the example of the North-East, and largely overlooks the grassroots support in Cornwall and the opportunities for understanding regionalism that this could provide. In this article, we explore why this might be the case, developing a comparison between the two areas in the context of the campaigns for setting up directly elected assemblies. We look at the territorial status of the two areas, how the respective campaigns were organised, the types of group involved, the motives that were driving activists, and each region's political significance to Labour. We find central control of the pol...

The Uneven Path of UK Devolution: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Regionalism in England – Cornwall and the North-East Compared:

The current process of devolving powers within England constitutes a significant change of governance arrangements. This process of devolution has been widely criticised for including insufficient consultation. This paper assesses whether that criticism is fair. Modifying Archon Fung’s framework for the analysis of public participation mechanisms, we begin by considering whether the depth of public engagement has been limited. Then, by comparing these consultation practices with other examples (including one we have ourselves trialled in pilot experiments), we find that deeper forms of public engagement would have been both possible (though at some financial cost) and productive.

/pdf/citizen-participation-and-changing-governance-cases-of-2kghrq126e.pdf

Citizen participation and changing governance: Cases of devolution in England

Un salto nel voto: ritratto politico dell’Italia di oggi

Referendums on regional autonomy are rare events in European politics, but are likely to produce important political and institutional effects. This paper provides the first systematic account of t...

/pdf/towards-a-new-era-of-regionalism-in-italy-a-comparative-2uck6m5zqd.pdf

Arianna Giovannini

Papers

‘No regionalism please, we are Leghisti !’ The transformation of the Italian Lega Nord under the leadership of Matteo Salvini

The Uneven Path of UK Devolution: Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Regionalism in England – Cornwall and the North-East Compared:

Citizen participation and changing governance: Cases of devolution in England

Un salto nel voto: ritratto politico dell’Italia di oggi

Towards a new era of regionalism in Italy? A comparative perspective on autonomy referendums