Left-wing Coalition Research Articles

German reactions to political changes in Italy after 2016

The article presents the view of German politicians and journalists on the political processes taking place in Italy, mainly concerning electoral rivalry after 2016. Opinions are analyzed on the causes of instability in the Italian political system, which led to early election in 2022, instead of holding it in 2023. After the government crisis, Italy opts for reforms that will reduce the effects of the energy crisis and tensions caused by the migration crisis and the war in Ukraine. Political rivalry in Italy takes place between the political parties that form an extreme right-wing or left-wing coalition. The main opponent of Enrico Letta, Giorgia Meloni from the Brothers of Italy party, calls for the strengthening of the position of the Italian nation and the position of Italy in the European Union.

The Communist Movement in Modern Uruguay: Strategies, Ideology, Challenges

Modern Uruguay remains a country in which the left-wing forces have high public support. Despite the results of the 2019 elections, the left-wing coalition “Broad Front” continues to be one of the main players in the political and economic life of the country. The Communist Party of Uruguay has been a member of the “Broad Front” since its foundation and has a significant impact on the formation of the program, tactics and strategy of the coalition. At the same time, in recent years, new political groups have appeared in Uruguay that share communist (marxist, trotskyist, leninist, etc.) ideas. The purpose of this article is to show the features of the modern communist movement in Uruguay. Based on media materials, party documents, author makes conclusions about the evolution of the communist movement in Uruguay in recent years, its problems and prospects in the context of the actual internal and foreign policy.

Radical left Euroscepticism meets government participation in Iceland: the case of the Left-Green Movement

ABSTRACT In the years after the Great Recession, the economic crisis was also followed by party system change in several European countries. This period witnessed some radical left parties (RLPs) coming into power or achieving significant electoral expansion. Nevertheless, in time, journalistic and academic accounts suggested that such parties started to experience the difficulty of responsiveness to their electorate while their Euroscepticism was moderated. Being in the first-ever left-wing coalition of Iceland in 2009, the Left-Green Movement (VG) also joined the zeitgeist of this era: a RLP associated with Euroscepticism coming into office for the first time in a changing party system after the outbreak of the economic crisis. Moreover, the VG also formed a controversial coalition with centre-right forces in 2017. Suggesting a new Euroscepticism typology and drawing from Mair (2007) and Mair (2009)’s distinctions between policy/polity scepticism and responsible/responsive government, this article investigates the impact of government participation on the responsiveness and Euroscepticism of the VG. It also questions whether there is an effect of the largely absence of the EU’s constraints in Iceland on the change of the VG’s Euroscepticism and responsiveness throughout its government experience. The analysis relies on semi-structured interviews conducted with VG MPs and party cadres.

Prospects for the government of Pedro Sanchez in the context of socio-political situation in Spain

The left and the right parties in modern Spain often approach many problems that the country faces very differently. In these conditions, the question of whether the left-wing coalition government led by Pedro Sánchez will remain in power until the end of 2023, when the next parliamentary elections are to take place, is of utmost importance. And if it does, will the Socialists win again, or will the initiative pass to the right forces? Government performance is assessed rather contradictory by the citizens of Spain and there are certain reasons for this. The country has embarked on the thorny path of overcoming the consequences of the pandemic. Many sectors of Spanish economy are recovering, the situation in the labour market has improved. But in general, the pace of economic recovery has not yet reached expected indicators and results. Inflation has risen because of rising electricity and gasoline prices, and the purchasing power of the population has declined. At the moment, the government’s prospects are largely determined by the relationship between the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and Unidas Podemos coalition. This relationship is very complex and contradictory, and as a result disagreements and conflicts arise quite often. An equally difficult question is whether the support of the separatist and nationalist parties of Catalonia and the Basque Country, without which the current government will lose its absolute majority in the lower house of parliament and cannot count on effective governance, will continue. The government’s choices are narrowed by the position of the right-wing parties that stand in stiff and uncompromising opposition and accuse it of complete irrelevancy. Tension reigns in public life with political situation remaining volatile and largely unpredictable.

Президентские выборы 2021 г. и начало нового политического цикла в Чили

The article analyzes the problems and specifics of the modern political process in Chile, the electoral campaign of 2021 and the results of the presidential elections that brought victory to the leader of the left-wing radical coalition, Gabriel Borich. Special attention is paid to the crisis of centrism as an ideological and political trend in Chilean politics, the new alignment of political forces on the eve of national elections, the programs and problematic points of the main candidates. The author examines the reasons for the increasing influence of radical ideologies (both on the left and on the right side of the political spectrum), the re-sults of the protest movement in 2019, the role of the constitutional process and the prospects for the implementation of the large-scale so-cial agenda of the elected president. The article highlights significant risks and challenges caused by mass public expectations and hopes for achieving the ideals of social justice and equality.

