Understanding Electoral Politics in Contemporary Italy: Policy Preferences, Personalization, Partisanship and the Economy

This special issue aims to reassess our understanding of political behaviour in Italian elections in the light of the massive changes that the Italian party system has recently undergone in the context of the external shock provided by the 2008–13 Great Recession. A long-term dis-anchoring of voters from parties, ignited by political and economic turmoil, led to extreme party volatility in the 2013 election. In turn, this called into question the extent to which traditional determinants of voting still held. Partisanship has weakened, paradoxically ushering in both greater accountability and a greater distance of voters from electoral politics, as leaders’ images appear to have gained political relevance. Incumbents, from the national to the municipal level, have had a hard time achieving re-election, underlining anti-establishment attitudes that cut across party supporters. Economic discontent has reinforced these negative evaluations, which have fed populist appeals by new and old political forces. What are the consequences of such developments? For sure these are not unique to Italy. However, only in Italy have they taken place alongside a dramatic change in the party system since the late 1990s. This collection of articles addresses these issues, providing insights into the changing relationship between parties and voters in contemporary Italian politics by looking at party-voter links from various perspectives.