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2004 was a year that threw into sharp relief the principal features of the present political conjuncture, that is, one in which the Italian political transition shows few signs of coming to a conclusion. 2004 was, therefore, a year of limited change, one in which reforms were announced but not fully achieved and where the few that were achieved were noteworthy for the compromises that were necessary in order to make them possible at all. It was, too, a year in which there emerged a stalemate between the center-right and center-left coalitions which, pending the regional elections of 2005 and the general election of 2006, took almost equal shares of the vote at the elections for the European Parliament.
This volume examines these elections, paying special attention to Forza Italia, the prime minister's party, and the workings of the governing alliance and gives a well-rounded overview over the year's most important developments regarding the government's approach to the European constitution, the new judicial system, and the pensions legislation - the only major reform actually completed during 2004.
List of contents
Introduction: 2004: A Year on "Hold"
Carlo Guarnieri and James L. Newell Chapter 1. Intra- and Inter-Alliance Relations After the 2004 European and Provinical Elections
Mark Donovan
Chapter 2. Elections in the Cities: Yet Another Defeat for the Center-Right
Guido Legnante
Chapter 3. Forza Italia after Ten Years
Jonathan Hopkin
Chapter 4. Playing the Wrong Tunes? Italy and the European Union in 2004
Mark Gilbert
Chapter 5. The Constitutional Reforms of the Center-Right
Salvatore Vassallo
Chapter 6. The Role of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance
David Hine
Chapter 7. The Reform of the Judiciary
Patrizia Pederzoli
Chapter 8. The Berlusconi Pension Reform and the Emerging "Double Cleravage" in Distributive Politics
David Natali and Martin Rhodes
Chapter 9. The Collpase of Parmalat
Marco Onado
Chapter 10. The Question of the Middle Class
Arnaldo Bagnasco
Chapter 11. Confindustria under Montezemolo
Gisueppe Berta
Documentary Appendix
Compiled by Debora Mantovani
About the author
James L. Newell is Reader in Politics, School of English, Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Salford.
Summary
2004 was a year that threw into sharp relief the principal features of the present political conjuncture, that is, one in which the Italian political transition shows few signs of coming to a conclusion. 2004 was, therefore, a year of limited change, one in which reforms were announced but not fully achieved and where the few that were achieved were noteworthy for the compromises that were necessary in order to make them possible at all. It was, too, a year in which there emerged a stalemate between the center-right and center-left coalitions which, pending the regional elections of 2005 and the general election of 2006, took almost equal shares of the vote at the elections for the European Parliament.
This volume examines these elections, paying special attention to Forza Italia, the prime minister's party, and the workings of the governing alliance and gives a well-rounded overview over the year's most important developments regarding the government’s approach to the European constitution, the new judicial system, and the pensions legislation – the only major reform actually completed during 2004.