“It is not said that the current events will lead to the effective overcoming of the current order”

The Chilean last three years` events have aroused great interest. For not only has there been a social uprising that shook the prevailing neoliberal system. Reorganization of the political forces has been taking place. New actors from the social world have rushed into political life and a left-wing coalition headed by Gabriel Boric has come to power. In order to address these events and understand their causes, we have interviewed the prominent Chilean historian Sergio Grez Toso, who sheds light upon possible clues about the current Chilean situation.

From Polarization to Hate: Portrait of the Spanish Political Meme

Political polarization in Spain has been aggravated by a left-wing coalition government and the rise of the extreme right in the context of health and economic crisis created by COVID-19. This article delves into the collective story that memes offer of this context and aims to establish a categorization that can be used for comparison with other countries. We carried out a content analysis of 636 Spanish political memes published on Twitter throughout 2020. Current affairs were taken into account, as well as the frame, and rhetorical elements, references to popular culture, and symbols. We also took into consideration the objectives of the message and the presence of offensive content. We demonstrate that these memes do not play a subversive role, but rather contribute to the polarization and fragmentation of the digital public, echoing the existing ideological confrontation. They do not deliver new ideas, but only reproduce expressions and disqualifications already existing in the society, although the disinhibition of anonymity magnifies the intensity. Current affairs are an excuse to convey ideological position, and political communication becomes more emotional. There are no significant differences in terms of political polarization between left and right, and criticism toward politicians is mainly of personal and moral nature. Hate speech on other social media appears in these cultural creations, highlighting the misogyny toward women politicians regardless of their political party. The rhetorical and expressive resources are adapted to this confrontation, and there is little innovation because it is subject to the understanding of the message.

The Judgment That Wasn’t (But Which Nearly Brought Poland to a Standstill)

The Constitutional Tribunal (hereafter: the Tribunal), firmly controlled by the Law and Justice party and chaired by Mrs Julia Przylebska, who was unlawfully appointed to the position of the President of the Tribunal (though properly elected, earlier, as a judge of the Tribunal), as part of a panel partly comprised of persons not legally appointed judges of the Tribunal, announced that provisions of the law allowing pregnancies to be terminated when there is a high probability of a severe or irreversible foetal impairment or when the foetus is diagnosed with an incurable and life-threatening disease – are unconstitutional. 2 Hours later, the streets of cities and towns, large and small, all over Poland, teemed with tens of thousands and later hundreds of thousands of protesters loudly proclaiming their opposition – frequently using expletives so far unheard of in public spaces – to this assault on fundamental human rights paraded as a legitimate judicial act as part of the Tribunal’s constitutional review of legislation. 3 The protest, initially aimed at the Tribunal’s pronouncement, quickly turned into a global protest against the Law and Justice party’s rule over Poland in general, at first triggering incredulity in government circles and then prompting a series of nervous reactions from them. The ‘compromise’ consisted of a generalised ban on abortion save in three situations: (i) when pregnancy posed a threat to the woman’s life or health (regardless of the stage of development of the foetus);(ii) when pre-natal tests or other medical procedures indicated a high probability of a severe and irreversible foetal impairment or when the foetus is found to be afflicted with an incurable and life-threatening disease (prior to the foetus becoming viable outside the body of the pregnant woman);and (iii) when there are legitimate reasons to suspect that the pregnancy is a result of a prohibited act, such as rape or incest (in which case abortion was allowed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy). [...]from day one, legislation in Poland has been shaped without regard to the prevailing standards for women’s rights and the protection of reproductive rights. The first move to amend the law was made in 1996 when the then ruling left-wing coalition voted to allow pregnancies to be terminated by women finding themselves in difficult living conditions or dramatic personal circumstances. 10 On 28 May 1997, however, the full panel of 12 judges of the Tribunal ruled – with three dissenting opinions – the latter amendment unconstitutional. 11 The Tribunal argued that the so-called ‘social premise’ for abortion, ‘serves to legalise the termination of pregnancies without sufficiently demonstrating the need to safeguard some other constitutional value, right or liberty, while also relying on vague legalisation criteria, thereby undermining the constitutional guarantees serving to protect human life’.

ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ РАЗВИТИЯ РОССИЙСКО-НОРВЕЖСКИХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ ПОСЛЕ ПАРЛАМЕНТСКИХ ВЫБОРОВ В НОРВЕГИИ 2021 Г.

