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The State of Italian Democracy Between the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the 2020 Pandemic: A Season of Technocracy, Populism, and the Conservatives’ Comeback

2023; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.4555163

1556-5068

Marco Mari,

Populism, Right-Wing Movements

This paper is about the consequences of global crises on nation-states and, in particular, on how the globalisation downturns of 2008 and 2020 have produced an impact on the Italian democracy. Since both crises led to the collapse of the incumbent Italian governments and the appointment of technocratic prime ministers (Monti, 2011 and Draghi, 2021), the research will ground on the historical account of the selected period (2008-2022) a comparative analysis between the different leadership styles and political strategies of these two governments and the application of theories and cause-effect relationships that have been studied by prominent international scholars in the field of globalisation, democracy and its mild degenerations such as populism and technocracy. An additional consideration will be given to the role of the center-right parties and their conservative coalition, whose decline started with Silvio Berlusconi’s resignation at the beginning of the analyzed period and ended with Giorgia Meloni’s victory in the 2022 general elections. As the paper will point out, Italy represents a comprehensive case of all these theoretical connections and an interesting playground for political scientists that are interested in studying the future of democracy in the globalised world.