The impossible transition and the unstable new mix: Italy 1992-2012

How can the long process of change in Italian democracy (1992-2012) be analysed and explained? Answering this question requires placing the phenomenon of macro-political change of a democracy within a theoretical framework that will give answers to other questions: How should a transition from one type of democracy to another be analysed; have there been other cases of such a transition; what happened in Italy that brought about a change from a democracy to another one? By developing a theoretical proposal and providing a set of empirical data, replies are suggested to those questions and an explanation is given. Comparative European Politics (2013) 11, 337-359. doi:10.1057/cep.2012.41; published online 21 January 2013