Giulia Sandri

Italy: Between Growing Incongruence and Region-Specific Dynamics

Since the early 1990s the Italian political system has undergone substantive change. Politically, there has been the collapse of traditional political parties and the slow rebuilding of a new party system centered on bipolar competition and on an augmented salience of territorial politics. Institutionally, a number of reforms have changed local, regional and national voting systems, and brought about a stronger decentralization of power toward subnational units. These changes appear to have had an impact on the link between regional and national elections. Before the 1992–1994 political turmoil, Italian regional politics was argued to be a minor replication of national themes and trends (De Mucci, 1987; Tronconi and Roux, 2009). The patterns of voting behavior and the format of party competition in regional elections were considered to be completely dependent on national dynamics, the only differences being a lower level of turnout and slightly higher vote swings between elections. In contrast, regional elections appear to have started to follow a generalized pattern of ‘second-order’ electoral behavior precisely during the last two decades (Chiaramonte and Di Virgilio, 2000; Loughlin and Bolgherini, 2006; Tronconi and Roux, 2009). We aim to investigate to what extent regional politics has become independent from national dynamics in the sense of observed diversification of voting behavior between national and regional levels, and amongst regions.

Ethno-linguistic Identity and Party Politics in the Aosta Valley

The French-speaking minority within the Italian part of the Alpine region has been politically mobilized since the beginning of the twentieth century. The party politics of the Aosta Valley region have been traditionally shaped on the ethno-linguistic, rural–urban and centre–periphery cleavages. The main minority nationalist party claiming to represent the French-speaking community of the region is the Union Valdôtaine (UV). This paper aims to explore the role of the main political actor of this Alpine region, the UV. The UVs ideological positions will be analysed, and also its responses to the external pressures that the party is currently facing: gaining political representation, immigration, and the processes of European integration and of regionalization of the Italian state. On the basis of an analysis of party manifestos, this paper will argue that the UV has strategically employed identity issues to secure its political survival.

Francophone Exceptionalism within Alpine Ethno-regionalism? The Cases of the Union Valdôtaine and the Ligue Savoisienne

In their book Challenges to Consensual Politics: Democracy, Identity, and Populist Protest in the Alpine Region, Daniele Caramani and Yves Mény argue that the Alpine region displays a political culture characterized, among other things, by marked conservatism, nativism and Euroscepticism. Such transnational political culture manifests itself throughout the Alpine arch by the presence of successful ethno-regionalist, right-wing populist and Eurosceptic parties. In the same book, however, Michael Keating proposes a more nuanced thesis. While the above-mentioned characteristics are, indeed, predominant in the Germanic-speaking area of the Alps (with some spill-over effects in the Italian-speaking area), the French-speaking area boasts a more progressive political culture. The paper aims to explore this alternative thesis by analysing the ideological identities of two ethno-regionalist parties operating in the Francophone Alpine area—the Union Valdôtaine in Italy and the Ligue Savoisienne in France. The analysis substantiates Caramani and Menys thesis, revealing how most ideological aspects present in other Alpine areas, such as localism, traditionalist conservatism, work ethics and reluctance to share wealth with others, are very strong in Savoy and Aosta valley too. However, the lack or weakness of crucial populist radical-right ideological elements, such as open xenophobia, racism and Euroscepticism, appears to support Keatings alternative thesis.

La représentation politique des minorités linguistiques

Le Sudtiroler Volkspartei en Haut Adige, l’Union Valdotaine en Vallee d’Aoste et le Partito Sardo d’Azione en Sardaigne sont les principaux exemples de partis ethnoregionalistes historiques en Italie. Ces acteurs ont joue un role politique principalement au niveau regional, bien qu’ils aient tous obtenu a maintes reprises une representation au sein du parlement national. Dans le cadre de cette representation politique a multiples niveaux, cette etude vise a analyser les specificites des systemes de representations disponibles pour chacune de ces trois principales communautes linguistiques minoritaires en Italie: celle parlant la langue sarde en Sardaigne, celle germanophone dans la region italienne du Trentin-Haut Adige et la communaute francophone au Vallee d’Aoste. Le role de la langue en tant que vecteur identitaire qui permet de renforcer la cohesion des groupes minoritaires qui se mobilisent est examine ici. L’etude vise aussi a analyser dans quelle mesure la langue est un objectif politique qui guide l’action des trois groupes en question et des partis qui les representent.

