'Elections, governments, heads, and legislatures in Italy 1730-2021'

Francesco Bromo

Scholars frequently give attention to the case of Italy for the purposes of comparative research. Whether they are concerned with assemblies, cabinets, leaders, or most aspects of governance, Italy often features in studies involving parliamentary systems. To aid students interested in examining the Italian case, I introduce a comprehensive dataset that tracks elections, governments, heads, and legislatures in Italy from 1720 to 2021. The dataset covers the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720-1861), the Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946), and the Italian Republic (1946-2021). Primarily, the dataset fills the lacuna vis-à-vis the availability of pre-WWII data. In this research note, I display the features of the dataset as well as presenting one example related to premature dissolutions of the Italian Parliament.

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'Vote metropolitanization after the transnational cleavage and the suburbanization of radical right populism: the cases of London and Rome'

Mirko Crulli

Voters’ division into opposing territorial blocs seems to be a noticeable feature of current European politics, as traditional-left parties remain entrenched in the ‘centers’ and parties of the populist Right surge in the ‘peripheries’. This electoral dynamic is also affecting metropolitan areas, where inner districts represent the bastions of cosmopolitanism, while the outer ones the realm of ethnonationalism. In this regard, some authors argue that advanced post-industrial democracies are affected by a ‘metropolitanization of politics’ process. Against this backdrop, the present contribution advances the thesis that the emergence of the ‘transnational cleavage’ and its strengthening during the ‘long crises-decade’ (2008-2019) gave a boost to the electoral metropolitanization process. This thesis is tested on two case studies: London and Rome, the capitals of two countries where populist radical right forces proliferated in the 2010s and apparently widened the division between centers and suburbs.

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