Anna Cento Bull

Lega Nord: A Case of Simulative Politics?

In contrast to recent research on the Lega Nord, which has focused upon the partys political discourse and propaganda, this paper re-examines the Legas success among a specific socio-economic and territorial constituency (industrial districts), in the light of the results of the 2008 political elections. The paper applies the concept of ‘simulative politics’ to explain the revival of the Legas electoral fortunes in its traditional strongholds, in the context of deep and unsettling socio-economic changes and growing feelings of (di)stress among both producers and residents. The analysis concludes that the success of the Lega Nord today can be best understood as a case of ‘simulative politics’.In contrast to recent research on the Lega Nord, which has focused upon the partys political discourse and propaganda, this paper re-examines the Legas success among a specific socio-economic and territorial constituency (industrial districts), in the light of the results of the 2008 political elections. The paper applies the concept of ‘simulative politics’ to explain the revival of the Legas electoral fortunes in its traditional strongholds, in the context of deep and unsettling socio-economic changes and growing feelings of (di)stress among both producers and residents. The analysis concludes that the success of the Lega Nord today can be best understood as a case of ‘simulative politics’.

Addressing contradictory needs: the Lega Nord and Italian immigration policy

ABSTRACT Cento Bull addresses the question of whether the Italian Lega Nord, when in government, pursues policies that contradict its rhetoric (politics of simulation or symbolic politics) or policies that are in line with its dominant discourse (politics of identity). Her analysis focuses on immigration policy because this is an area that links together economic issues (immigration is highly functional to the economy of those regions of Italy that form the Legas strongholds) and identity issues (immigration is seen as visibly threatening cultural values and disrupting community cohesion). She argues that recent legislation in this area, approved in July 2009, is formally in line with Lega rhetoric but also that actual policy outcomes contradict both the partys rhetoric and the legislation itself. This confirms the validity of the concept of ‘simulative politics’ in so far as it refers to a societal practice of self-deception, rather than simply to practices of deception on the part of political actors.

On agonistic memory

Building on Mouffe’s critique of cosmopolitanism, this article argues that a cosmopolitan mode of remembering, far from having superseded the antagonistic mode associated with ‘first modernity’ in the European context, has proved unable to prevent the rise of, and is being increasingly challenged by, new antagonistic collective memories constructed by populist neo-nationalist movements. This article outlines the main defining characteristics of a third ‘agonistic’ mode of remembering, which is both reflexive and dialogic, yet also relies upon politicized representations of past conflicts, acknowledging civic and political passions as well as individual and collective agency.

Democratic Renewal, Urban Planning and Civil Society: The Regeneration of Bagnoli, Naples

Antonio Bassolinos election as mayor of Naples in 1993 coincided with the final closure of the Italsider steelworks at Bagnoli. The new left administration saw urban regeneration as a unique opportunity to mark the beginning of a new era. The distinctive traits of the Bagnoli master plan were: in terms of procedures, traditional command-and-control planning tools and a rejection of a governance approach; in terms of content, a grand environmentalist vision. This paper explores Neapolitan ‘exceptionalism’ in urban planning during the Bassolino administration and those of his successors, with a view to assessing whether it can provide the European left with an alternative model to the currently dominant ‘city entrepreneurialism’ and whether and how it has successfully addressed the tension between efficient planning and democratic legitimacy.Antonio Bassolinos election as mayor of Naples in 1993 coincided with the final closure of the Italsider steelworks at Bagnoli. The new left administration saw urban regeneration as a unique opportunity to mark the beginning of a new era. The distinctive traits of the Bagnoli master plan were: in terms of procedures, traditional command-and-control planning tools and a rejection of a governance approach; in terms of content, a grand environmentalist vision. This paper explores Neapolitan ‘exceptionalism’ in urban planning during the Bassolino administration and those of his successors, with a view to assessing whether it can provide the European left with an alternative model to the currently dominant ‘city entrepreneurialism’ and whether and how it has successfully addressed the tension between efficient planning and democratic legitimacy.

Collective Identities: From the Politics of Inclusion to the Politics of Ethnicity and Difference*

Introduction There is now a vast literature on the Lega Nord, covering its electoral constituencies, its policies, and its leader, to its ideology, its populism, the role it played in helping to bring down the Italian First Republic, and the massive influence it has had in shaping the political agenda for the last decade. It may seem, therefore, that there is very little left to say about this party which has not been covered elsewhere. Nevertheless, if we start from the premise that the Lega Nord can only be properly understood by analyzing the interplay between three different dimensions, that is to say, an industrial periphery, a collective identity and a social movement/political party, then there is still a considerable way to go before we understand what has been going on in Italy in recent times.

Ending Terrorism in Italy

The book analyses in depth the leaders and members of both extreme-left and extreme-right terrorist groups, which operated in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s and in many cases were charged and convicted for their acts of violence. In the last two decades, and especially in recent years, former extreme-right terrorists have started to talk about their past involvement in terrorist violence, including, for the first time, acts of violence which have for decades been considered taboo, that is to say, bomb attacks against innocent civilians. Surprisingly, these narratives have not been systematically examined, yet they form a unique and extremely rich source of first-hand testimony, providing invaluable insight into processes of youth radicalisation and de-radicalisation, social re-integration of ex-terrorists, as well as personal and collective healing through cultural dialogue among perpetrators, victims and survivors. The memoirs construct ‘myths and plots’ about the past, that can be self-justificatory or indeed self-critical or penitent. They reveal the crucial importance of narratives in bridging the gap between rhetoric and action, in what is a dual process of ‘victimisation’ and ‘violentisation’, in which ideology plays an important, but not necessarily crucial, role. Post incarceration, the study further asks what was the specific role of the former Italian communist party (PCI, then PDS, DS, PD) on the one hand, and the former Neofascist party (MSI, then AN), on the other, in the process of disengagement and reintegration of the ‘terrorist subject’ back into the non-violent community. Finally, what has the role been of victims’ associations, commemoration ceremonies, monuments and other cultural initiatives in providing a wider context of ‘pacification’?

