LOC11 Italian Politics in a Southern European Comparative Perspective

In a year marked by a crucial round of legislative elections in Italy, this section aims to take stock of comparative politics research addressing the contemporary transformations of the Italian political system. The section welcomes panel proposals dealing with the institutional political dimension as well as with the development of major decision-making processes, relating both to domestic policies and to foreign policy and international cooperation. 
The section therefore has a specific focus on Italian politics, while at the same time adopting an implicit or explicit comparative perspective. Its central idea is to develop a series of panels connected by a broader reflection on the shared trajectories and persistent differences among the democacies of Southern Europe: both those long integrated into the European Union system and those of the Western Balkans area, extending as far as Turkey. Panels may therefore include both research focused exclusively on the Italian political system — preferably framed within a comparative perspective — and contributions centred on intensive comparison among Southern European political systems.