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The Italian transition that never was

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

Martin J. Bull
Martin J. Bull*
Affiliation:
Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, University of Salford
*
∗Email: m.j.bull@salford.ac.uk
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Abstract

The recent argument that the notion of ‘transition’ should be set aside in attempting to explain the trajectory of Italian politics in the past two decades is to be welcomed, but does not go far enough in explaining why we, as Italianists, got our case wrong and how exactly we might get our case right today. The transitional ‘myth’ was born and maintained despite growing evidence of its inherently problematic nature, in both conceptual and empirical terms. The concept of ‘transition’ needs more serious conceptual treatment and empirical application, but even with this work it is unlikely to be concluded that Italy is in transition. Freeing Italy and Italianists from this conventional wisdom, while, at the same time, not abandoning the idea that something exceptional happened to Italian politics in the early 1990s will help enrich the debate on the nature of the political change that Italy has experienced in the past 17 years.

Keywords

TransitionItalypolitical changeItalian politicsItalian democracy
Type
Contexts and Debates
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 103 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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