ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a model and a methodology to examine the reasons for the success of the right-wing coalition that won general elections in Italy in 1994, 2001, and 2008. It is a puzzle how a heterogeneous group of parties, which have at various times been described as fascist, populist, racist and xenophobic, could have been suddenly so successful, hold government for longer than any single government in the post-war era and retain a substantial following over time. In a country whose republican constitution was built on an anti-fascist consensus following the defeat of fascism in Italy in 1945, their initial appearance in government caused shock and surprise among external observers. This success requires an explanation, which we believe has broader implications for other European right-wing parties. To explain this continuing success of the right, the interactions within the
political system and between parties and society need to be examined in detail. We will make a connection between some key findings in the literature on the right and on populism, arguing that the success of the right in Italy lies in a unique and innovative interconnection between elements that characterise populist parties and traditional right-wing features that have however been reinterpreted and updated. We will argue that the Italian right has been successful because it has fostered and reflected an ideological isomorphism with society, and because it re-defined political space through populism and antipolitics. By thematising the interconnection between political ideology and social developments, we will propose a model for analysing the trajectory of the Italian right. In order to do this, we will show how a right-wing response as well as a populist response was facilitated by a set of changes in the Italian institutional set-up and in the responses of other political actors. We identify key areas of recent social change and trace their connections to the success of the right. We argue that a populist ideological focus based on values of antielitism, anti-politics and anti-state notions offered new opportunities to those political formations that could re-frame their ideological platforms in populist terms. We posit that the success of the three parties lies in their ability to interpret in a populist framework the need of individuals to re-define their territorial identities and the enlargement and re-definition of political space that recent social and institutional developments have made necessary. The
following chapters will support this model with analysis of party materials. First, a broader theoretical reflection is necessary.
