IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/cesptp/halshs-00639450.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The political economy of neo-liberalism in Italy and France

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Amable

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CEPREMAP - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications - ECO ENS-PSL - Département d'économie de l'ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, IUF - Institut universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche)

  • Elvire Guillaud

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Stefano Palombarini

    (LED - Laboratoire d'Economie Dionysien - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis)

Abstract

There are many apparent similarities between the current political and economic situations of France and Italy. The mainstream view is that at least part of the neo-liberal strategy could be a solution to the economic problems of both variants of the European model of capitalism. However, the difficulties met by the implementation of these strategies by Sarkozy and Berlusconi lead to believe that the success or failure of neo-liberalisation has less to do with its (lack of) macroeconomic merits than with the stability of the socio-political alliances that support it. In this respect, France and Italy are markedly different. This paper shows that even if the "hard core" of the neoliberal social bloc is roughly the same in both countries, this core constitutes a minority of the electorate ; a neoliberal strategy must therefore rely on an extended social coalition, which might not be similar between countries. The Great Recession revealed part of the structural characteristics that set both countries apart. The aim of this article is to show that the consideration of the different socio-political alliances found in each country can help to understand how Italy and France ended up on different economic trajectories.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Amable & Elvire Guillaud & Stefano Palombarini, 2011. "The political economy of neo-liberalism in Italy and France," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00639450, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00639450
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00639450
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00639450/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruno Amable, 2009. "Structural reforms in Europe and the (in)coherence of institutions," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 25(1), pages 17-39, Spring.
    2. Pierre Cahuc & André Zylberberg, 2009. "Les réformes ratées du président Sarkozy," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00368321, HAL.
    3. Bruno Amable & Stefano Palombarini, 2009. "A neorealist approach to institutional change and the diversity of capitalism," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00345887, HAL.
    4. Amable, Bruno, 2003. "The Diversity of Modern Capitalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199261147.
    5. Annamaria Simonazzi & Paolo Villa & Federico Lucidi, 2008. "Continuity and Change in the Italian Model: Italy's Laborious Convergence towards the European Social Model," Working Papers in Public Economics 108, University of Rome La Sapienza, Department of Economics and Law.
    6. repec:pse:psecon:2006-37 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Elvire Guillaud & Stefano Palombarini, 2006. "Évolution des attentes sociales et comportement électoral : France, 1978-2002," Working Papers halshs-00590295, HAL.
    8. Schmidt, Vivien A., 2002. "The Futures of European Capitalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199253685.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hideko Magara, 2013. "Introduction: two decades of structural reform and political change in Italy and Japan," Chapters, in: Hideko Magara & Stefano Sacchi (ed.), The Politics of Structural Reforms, chapter 1, pages 1-24, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Madariaga, Aldo, 2013. "Mechanisms of institutional continuity in neoliberal "success stories": Developmental regimes in Chile and Estonia," MPIfG Discussion Paper 13/10, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Georgios Maris & Floros Flouros, 2022. "Economic crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, and the Greek model of capitalism," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 469-484, April.
    2. Christos J. Paraskevopoulos, 2017. "Varieties of capitalism, quality of government, and policy conditionality in Southern Europe:Greece and Portugal in comparative perspective," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 117, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    3. , Stone Center & Ranaldi, Marco, 2020. "Distributional Aspects of Economic Systems," SocArXiv n7wj4, Center for Open Science.
    4. Bruno Amable & Lilas Demmou & Ivan Ledezma, 2009. "The Lisbon strategy and structural reforms in Europe," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 15(1), pages 33-52, February.
    5. Sébastien Lechevalier & Pauline Debanes & Shin Wonkyu, 2016. "Financialization and industrial policies in Japan and Korea: Evolving complementarities and loss of institutional capabilities," Working Papers halshs-01431783, HAL.
    6. Buch-Hansen, Hubert, 2014. "Capitalist diversity and de-growth trajectories to steady-state economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 167-173.
    7. Donato Di Carlo & Oscar Molina, 2024. "Same same but different? The Mediterranean growth regime and public sector wage-setting before and after the sovereign debt crisis," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 30(1), pages 31-53, March.
    8. Alberto Vallejo-Peña & Sandro Giachi, 2018. "The Mediterranean Variety of Capitalism, Flexibility of Work Schedules, and Labour Productivity in Southern Europe," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 5, pages 21-38.
    9. Thibault Darcillon, 2011. "Political Partisanship and Financial Reforms in Advanced Countries," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00639840, HAL.
    10. Samuel Klebaner, 2018. "Norm making and institutions dynamics: how the research program of the French Régulation Theory can be fertilized by the methodological concepts from the “Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal Histo," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2018-25, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    11. Bruno Amable, 2014. "The unsolved contradictions of the modernists. Economic policy expectations and political crisis in France 1978-2012," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 14023, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    12. Bieling, Hans-Jürgen, 2011. "Varieties of Capitalism, Regulationstheorie und neogramscianische IPÖ: Komplementäre oder gegensätzliche Perspektiven des globalisierten Kapitalismus?," ZÖSS-Discussion Papers 23, University of Hamburg, Centre for Economic and Sociological Studies (CESS/ZÖSS).
    13. Güngen, Ali Rıza & Akçay, Ümit, 2023. "Growth models, power blocs and authoritarianisms in Turkey and Egypt in the 21st century," IPE Working Papers 206/2023, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    14. Claude Dupuy & Stéphanie Lavigne & Dalila Nicet‐Chenaf, 2010. "Does Geography Still Matter? Evidence on the Portfolio Turnover of Large Equity Investors and Varieties of Capitalism," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(1), pages 75-98, January.
    15. Alberto Chilosi, 2014. "Long-Term Unemployment in the Varieties of Capitalism," Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 17(1), pages 69-78, May.
    16. Francesca Gambarotto & Stefano Solari, 2015. "The peripheralization of Southern European capitalism within the EMU," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 788-812, August.
    17. Reto Bürgisser & Donato Di Carlo, 2023. "Blessing or Curse? The Rise of Tourism‐Led Growth in Europe's Southern Periphery," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 236-258, January.
    18. Aristea Koukiadaki & Chara Kokkinou, 2016. "The rise of the dual labour market: fighting precarious employment in the new member states through industrial relations (PRECARIR) Country report: Greece," Research Reports 17, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).
    19. David R. Howell, 2010. "Institutions, Aggregate Demand and Cross-Country Employment Performance: Alternative Theoretical Perspectives and the Evidence," Working Papers wp228, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    20. Kühnast, Julia, 2022. "Growth regimes of populist governments: A comparative study on Hungary and Poland," IPE Working Papers 199/2022, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutions; model of capitalism; neoliberal reforms; political crisis.; Crise politique; modèles de capitalisme; réformes néolibérales.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems
    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00639450. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.