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The role of the Italian Communist Party (P.C.I.) in the denouement of the Italian party system in the early 1990s was decisive, its dissolution helping to trigger the organizational and electoral collapse of the existing parties. If so, the question that arises is what triggered the dissolution of the P.C.I. A conventional wisdom has developed in the literature that puts the dissolution down to the collapse of the communist regimes in central and eastern Europe, effectively removing the P.C.I. as an agent of its own destiny. Yet, an analysis of the P.C.I.’s final decade reveals a different picture, one that still recognizes the role of international events but as a catalyst to an existing programme of dramatic change which began in the late 1980s in response to an existential crisis of the party. The role of the P.C.I. as an independent agency in charge of its own destiny can be reasserted in revisting this critical period in the party’s and Italy’s history. In doing so, it casts new light on the causes of the denouement of the Italian party system in the early 1990s, contextualizing the role of international events in a longer-term analysis of an enveloping crisis of the P.C.I. in its final decade.

The resignation on 21 July 2022 of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi was a classic example of the machinations of Italian politics. The outcome of a manufactured crisis and a manipulation of events by the parties of the right, Draghi’s fall was neither inevitable nor expected

555/716 ©2022 Jayasree et al. doi:10.5075/epfl-298799_978-2-9701614-0-0 published under CC BY-NC 4.0 license This conference paper is part of a six volume book of the proceedings edited by: Prof. Anastasios P. Vassilopoulos, CCLab/EPFL, Prof. Véronique Michaud, LPAC/EPFL. All six volumes will have the same title and each will have a single subtitle: Vol 1: Materials Vol 2: Manufacturing Vol 3: Characterization Vol 4: Modeling and Prediction Vol 5: Applications and Structures Vol 6: Life Cycle Assessment. Copyright © 2022 Jayasree et al.. Low-speed accidents see a year-on-year increase. To improve crash performance in these accidents, a crash box is attached between the vehicle bumper structure and the side rail. The determination of the crash box material and geometry is critical to absorb the impact energy to result in safer vehicles and minimised repair costs. As the automotive industry transitions to more sustainable platforms, it is seeking to use lightweight materials including in the crash structure. This study develops an innovative crash box with optimal impact energy-absorption capabilities for a fuel cell electric vehicle. The concept is based on topology optimisation considering the composite structure and crash energy dissipation. In further work, the results from the life cycle analysis are utilised, and a comparative study between carbon fibre reinforced polymers and biocomposites in crash structures is performed. The latter includes an extensive characterisation campaign under static and dynamic conditions. Keywords: Composites; crash box; The PROTECT project has received funding from Innovate UK under reference number 68148.

Italy was the first European democracy to be hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The government’s response, especially in the first wave, was confused, dilatory and inadequate, and the country found itself in an unprecedented public health crisis, leading to a national lockdown between March and May. The easing of restrictions in May and an improved situation in the summer did not prevent cases rising again from the autumn onwards, and Italy finished the year in a series of mini-lockdowns. The government was confronted with a debate over Italy’s high death toll and the role of the executive’s own failings in it. Yet, the pandemic did not prompt a political crisis. Rather, it had the effect of blunting the frontal opposition of the League and strengthening the standing of the government with the public. This especially applied to the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, whose personal ratings soared, as the public rallied behind a leader facing the greatest challenge of any peacetime Italian prime minister.

Martin J. Bull is Professor of Politics and Associate Dean for Research & Innovation at the University of Salford, and former Director of the European Consortium of Political Research. He is currently Editor of the Italian Political Science Review and the Journal of Contemporary European Studies, as well as Founding Editor of the ECPR’s political science blog-site, The Loop. He serves on the Editorial Boards of South European Society and Politics, Modern Italy, and Contemporary Italian Politics. He is former Editor of Modern Italy (2005-2010), European Political Science (2006-2013) and Social Sciences (2011-2018), as well as former Associate Editor of Parliamentary Affairs (2007-2012), and former Editorial Board member of several journals including West European Politics and Politics.\ud The following interview was conducted by the editor of Italian Political Science, Nicolò Conti and edited by the interviewee.

Book review: \ud A lesson in Italian democracy from the Maestro\ud Italian democracy. How it works, by Gianfranco Pasquino, London, Routledge, 2019, 248 pp., €41.69 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-138-30186-3

Having brought cases of infection significantly down, the country is preparing to loosen lockdown measures.

An experiment in following China's lead while trying to respect democratic norms is causing tensions.

Germany marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 2019. This article argues that alongside the sweeping changes that occurred in central and eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War also had a lasting legacy for western European states. While the demise of western Europe’s communist parties after 1989 appeared to signify the passing of a burnt-out cause, it acted as a catalyst for change in the political space to the left of social democracy, generating new ideas and configurations that continue to shape politics today.

