ATS2276 Modern Italian political thought

The unit surveys Italian political thought & practice from the Renaissance to the New Millennium. It aims to give students a clear understanding of modern & contemporary Italian political ideas, culture and institutions. It begins by examining Italian political thinkers, diplomats, and activists' seminal contribution to Renaissance, Enlightenment and Modern political theories and movements. It then shows how Italian political thinkers shaped the competing ideologies at the heart of twentieth century Europe's crises & revolutions: Liberalism, Marxism and Fascism. It will focus on one of Prato's most famous citizens, political theorist, diplomat, journalist, novelist and director Curzio Malaparte, whose life and work is a microcosm of these ideological disputes. It takes students to the present day by studying the rise and fall of Italy's First Republic (1948-1992) and its consensus democracy; the birth of the Second Republic (1992-), with its hopes for rebuilding Italian democratic institutions and civic culture in the context of endemic political corruption; and the recent emergence of Italian populist, anti-European Union movements.