Description
Book Synopsis In 2003, the government headed by Silvio Berlusconi attempted to take Italian public policy in a new direction. In social and labor market policy it challenged concertation; in foreign policy, it tried to transform the country’s traditional Europeanist position into a pro-Atlantic stance; within the European Union, it promoted an inter-governmental position. The government's plans to alter the status quo did not always succeed, due to tensions within the majority. The opposition, in the meantime, mobilized around the issue of peace and the Iraq war. European Commission President Romano Prodi responded to the Ulivo coalition’s fragmentation by proposing a unitary list for the 2004 European elections. There were also repeated attempts to change the features of public policy and political competition, countered by noteworthy forms of resistance.
Table of Contents Chronology of Political Events, 2003
Compiled by Marco Brunazzo
Introduction: Italy Between Europeanization and Domestic Politics
Sergio Fabbrini and Vincent Della Sala
Chapter 1. The Ulivo: Death or Transfiguration?
Michele Salvati
Chapter 2. The 2003 Local Elections: First Local and Then National Defeats for the Casa delle Libertà
Guido Legnante
Chapter 3. The Governance of the Center-right Coalition
Mark Donovan
Chapter 4. The End of Bipartisan Consensus? Italian Foreign Policy and the War in Iraq
Osvaldo Croci
Chapter 5. The Italian Presidency of the European Union: An “Abnormal” Semester?
Francesca Morata
Chapter 6. Science Against Politics or the Politicization of Science? The Reform of Research Agencies and the Debate over Research
Massimiano Bucchi and Federico Neresini
Chapter 7. RAI under the Center-Right: Wither 50 Years of Public Service Television?
Matthew Hibberd
Chapter 8. The Referendum on Article 18 and Labour Market Flexibility
Lucio Baccaro and Marco Simoni
Chapter 9. The Gianni Agnelli Funeral: A National Identification Rite
Gaspare Nevola
Chapter 10. "No to the War with No Ifs or Buts”: Protests Against the War in Iraq
Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani
Chapter 11. Italian Football between Conflict and State Aid
Nicola Porro and Pippo Russo
Documentary Appendix
Compiled by Susy Monica Lelli