The eurozone crisis had a more significant and longer-lasting impact on Italy than on virtually any other member state, with the effects still visible a decade after. The extent of the shock was surprising in view of progress Italy had apparently made in the 1990s in terms of enhancing its capacity to meet the demands of European Monetary Union. The explanation for this traumatic economic experience lies in Italy’s deep, long-term, structural tensions which were placed under severe pressure during the 1990s and which were cracked open by the 2011 sovereign debt crisis. These have had long-standing economic effects as well as political ramifications in terms of a significant change in the Italy–EU relationship.

By calling an early election, government and parliament have effectively breached both the spirit and intent of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act. The implications of this outcome are significant and suggest that the act is unlikely to survive another legislative session.

The UK was once viewed by political scientists as embodying a distinct majoritarian form of politics – the ‘Westminster Model’ – that stood in contrast to the ‘consensus’ democracies found elsewhere in Europe. Several of the countries in the latter group, such as Italy, were often assumed to be inherently prone to instability in comparison to the UK. Yet as this article explains, politics in Westminster now has some striking similarities with the Italian approach that once invited scorn from British observers.

This chapter assesses the trajectory and fortunes of the radical left in the period since 1989 as a means of providing a perspective on the significance of the 1989 events for this political area. After contextualising the importance of the 1989 revolutions in central and eastern Europe, the chapter assesses the immediate impact of the revolutions on west European communist parties (WECPs), explores the transformation of the radical left that then occurred, evaluates to what extent this radical left can be described as a genuine 'party family' and looks at the performance of the radical left and its likely prospects.

Academic associations are a vital part of the academic community, facilitating the interaction of researchers and production of knowledge, yet the impact of Open Access on their future has been too often regarded as marginal to the main discussion. Open Access presents an evident threat to those associations, which have become dependent upon a sizeable proportion of their income coming from owned journals published in conjunction with publishers. Yet, Open Access also presents opportunities, and academic associations should be bold in using a combination of their expertise, prestige and experience in publishing to ensure their futures in a newly emerging market.

Italy's political future hangs in the balance – will it see another chaotic grand coalition, or take an anti-EU populist step into the unknown?

The 2016 Constitutional referendum in Italy was only the third constitutional referendum held in the Italian Republic, and was on a constitutional reform proposal which would have re-written about a third of the Italian Constitution. Its chief protagonist was Prime Minister and leader of the Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, who staked his political career on the outcome - spectacularly failing, and resigning in its immediate aftermath. This chapter analyses the origins of the referendum, the broader politics behind it, the campaign, the results and the impact not just in terms of Renzi being "removed" but also in terms of Italian politics and the implications for institutional reform in the future.

Former prime minister Matteo Renzi resigned as leader of the Italian Democratic Party (PD) in February 2017 in a move that left the country’s centre left in ruins. His party was split as a result of his action, giving the far right an opportunity to seize government after the next election.

Only days after its prime minister resigned over a lost referendum, Italy found itself with a new government and a new prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni. But however smooth the transition was, the turbulent circumstances that led up to it were far from resolved. Despite the vote having widely been regarded as a political vote against former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, the new government resembles very much its predecessor, leading to accusations of a stitch-up.

This article, published in the run-up to a constitutional referendum held in Italy on 4 December 2016, analyses the impact of the election of Donald Trump to the American presidency on the unfolding referendum campaign in Italy. It argues that it has made Matteo Renzi's attempt to get Italians to vote for the reform more difficult, as well as creating a situation of potential crisis if the vote goes against the reform and he resigns as Prime Minister as he has promised to do if defeated.

This paper evaluates Renzi’s constitutional reform programme by assessing it against the main reasons for its failure to be achieved in the past two decades. The first section outlines the scale of those failures against the expectations of the putative reformers of the early 1990s, while at the same time emphasizing the paradox of the scale of change that has nonetheless occurred to in the functioning of the political system in the same period. The subsequent two sections identify two main causes for failure: the intense politicization of the issue and the failure to find an effective process or procedure to carry through the reform. Renzi’s proposed constitutional reforms are then analysed from these perspectives to identify what is different about them and his approach generally. It is argued that Renzi’s programme of reform and its approach does differ to those of his predecessors in ways that increase the possibility of successful achievement, although the outcome remains highly uncertain.

Even if there ever existed a time when it could be argued that ‘interdisciplinary’ research was unnecessary or a luxury, there can be little doubt that today it is essential to helping understand and solve the world’s problems. And the first building block of trans-disciplinary research must be raising knowledge and awareness of what other disciplines are doing. It could be said that this is what lies at the heart of this new venture, for this journal aims to publish work from an extensive range of fields, thus bringing scholars from a variety of disciplines ‘together’, promoting greater cross-disciplinary awareness of major themes and debates, and hopefully prompting inter-disciplinary projects in the future. This, moreover, is very much needed because the challenges facing the social sciences today are probably greater than at any time in their history.

This article presents the unique congenital anomaly complex of ipsilateral cerebellar hemisphere duplication and internal, middle, and external ear duplication. Diagnostic techniques included a head CT scan, a three-dimensional head CT scan, and a head MRI. An aberrant notochordal split was proposed as the embryologic mechanism leading to the development of such anomalies.