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Books by Leonardo Morlino

Oxford University Press, 2020

-An open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence -Provides empiricall... more -An open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence
-Provides empirically grounded analysis for politicians and voters to understand the possibilities and limits of democracy
-Examines how and why the two traditional democratic values (freedom and equality) are implemented in the largest European countries
-This wide-ranging study examines how freedom and equality have developed across a thirty year period since 1990, particularly focusing on the impact of the 2008 Great Recession

Papers by Leonardo Morlino

A democratic regime is assumed to implement freedom and equality as the two critical and most imp... more A democratic regime is assumed to implement freedom and equality as the two critical and most important values. The question we intend to address here is: how and why has the actual implementation of freedom and equality been changing in the 1990–2020 period? Researching this topic, we cannot ignore the impact of the Great Recession since 2008. Thus, in this comparative research, we analyse France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom to detect the changes. As expected, the six largest European democracies have been differently affected by the crisis, as they also had different background factors. We address an additional question: what is the impact of the European Union on the two democratic values? Accordingly, we analyse economic inequality, social inequality, and ethnic inequality with the related changing trends and explanations. We also detect and analyse the trend of freedoms, and especially personal dignity, civil rights, and political rights. Thus, the rel...

Oxford University Press eBooks, Oct 26, 2020

Oxford University Press eBooks, Oct 26, 2020

The Impact of the Economic Crisis on South European Democracies, 2017

The chapter starts with an analysis of the channels of political representation within democracie... more The chapter starts with an analysis of the channels of political representation within democracies, by emphasizing its diversity and interdependence. At the same time, it shows that one of the main effects of the 2008 Great Recession has been the decline of all institutionalized channels, be they through elections and parties, or be they through interest groups and associations. Indeed, the crisis of interest associations, trade unions included, and of neo-corporatist arrangements has been a factor of weakness in the management of the crisis: the governments lost one of the main factors of regulations through the interest intermediate structures. This situation is clearly new with respect to what happened during the crisis of 1929, in post-war reconstruction, and in some respects, even during the stagflation of the 1970s. The crisis of functional channels favoured the formulation of selective austerity policies that have ended up aggravating the effects of the crisis and at the same time have fuelled the use of non-conventional channels of political expression with protest movements. The chapter also highlights the national characteristics of the relationships among the different channels of representation, while emphasizing the flexibility in their use by voters as a common factor in all four cases.

Routledge eBooks, Jul 25, 2008

Oxford University Press eBooks, Oct 26, 2020

Equality, Freedom, and Democracy

The most salient empirical results can be summed up in a few points. First, despite the complexit... more The most salient empirical results can be summed up in a few points. First, despite the complexities and necessary distinctions, the consensual democracies with coordinated economies tend to have redistributive policy solutions and to correct inequalities. Second, the salience of the migration issue derives either from the consequences of the economic crisis (Italy, Spain, and France) or from basic ideological orientations (Poland). Third, with the Great Recession, the presence of new parties and populist parties became a distinguishing aspect of our six countries. Greater dissatisfaction and the growth of the new protest parties pushed the incumbent leaders to be more responsive. Fourth, we distinguish between a revendicative populism (leftist or inclusionary) and an identitarian populism (rightist or exclusionary). Identitarian populism mainly prevailed in Poland—but has a specific salience also in other countries: from France, with the Front National, to Italy with the League of ...

Democratization

This chapter examines the role of political parties in the processes of democratization, that is,... more This chapter examines the role of political parties in the processes of democratization, that is, during transition, installation, and consolidation, and the possible phases of democratic crisis. It first considers the definition of a political party within the processes of democratization before discussing how parties can be indispensable for the actual working of democracy. It then explores the actual role of political parties during transitions to democracy and during democratic consolidation, and in different types of crises. It also describes basic patterns of transition to democracy as well as key elements of democratic consolidation, including electoral stabilization and emergence of recurring patterns of party competition. The chapter shows that parties are dominant in the process of transition, even if not always hegemonic.

International Actors, Democratization and the Rule of Law, 2008

When analysing transitions towards democracy during the last three decades of the 20th century an... more When analysing transitions towards democracy during the last three decades of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, it is readily apparent that the variety of empirical processes is so wide that achieving meaningful theoretical results is extremely difficult, as the existing literature on the topic shows explicitly. This paper addresses the key theoretical questions that need to be dealt with by the empirical analysis of the transitional process. Are there key, recurring actors and factors that we should take into account when analysing all cases in depth? Why is a focus on installation (not only on transition) salient? Are there recurring patterns of successful transitions? Are there key recurring mechanisms that critically explain successful transitions? And are there obstacles that make it impossible to achieve a successful transition and doom such a process to failure? On the basis of existing knowledge in the subfield, an attempt is made to reply to these q...

