Rethinking political warfare in Italy: a bottom-up approach

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief answer to the following questions: in the arena for State and non-State actors, who and how may guarantee the balance between democracy, State and market? How can the citizens’ economic well-being be prioritized, in terms of national security? Design/methodology/approach - Adapting both the link analysis approach and the order of Pierce’s inference stages, the author illustrates the state of the art, some economic indices and Italy’s need for countermeasures. Findings - Starting from the notion of “social sustainability of the political decisions,” given by the author, the paper highlights the opportunity to rethink the concept of political warfare, in view of a productive fabric characterized by both a high number of small and medium-sized enterprises and the pervasiveness of mafia-type organizations. At the end, the author shares some proposal in the fields of Public Law and Social Marketing and a broader definition of the above-mentioned concept. Originality/value - This study shows the link between security studies, people’s perception of grey areas and polarization of opinions and wealth, giving the reader a bottom-up input to the comprehension of the contemporary complexity.