Norway’s foreign policy towards Russia is built on two pillars. The first is to ensure and maintain national security. For Norway, this is NATO membership and close integration with European states. The second pillar is cooperation with Russia. Norway’s main challenge is to balance these pillars in a changing global environment. After the parliamentary elections in 2021 in Norway, a left-wing coalition came to power, as a result of which there was a change of government. In his statements, the new Prime Minister of Norway J.G. Støre notes the particular importance of an open and constructive dialogue with Russia and the intensification of cooperation between the two countries. Despite the mutual sanctions regime after 2014, Norway and Russia need to establish a constructive dialogue and strengthen relations in areas that meet the national interests of both states, namely cooperation in the North, environmental protection, climate change prevention, nuclear safety, fishing, etc. Recent developments in bilateral relations give some hope that the dialogue between the two countries will be conducted in a more open and trusting manner. At the same time, however, it should be borne in mind that Norway, as a NATO member, will continue to adhere to the general principles of security policy characteristic of the alliance, which may entail significant disagreements on a number of issues, including those related to the prospects for cooperation in the Arctic.

The Comintern and the evolution of the trade union movement in the countries of the Southern Cone in XX-XXI century

In all countries of Latin America, the basis for the formation of the left movement was the trade union associations that arose in the last quarter of the XIX century. Throughout the pre-war period, links with trade unions remained one of the most important issues on the agenda of the Comintern in the Latin American region. In the postwar years, trade unions became one of the foundations of left-wing coalitions to combat military regimes. This article discusses the influence of the Comintern - its activities and programs - on the formation of the trade union movement in the countries of the Southern Cone. On the basis of the documents of the Comintern and the Communist Parties, the documents of the trade unions, the article defines the stages of the development of trade union movement, the correlation of its national features with the consequences of the influence of Moscow.

Alternative economic practices in Spanish cities: from grassroots movements to urban policies? An institutional perspective

ABSTRACTAlternative economic practices (AEPs) challenge capitalism and have flourished in Spain since 2008, when the economic, social, and political crisis severely hit the country. Cities are the principal places in which these practices are developing because unemployment, poverty, and foreclosures quickly rose in urban areas between 2008 and 2015. After the local election in 2015, left-wing coalitions took office in the major Spanish cities. These new governments replaced the former neoliberal and pro-growth coalitions and assumed the promotion for alternative economic modes of coordination as a part of their political agendas and new regulations. This article draws on institutional theory to frame the locally contingent outcomes of the interaction between alternative institutions and formal regulation in six Spanish cities. Empirically, we found that comprehensive plans by local authorities to enhance AEPs led to mutual reinforcement of regulations and institutions in Madrid and Barcelona. In contrast, institutions of AEPs in Oviedo, Valencia, and Valladolid substituted for the absence of regulatory response. Finally, Salamanca illustrates the case of competition between AEP institutions and local regulations, which even worked to replace AEPs.

Acting Out: "Cage Rage" and the Morning After

Acting Out: "Cage Rage" and the Morning After

Il voto nei quartieri di Roma dal 2000 al 2018

Social and economic inequalities between the city centre and peripheral belts persist for many years in Rome districts, in parallel to the on-going suburban sprawl. That yields political effects too, since electoral results from 2000 to 2018 highlight sharp political polarization: votes for left-wing (right-wing or Five Star Movement) candidates are inversely (directly) proportional to distance from Capitoline Hill. Notably, in 2018 general election, the left-wing coalition prevailed in central districts only, where education levels and personal income are very high, and (even if only slightly) in historical periphery, where it keeps consensus on progressive, inclusive and liberal policies. The opposite holds for the new populist Five Star Movement, that prevailed in low-density periphery inside the Orbital, in far-off sprawled districts and in Ostia coastal area. However, the right-wing coalition won in Rome as a whole, by more homogeneous and even inter-classist consensus, and prevailed outside the Orbital thanks to the League, that had for the very first time many votes in the Roman peripheries. As a matter of facts, both right-wing and populist policies seem easier to the extent that suburban citizens feel deprived since harmed by economic crisis, unsafe and worried about immigrants, far from elected bodies, scarcely endowed with public services.

Die getrennte Erinnerung. Der Resistenza-Mythos in Italien von 1943 bis heute: Ursprünge – Wandel – Ausblick

The following bachelor thesis is about the Resistance myth in postwar Italy and its transition during the last seven decades. Starting with an overview of its origins in the first years after the war, the paper describes its transition from an important reference point for all political parties (except the neofascist MSI) towards a controversial locus of memory. It then puts a special emphasis on the last two years, while a center left-wing coalition has been ruling and reinterpreting the myth – again.

