Globalization, Italian Politics and the ‘Northern Question’

In the present time, the process of globalization and its destabilizing effects upon nation states are increasingly debated by economists, sociologists and political scientists, with varying ‘solutions’ being put forward to ensure that governance can still be both effective and meaningful and politics does not become subordinated to the exigencies of the ‘market’. This chapter argues that the process of economic globalization has a direct relevance for recent socio-political developments in Italy and can contribute to explaining the rise and success of the Lega Nord, as well as its more recent electoral decline. It also argues that current debates on the role of politics in the new global environment can help us understand the positioning of the other Italian political parties vis-a-vis both the project carried out by the Lega and the needs and demands of its regionally-based electoral constituency, as identified in Chapter 3. Indeed, the political debate in Italy revolves increasingly around the issue of the loss of economic competitiveness of the country in recent years and the choices the state is faced with in its efforts to devise a new political and institutional order and to both adapt and respond to the process of globalization.