The Pinochet Regime and the Trans-nationalization of Italian Neo-fascism

Operation Condor was a Latin American organization—the relationship between General Augusto Pinochet and the Italian Neo-Fascists also provides a fascinating and unique picture of Fascism’s transnational features. Firstly, it demonstrates the persistence of transnational relations between Fascists and Fascist sympathizers over decades. The influence of Fascism on Chilean nationalist movements and the link between Pinochet and Junio Valerio Borghese, who represented a myth for different Fascist generations, is illustrative. This feature ensured the survival of the Fascist transnational network, which originated from the relations that revolved around the spreading of Fascism at a transnational level, throughout several decades. A further factor fostering the survival of the network was the logistic support provided by friendly regimes to the network’s members. Former Nazi and Fascist militants wanted for war crimes as well as Italian Neo-Fascists seeking to avoid judicial prosecution in Italy were all welcomed by sympathetic regimes such as Spain, Chile and Argentina. The opportunity of finding a safe refuge in those countries also promoted regular exchanges between the interwar Fascist generation and the post-war one. This chapter examines the dynamic transnational trajectories of Fascist militants and ideas and the resilience of relations within the transnational network. The collaboration between Pinochet and Italian Neo-Fascists was mutually beneficial—in 1975, they cooperated in the attempted murder of Bernardo Leighton in Rome. In 1976, thanks to the transnational links between Latin American Juntas, Fernandez Larios and Pinochet’s agent Michael Townley obtained fake Paraguayan passports which they used to enter the US and assassinate Orlando Letelier.

Soft power and dark heritage: multiple potentialities

Abstract While positively connoted tangible cultural heritage is widely recognized as an asset to states in their exercise of soft power, the value of sites of ‘dark heritage’ in the context of soft power strategies has not yet been fully explored. This article offers a theoretical framework for the analysis of the multiple soft power potentialities inherent in the management and presentation of sites of past violence and atrocity, demonstrating how the value of these sites can be developed in terms of place branding, cultural diplomacy and state-level diplomacy. The relationship between dark heritage, soft power and the search for ‘ontological security’ is also explored, highlighting how difficult pasts can be mobilized in order to frame positive contemporary roles for states in the international system. Drawing on this theoretical framework, the article offers an analysis of the case of the Soča valley in Slovenia and the presentation of the site of the First World War battle of Kobarid in a dedicated museum. Through this case study, the article underlines the particular role of dark heritage for the national self-projection of a new and small state in the context of European integration.

The Italian transition and national (non)reconciliation

Abstract This paper argues that Italys apparent inability to successfully complete the transition from the First to a Second Republic and renew its political institutions is at least in part due to the countrys failure to deal with its problematic legacy of political conflict and ideological confrontation. The analysis takes into consideration the growing literature on post-conflict national reconciliation, which is generally applied to countries experiencing a transition from an authoritarian regime to a liberal democracy and/or that have emerged from a bloody and prolonged civil war, rather than to democratic countries like Italy. Yet it can be argued that Italy went through a period of violent conflict in the late 1960s and 1970s which was directly related to the Cold War, and which has left a legacy of bitter divisions, antagonisms and recriminations, as well as preventing a truth recovery process about past crimes and the achievement of full justice through the courts. Indeed, since the collapse of the First Republic, Italy has shown extremely high levels of political conflict and mistrust. The paper argues that there are strong resistances to truth recovery from various social and political actors, and that in this situation many appear to favour a form of ‘collective amnesia’. Yet it is precisely the use of lies and amnesia that is preventing the emergence of tolerant identities and is fuelling mutually exclusionary narratives and interpretations of the conflictual past, as well as cultures of victimhood.

Governance through civil society? An Anglo-Italian comparison of democratic renewal and local regeneration

Abstract The UK has become a prime case for the implementation of the ‘new governance’ of partnership between central government and civil society. This perspective has become central to New Labour policies for both local socio-economic regeneration and democratic renewal in the United Kingdom. However, limitations in its redistribution of power, its transparency in the policy-making process, including the representativeness of civil society participants, and, in the effectiveness of its outcomes have all been alleged by academic critics. These issues are explored by contrasting a robust, British case of local, participatory governance in Bristol with a quite different, and more conventional approach to democratic renewal in the Italian city of Naples. Despite similar problems of socio-economic dereliction and similar schemes of regeneration in the two cases, the Italian approach emphasized the exclusive role of a renewed constitutional democracy, while in Bristol central government agencies promoted an accentuation of local trends to participation by local civil society organizations. Applying an analytical framework composed of national policies and regulations, institutional rules and norms, and the collective ‘identity’ factors identified by social capital theory, governance changes are here treated as ‘exogenous shocks’ and/or as opportunities for choice. However, over and above differences in these institutional frameworks the key factors are shown to be the longer-standing political cultures influencing local actors and their own repertoires of action; with repertoires influenced by objective validations of previous policy choices, or economic or electoral successes. The study finds that the achievements of the ‘inclusive’, participative governance approach do not significantly exceed those of an exclusivist, ‘neo-constitutionalism’, as practised by a more autonomous local government in Naples. Thus, on this evidence, enhanced civil society engagement still requires greater freedom from central government direction.