The book seeks to understand Italy's approach to crises by studying the country in regional, international, and comparative context. Without assuming that the country is abnormal or unusually crisis-prone, the authors treat Italy as an example from which other countries might learn.
Part I: Introduction
1. Italy in Crisis: Eppur si muove [Matthew Evangelista]
Part II: The Political-economic Nexus
2. The Canary in the Coal Mine: Movements, Parties, and Populists in the Italian Crises [Sidney Tarrow]
3. Disembedding the Italian Economy? Four Trajectories of Structural Reform [Jonathan Hopkin and Julia Lynch]
4. The Trickle Down of Corruption: Italy, Mafia, and the Crisis of Legality [Fabio Armao]
Part III: Foreign, Energy, and Security Policy
5. Italian Foreign Policy after the Cold War: Enduring Crisis and the Limits of a Post-ideological Foreign Policy [Elisabetta Brighi]
6. Running in Chains: The Transformation of Italian Defense Policy [Fabrizio Coticchia]
7. Between Shocks and Crises: Changes in Italian Energy Policies from the Cold War to Today [Elisabetta Bini]
Part IV: Societal Change and Adaptation
8. Where Have All the Young People Gone? Generations, Family, and Work in Italy [Adele Lebano]
9. An Italian "Integration Crisis": The Role of the State and Political Actors in Excluding Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities [Teresa M. Cappiali]
10. Va pensiero: The Evolution of Italy's Information Society [Giampiero Giacomello]
11. Crisis and Improvisation?: A Historical Meditation on Italian Post-war Political Development [Mabel Berezin]
12. The Italian Crisis in Comparative Perspective [Kenneth Roberts]
Matthew Evangelista is President White Professor of History and Political Science and former Chair of the Department of Government at Cornell University, New York, USA.