State Transformations and Neoliberalization in Italy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Governments’ Political Economy, 1988-2009

Austerity, the state and common sense in Europe: A comparative perspective on Italy and Portugal

“…Since the early 1990s, Italy has been undergoing a persistent process of neoliberal reorganisation of the state and the economy, through large-scale privatisation of public assets, a strong fiscal austerity programme, administrative decentralisation, welfare reforms and labour deregulation (Cozzolino and Giannone, 2019; Graziani, 1998). While framing this process as ‘a project of modernisation’, policymakers and economic elites have also insisted on its incomplete character—an ‘unfinished transition’—thus recursively calling for the adoption of more decisive reform policies aiming at the ‘full’ ‘modernisation’ of the country (Cozzolino, 2019; Ginsborg, 2003; Rossi, 2008).…”

“…the Treaty of Maastricht) that constrained the ruling elite to undertaking decisions that could undermine their political support. External constraints—either in the form of financial markets or simply ‘Europe’ as an empty signifier (Cozzolino and Giannone, 2019)—have become central in the discursive strategies used by policymakers to legitimise unpopular measures (cuts in public expenditure, tax increases, welfare retrenchment and labour deregulation) deemed necessary to redress the flaws of the Italian economy from the point of view of international markets (excessive public debt, low competitiveness). The implementation of more radical austerity measures during the sovereign debt crisis, enacted by a ‘technocratic government’ backed by European institutions, rested on similar discursive strategies.…”

“…In the early 1990s, during a severe currency crisis and amidst the atmosphere of ‘purification’ triggered by judicial investigations into political corruption, the technocratic cabinet led by Giuliano Amato, while undertaking massive budgetary cuts to repair the ‘excess’ and ‘spendthrift’ public budgets of previous decades, mobilised the rhetoric of ‘temporary’ sacrifice being ‘painful but necessary’. 9 In the late 1990s, centre-left governments (headed by Romano Prodi and Massimo D’Alema) explicitly acknowledged ‘the sacrifices’ made to fulfil EU demands, pledging that the European integration process would be ‘a great opportunity’ (Cozzolino and Giannone, 2019: 455). 10 At the end of 2010, Silvio Berlusconi optimistically foresaw a new year of economic recovery, though he added that ‘more sacrifices will be needed before we can enjoy [its] fruits’ ( Wall Street Italia , 2014).…”

“… 10 Cozzolino and Giannone (2019) analysed the Documento di Programmazione Economico-Finanziaria, that is, the main policy document of the Italian Republic, from 1988 to 2010.…”

Disciplinary effects of capital accumulation: Exploring the steering and fiscal capacity of the state in Italy and Spain

“…Rather, true to a thorough dialectical understanding of hegemony in the Gramscian sense, we aim to contribute to an encompassing historical – materialist investigation of the Italian and Spanish political economy. This study thus seeks to complement attempts at problematizing the link between accumulation, agents, interests and political projects both in Italy (Amable et al 2011; Amable & Palombarini 2014; Amyot 2004; Caterina 2019a; Cozzolino 2019a, 2019b; Cozzolino & Giannone 2019; Palombarini 2003) and in Spain (Bailey et al 2017; Buendía 2018; Buendía & Molero-Simarro 2018; Holman 1996; Huke 2017; Pérez & Rhodes 2014; Rodríguez López 2015).…”