La représentation politique des minorités linguistiques. Une analyse comparée de trois partis ethnorégionalistes d’Italie

Le Sudtiroler Volkspartei en Haut Adige, l’Union Valdotaine en Vallee d’Aoste et le Partito Sardo d’Azione en Sardaigne sont les principaux exemples de partis ethnoregionalistes historiques en Italie. Ces acteurs ont joue un role politique principalement au niveau regional, bien qu’ils aient tous obtenu a maintes reprises une representation au sein du parlement national. Dans le cadre de cette representation politique a multiples niveaux, cette etude vise a analyser les specificites des systemes de representations disponibles pour chacune de ces trois principales communautes linguistiques minoritaires en Italie: celle parlant la langue sarde en Sardaigne, celle germanophone dans la region italienne du Trentin-Haut Adige et la communaute francophone au Vallee d’Aoste. Le role de la langue en tant que vecteur identitaire qui permet de renforcer la cohesion des groupes minoritaires qui se mobilisent est examine ici. L’etude vise aussi a analyser dans quelle mesure la langue est un objectif politique qui guide l’action des trois groupes en question et des partis qui les representent.

La représentation politique des minorités linguistiques@@@Political representation of linguistic minorities: a comparative analysis of three ethno-regionalist parties in Italy: Une analyse comparée de trois partis ethnorégionalistes d’Italie

Le Sudtiroler Volkspartei en Haut Adige, l’Union Valdotaine en Vallee d’Aoste et le Partito Sardo d’Azione en Sardaigne sont les principaux exemples de partis ethnoregionalistes historiques en Italie. Ces acteurs ont joue un role politique principalement au niveau regional, bien qu’ils aient tous obtenu a maintes reprises une representation au sein du parlement national. Dans le cadre de cette representation politique a multiples niveaux, cette etude vise a analyser les specificites des systemes de representations disponibles pour chacune de ces trois principales communautes linguistiques minoritaires en Italie: celle parlant la langue sarde en Sardaigne, celle germanophone dans la region italienne du Trentin-Haut Adige et la communaute francophone au Vallee d’Aoste. Le role de la langue en tant que vecteur identitaire qui permet de renforcer la cohesion des groupes minoritaires qui se mobilisent est examine ici. L’etude vise aussi a analyser dans quelle mesure la langue est un objectif politique qui guide l’action des trois groupes en question et des partis qui les representent.

Still religious parties in Belgium? The decline of the denominational cleavage in the Belgian consociational democracy

The Belgian consociational model as it was instituted in the early 20th century was built along the denominational cleavage. It opposed three pillars: a catholic one, a socialist one and a (smaller) liberal one. The religious difference was not only observable in the political goals of each pillar, but also in the background and attitudes of their members. Catholics were hardly present in either the socialist and liberal organizations. Non-catholics were very rare within catholic organizations. Voting behaviours confirmed the religious base of Belgian politics and society. From the 1960s onwards, the picture changed a lot. The ongoing process of secularization has reduced the religious division among citizens and has affected pillar organizations from parties to trade unions. Yet, not very much has been said on the consequences of this evolution. Scholars hypothesised a “secularisation of the minds”, while noting that pillar organisations remained very strong. Nevertheless, few empirical studies demonstrate whether or not the religious division is in practice no longer decisive in shaping the belongings and attitudes of Belgian citizens. In this paper we aim at studying more accurately the salience of the religious cleavage in nowadays Belgium in two directions. First, electoral behaviours are studied to determine whether religion remains a decisive variable (with a new perspective of voting behaviours of Muslims). Second, party membership is analysed in order to verify whether contemporary Belgian parties remain or not religious- and pillar-based parties. This empirical evidence will help in determining whether Belgium faces a “believing without belonging” or a “belonging without believing” phenomena.