Erratum

Szelewa D (2016). Killing ‘Unborn Children’? The Catholic Church and Abortion Law in Poland Since 1989. Social and Legal Studies 25(6): 741–764. DOI: 10.1177/0964663916668247. The article, published in the December 2016 issue of SLS (25:6), contains some errors. The corrections are listed below. The affiliation of the author should read: Dorota Szelewa University College Dublin School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice On page 753, third paragraph, line 3, should read: During the left-wing coalition SLD-UP (Unia Pracy-Union of Labour) government (2001 to 2005), Poland was in the process of accession to the European Union (EU). On page 758, last paragraph, second line from the bottom: ‘unborb child’ should be ‘unborn child’. On page 760, under the heading ‘Addendum’, the last four lines should read: In September 2016 the Parliament voted to reject the bill legalizing abortion after its first reading, while deciding at the same time to direct the bill with a complete abortion ban to the Parliamentary Committee for further proceedings. Funding statement in this article should read: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the National Research Centre in Poland, grant no 2012/04/S/HS5/00440. SAGE regrets the errors.

A Christian democratization of politics? The new influence of Catholicism on Italian politics since the demise of the Democrazia Cristiana

A paradox exists in relation to contemporary European Christian democracy. Its ideological influence has increased as Christian democratic parties have declined. This is particularly evident in Italy since the demise of the Democrazia Cristiana (DC). By investigating the ideological development of Italian parties and some key policy reforms that they introduced after the fall of the DC, this article explains this ‘Christian democratization of politics’, a process by which Catholic ideals and symbols acquire a decisive impact on the Italian party system. Three types of Christian democratization are individuated and analyzed: the gradual replacement of liberal values with Catholic political ideas in the positions taken by liberal-oriented parties; the novel synthesis between social Catholicism and social democracy by moderate left-wing coalitions; and the Lega Nord’s use of Catholic values to stress populist positions and identity issues.

The Italian left and Italy's (evolving) foreign policy of immigration controls

Immigration has become a highly salient international issue over the last two decades with increased socio-economic and political significance. This led to the development of a wide range of policy measures that are aimed at either halting migrants from reaching Europe or deterring them from settling in their preferred countries of destination. Such externalization of border controls have profound effects on relations between countries. Drawing on qualitative data, the paper investigates how and with what effects the foreign policy of immigration controls have been developing in Italy, one of the frontline immigration countries of the EU which has been increasingly engaging with practices of ‘de-territorial cooperation on migration’. In particular, the imprint of left-wing parties on Italy's immigration policy developments is examined in order to gauge left-wing coalitions’ influence on the overall direction of the policies in this realm.

Polls, coalitions and strategic voting under proportional representation

How do polls influence strategic voting under proportional representation? This paper derives a strategic calculus of voting for coalitions that generates testable predictions about the effects of polls on strategic voting in elections involving four or more parties. Incentives of leftist voters to vote for a centrist over a noncentrist party are shown to increase with the difference in expected seats between the prospective right-wing and left-wing coalitions (and vice versa for rightist voters). Centrist voters’ incentives to vote for a center-left vs a center-right party are also shown to depend on the relative strengths of the right-wing and left-wing coalitions. Importantly, the strategic voting incentives studied here do not depend on the presence of electoral thresholds or other features of the electoral system. The predictions are tested with survey data from parliamentary elections in Austria and Germany.

Translation and censorship

This article examines the 1940 translation of Robert Burns into Spanish. The edition was published a year after the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), in a country which had been governed by a left-wing democratic coalition and now was ruled by a repressive dictatorship. Despite being printed by one of the new publishing houses set up by the regime, the 1940 translation recontextualized Burns's poems to challenge official discourses. By examining the difficult conditions under which literature was produced and the translators’ deployment of different literary strategies such as self-censorship and the rearrangement of individual poems, this article demonstrates how Robert Burns: Poesía gives a voice to those who lost the war and to the suppressed minority cultures of Spain. More generally, it reveals how dissident ideas within the regime were expressed through literary translation as early as 1940.

Right-wing face, left-wing faces: The matching effect in the realm of political persuasion

We present two studies showing that a matching effect in persuasion can be observed between message content and the shared symbolic representation of the message object. The experimental paradigm was built on the Italian political context where citizens hold asymmetrical symbolic representations about the right-wing and the left-wing (i.e., centered on the leaders in the former, and on the coalition in the latter). Since 2001, both coalitions have focused their persuasive strategies principally on candidate image. Thus, the right-wing coalition is in a communicative congruence condition, whereas the left-wing coalition is in an incongruent condition. Results showed that when the coalitions use these images in corresponding ways, they provoke in the audience an impression of message efficacy, enhancing their persuasiveness.