Introduction: One step forward or two steps back?—assessing the Italian transition

A great deal of academic literature on Italy since the early 1990s has addressed the themes of change and transition in the Italian political system, focusing in particular on the repercussions of the tangentopoli (kickback city) scandal and the political crisis of 1992–1994, the switch to a majoritarian electoral system, the collapse of the post-war party system and shift towards a bipolar party system based on centre-right and centre-left poles formed around a number of new and reinvented political formations, and the prospects of further constitutional change. The 2006 general election provided the latest turning point in what has seemed like an endless transition, resulting in defeat for Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government elected in 2001. Indeed, despite the relative stability provided by the unprecedented length of the term of office served by the Berlusconi government, the legacy of the 2001–2006 parliamentary term was one of greater uncertainty as to the outcome of the transition, given the further changes to the electoral law introduced and the constitutional reforms adopted by the centre-right administration. Moreover, the election result of 2006 left uncertainty over the future of the main political formations within both the centre-right and centre-left pole. The aim of this special issue is to shed further light on aspects of the Italian transition, focusing both on institutional processes and change in the party system and within the main political alignments, assessing developments since the 1990s. Given the general unpredictability of political actors in Italy, idle speculation would be foolish. However, the contributions—drafted in the main prior to the 2006 election—provide insights that not only help explain the developments of the last decade and a half but also help us to understand the journey that Italian politics is continuing on.