Contesting the centralized state: The Lega Nord and federalist reform in Italy

This dissertation examines current regionalist tensions in northern Italy, manifested in the rise of the Lega Nord (Northern League) party during the past decade. In particular, it analyses factors which, since the unification of the country in the mid nineteenth century, have contributed to the current thrust towards reform of the highly centralized state structure. Two central questions guide this study: What are the structural and institutional factors that underlie the rise of the Lega over the past decade? What has been the impact of the Lega and increasing regionalist tensions in northern Italy on Italian politics?;To address these questions, this dissertation focuses on three crucial factors in Italian politics: the origins and nature of the centralized state in Italy, recent economic and political shifts which have challenged central rule, and the emergence of new cleavages in Italian politics. I demonstrate how a highly centralized state emerged in reaction to extensive regional divisions throughout the Italian peninsula, particularly between the wealthier North and poorer South. In spite of the historically unpopular dominance of Rome, however, challenges to central rule have generally been weak and limited to peripheral areas.;In recent years, regional tensions have worsened as a result of economic and political shifts. In particular, the rise of small-scale enterprises and industrial districts in the North during the 1980s not only widened the gap between the North and South, but further undermined the power of the post-war political parties which helped to perpetuate the centralized state structure. The fall of the dominant ruling parties in the early 1990s provided a new political opportunity for a regionalist force like the Lega, which has mobilized on a platform of northern economic interests and opposition to a fiscal system which redistributes wealth from the North to the dependent South. Primarily as a result of the growing demand for autonomy in the North, there have been a number of legislative efforts towards federalist reform. The analysis of regional tensions and the rise of the Lega are set within a larger discussion of Italian state formation, changing party politics, regional reform, and clientelism.