International Actors, Democratization and the Rule of Law, 2008

Oxford University Press, 2020

-An open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence -Provides empiricall... more -An open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence
-Provides empirically grounded analysis for politicians and voters to understand the possibilities and limits of democracy
-Examines how and why the two traditional democratic values (freedom and equality) are implemented in the largest European countries
-This wide-ranging study examines how freedom and equality have developed across a thirty year period since 1990, particularly focusing on the impact of the 2008 Great Recession

A democratic regime is assumed to implement freedom and equality as the two critical and most imp... more A democratic regime is assumed to implement freedom and equality as the two critical and most important values. The question we intend to address here is: how and why has the actual implementation of freedom and equality been changing in the 1990–2020 period? Researching this topic, we cannot ignore the impact of the Great Recession since 2008. Thus, in this comparative research, we analyse France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom to detect the changes. As expected, the six largest European democracies have been differently affected by the crisis, as they also had different background factors. We address an additional question: what is the impact of the European Union on the two democratic values? Accordingly, we analyse economic inequality, social inequality, and ethnic inequality with the related changing trends and explanations. We also detect and analyse the trend of freedoms, and especially personal dignity, civil rights, and political rights. Thus, the rel...

Oxford University Press eBooks, Oct 26, 2020

Oxford University Press eBooks, Oct 26, 2020

The Impact of the Economic Crisis on South European Democracies, 2017

The chapter starts with an analysis of the channels of political representation within democracie... more The chapter starts with an analysis of the channels of political representation within democracies, by emphasizing its diversity and interdependence. At the same time, it shows that one of the main effects of the 2008 Great Recession has been the decline of all institutionalized channels, be they through elections and parties, or be they through interest groups and associations. Indeed, the crisis of interest associations, trade unions included, and of neo-corporatist arrangements has been a factor of weakness in the management of the crisis: the governments lost one of the main factors of regulations through the interest intermediate structures. This situation is clearly new with respect to what happened during the crisis of 1929, in post-war reconstruction, and in some respects, even during the stagflation of the 1970s. The crisis of functional channels favoured the formulation of selective austerity policies that have ended up aggravating the effects of the crisis and at the same time have fuelled the use of non-conventional channels of political expression with protest movements. The chapter also highlights the national characteristics of the relationships among the different channels of representation, while emphasizing the flexibility in their use by voters as a common factor in all four cases.

Routledge eBooks, Jul 25, 2008

Oxford University Press eBooks, Oct 26, 2020

Equality, Freedom, and Democracy

The most salient empirical results can be summed up in a few points. First, despite the complexit... more The most salient empirical results can be summed up in a few points. First, despite the complexities and necessary distinctions, the consensual democracies with coordinated economies tend to have redistributive policy solutions and to correct inequalities. Second, the salience of the migration issue derives either from the consequences of the economic crisis (Italy, Spain, and France) or from basic ideological orientations (Poland). Third, with the Great Recession, the presence of new parties and populist parties became a distinguishing aspect of our six countries. Greater dissatisfaction and the growth of the new protest parties pushed the incumbent leaders to be more responsive. Fourth, we distinguish between a revendicative populism (leftist or inclusionary) and an identitarian populism (rightist or exclusionary). Identitarian populism mainly prevailed in Poland—but has a specific salience also in other countries: from France, with the Front National, to Italy with the League of ...

Democratization

This chapter examines the role of political parties in the processes of democratization, that is,... more This chapter examines the role of political parties in the processes of democratization, that is, during transition, installation, and consolidation, and the possible phases of democratic crisis. It first considers the definition of a political party within the processes of democratization before discussing how parties can be indispensable for the actual working of democracy. It then explores the actual role of political parties during transitions to democracy and during democratic consolidation, and in different types of crises. It also describes basic patterns of transition to democracy as well as key elements of democratic consolidation, including electoral stabilization and emergence of recurring patterns of party competition. The chapter shows that parties are dominant in the process of transition, even if not always hegemonic.

International Actors, Democratization and the Rule of Law, 2008

When analysing transitions towards democracy during the last three decades of the 20th century an... more When analysing transitions towards democracy during the last three decades of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, it is readily apparent that the variety of empirical processes is so wide that achieving meaningful theoretical results is extremely difficult, as the existing literature on the topic shows explicitly. This paper addresses the key theoretical questions that need to be dealt with by the empirical analysis of the transitional process. Are there key, recurring actors and factors that we should take into account when analysing all cases in depth? Why is a focus on installation (not only on transition) salient? Are there recurring patterns of successful transitions? Are there key recurring mechanisms that critically explain successful transitions? And are there obstacles that make it impossible to achieve a successful transition and doom such a process to failure? On the basis of existing knowledge in the subfield, an attempt is made to reply to these q...

International Actors, Democratization and the Rule of Law, 2008

In recent years the agenda of how to ‘deal with the past’ has become a central dimen- sion of the... more In recent years the agenda of how to ‘deal with the past’ has become a central dimen- sion of the quality of contemporary democracies. Many years after the process of authoritarian breakdown, consolidated democracies revisit the past either symbolically or to punish the elites associated with the previous authoritarian regimes. New factors, like international environment, conditionality, party cleavages, memory cycles and commemorations or politics of apologies, do sometimes bring the past back into the political arena. This book addresses such themes by dealing with two dimensions of authoritarian legacies in Southern European democracies: repressive institutions and human rights abuses. The thrust of this book is that we should view transitional justice as part of a broader ‘politics of the past’: an ongoing process in which elites and society under democratic rule revise the meaning of the past in terms of what they hope to achieve in the present.