First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy

Description

It is difficult for Italians to have much faith in the future. The last Labour Minister said it was a good thing if young people emigrated, to stop them 'getting under our feet'; one recent Prime Minister said that young Italians should not invest their hopes in securing a stable job, for that would be 'boring', anyway. Examining Italy's history since the end of the Cold War, Italy is the Future argues that its dismal situation should not be understood in terms of a stereotyped narrative of Italian chaos or backwardness. In a country that could once boast Europe's strongest Left, Italy today epitomises the crisis of democracy in the West. The scandals of Silvio Berlusconi's rule, the pervasive corruption of public life and sky-high youth unemployment are indicators of a particularly sick society. Yet what is also apparent is the difficulty of any new force emerging to renew Italy's institutions, as its atomised citizens lose hope in political change. What has broken apart in Italy is not just its once-mighty Left but the very bases of social solidarity. The parties of the 1990s and 2000s directly express the social demolition wrought by neoliberalism, as isolated and endangered individuals face the consequences of the crisis alone. Not this or that political party, but public life itself, is in full-scale collapse

David Broder is a Rome-based writer and translator. He is a contributing editor for Jacobin magazine and regularly writes on Italian politics for publications including Internazionale.

In this well-researched and engagingly written book David Broder shows how the rise of Lega and of its current leader Matteo Salvini emerged out of decades of economic stagnation, social despair and political nihilism in Italian society. And how the abject failure of the Italian Left to represent workers' interests has contributed to the success of the Lega's nativism. -- Paolo Gerbaudo Expertly dissects the political and social trends that account for the League's revival since 2013. -- Tony Barber * Financial Times * No other book offers such a clear and concise analysis of just how much Italy has changed, for the worse in this neo-liberal world. -- Chris Bambery * Brave New Europe * Highly useful in understanding how politics have changed since the Second World War, and where Italy is going in the very unpredictable Europe of today. -- Nicholas Dima * Newsmax * David Broder has done us a great service with this succinct account of Italian neoliberal democracy, and he tells it well. If we see what has occurred in Italy as exceptional then we not only don't understand what has taken place, but we don't get the warning that what happens there can happen here. We have been warned. -- Chris Bambery * Counterfire * Broder unravels the mystery of how one of Europe's most stable democracies, boasting superb labour rights and a thriving manufacturing economy, became a basket case almost over night - plagued by political instability, poverty, and mass emigration. -- Robert Maisey * Tribune * Insightful -- Derek Gadd * The Article *