ABSTRACT
A comparative perspective on the Italian crisis – across both time and space – thus offers a unique vantage point to assess the origins, evolution, and societal responses to a period of heightened uncertainty and profound transformation. Nevertheless, the Italian economy – the fastest growing in Europe from the end of the Second World War to 1990 – had stagnated after 1990, and a large accumulated debt along with overextended national banks left Italy highly susceptible to bond market pressures as the regional crisis intensified after 2009. As in other Southern European countries, the Italian welfare state provided only a fragmented and porous safety net to cushion the impact of the economic crisis. The Italian case offers a novel twist to the general patterns of party system transformation during the Great Recession. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
