The dramaturgy of horizons: geographical scale in the ‘Reconstruction of Italy’ by the new Italian political parties, 1992–1995

Abstract

The four major political parties in contemporary (1994–1995) Italy—Forza Italia, the Northern League, the Democratic Party of the Left, and the National Alliance—are brand new in name and ideology. Each of these parties has been constructing in its rhetoric and organization differing conceptions of the geographical scales—international, national, regional, local—in terms of how they understand ‘Italy’. The collapse of the old system of parties during 1992–1994 created an opening for a reorganization of parties more in line with recent trends towards a fragmented Italian political economy and society. The Italian case illustrates a more general point, that political parties must organize themselves and their ideologies through the ways they divide, order and organize space. There is an intrinsically geographical basis to the drama of organized politics even when all parties structure space in the same ways. This is only more obvious at times of dramatic political change when there are competing conceptions of how to organize potential constituencies and interests. Geography, therefore, is not ‘external’ to the operations of political parties, a Euclidean surface or stage upon which the drama of politics is played out. The drama of party politics is scripted in terms of the geographical horizons—national or otherwise—parties set for themselves.