ABSTRACT Although research on political incivility has expanded rapidly, a shared definition of the concept remains elusive. Existing studies typically rely on scholars’ interpretations and ask citizens to evaluate pre-selected examples, rather than eliciting citizens’ own understandings. This approach limits the precision of analytical findings and weakens assessments of democratic degradation. This study examines Italian citizens’ perceptions of political incivility during the 2024 European elections and compares them with prevailing academic definitions. While around 30% of respondents reported being unfamiliar with the term, almost all nonetheless offered a definition – a pattern consistent with respondent satisficing. This suggests that, although political incivility primarily functions as a scholarly label, citizens possess an intuitive understanding of the phenomenon. Overall, citizen and academic definitions largely converge. However, citizens also emphasize anti-politics as a distinct dimension, indicating that political incivility is an evolving concept that extends beyond individual behaviour to encompass systemic failures, and thus calls for renewed reflection on the relationship between citizens and politics.

ABSTRACT Alliances between centre-right and radical right parties in Western Europe have elicited varied responses and strategic adaptations depending on the national context. In this respect, Italy presents a particularly distinctive case. Since the mid-1990s, a coalition between these parties has remained a stable feature of the Italian party system, winning the popular vote in five elections and forming a government on four occasions. Over time, the internal balance of power within the alliance has shifted significantly, with radical right parties now occupying a dominant position. This article examines the factors influencing electoral support for – and within – this coalition since 2001, with a specific focus on the role of anti-immigration attitudes and right-wing self-identification. Our findings reveal a growing explanatory power of anti-immigration sentiment in predicting support for the coalition. Unexpectedly, this trend first emerged in the mid-2000s and intensified markedly in 2022, when immigration-related concerns became a central driver of voting behaviour. Importantly, centre-right voters have not exhibited a corresponding rise in anti-immigration attitudes over time, suggesting that no ideological contagion from radical right parties has occurred within this segment. Instead, our results indicate that Italian populist right-wing voters have undergone a process of radicalisation, building upon a pre-existing reservoir of anti-immigration sentiment.

ABSTRACT The Mattei Plan represents Italy’s latest attempt to frame its engagement in Africa, integrating economic cooperation with broader foreign policy goals such as development and energy security. The Plan testifies to the Meloni government’s balancing act between a moderate nationalism premised on status enhancing policies, staunch Atlanticism, and a degree of post-ideological Euro-realism. Boosting the country’s projection in Africa was identified as an opportunity enabled by diminishing US interest in the African continent, the EU’s attempt to multiply member states’ efforts and to enhance the role and presence of key Italian industrial actors. By exploring the energy dimension, a key pillar of the Plan, through an analysis of the Plan’s governance structures, funding mechanisms and energy projects, the article examines the extent to which Italy’s foreign energy policy towards Africa is undergoing significant changes. The article explores the extent to which the Plan remains redundant in the area of fossil fuels, while it has the potential to shift the country’s foreign energy policy towards green energy. For the latter, Italian energy companies capitalise both on the government’s action as a status enhancer across the African continent and on its role as financial multiplier vis-à-vis regional and international financial institutions.

ABSTRACT While Italian foreign policy has remained firmly rooted in its Atlanticist and Europeanist orientations, it has also displayed a growing aspiration for autonomy since the 1980s. This trend has been widely recognised in the literature, yet most analyses have focused on diplomacy, with limited attention to defence policy. This article addresses that gap by investigating whether Italy’s pursuit of autonomy extends to the military domain. It argues that Italy has progressively developed a defence posture aligned with its broader foreign policy ambitions, particularly through strategic procurement decisions. Despite significant systemic and domestic changes in the period under consideration, Italy’s defence choices – especially in high-end military aviation – reveal a surprisingly consistent trajectory aimed at enhancing operational and technological autonomy. Drawing on a focused analysis of three major procurement programmes (Eurofighter Typhoon, F-35, and the Global Combat Air Programme), the article offers a novel contribution to the understanding of autonomy in Italian defence policy and its relationship to broader international positioning.

ABSTRACT Differentiated autonomy enables ordinary regions to negotiate the terms and conditions of self-governance with the national government across 23 areas of public policy. Under the Meloni administration, a new law – commonly known as the ‘Calderoli law’ – was introduced to regulate the process for obtaining such autonomy. This law was passed in the summer of 2024, but by the end of the year, the Constitutional Court had declared parts of it unconstitutional. Additionally, the Court rejected the opposition parties’ application for the holding of a repeal referendum, despite their successful collection of a substantial number of citizen signatures supporting the initiative. However, the history of differentiated autonomy is far more complex than it might initially seem. This article examines the politicization of differentiated autonomy from the perspective of Italy’s five main political parties from 2016 to 2024. Based on an analysis of election manifestos and social media posts, the findings reveal how the issue became politicized under the Meloni government and how political debate grew increasingly polarized. Moreover, the research highlights how the positions of national and regional leaders on the matter have evolved over time.

ABSTRACT In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the role of science in politics became crucial but highly politicized, leading to significant distrust in some segments of society. This article examines the political implications of distrust in science during COVID-19 by analysing whether trust in science affected government evaluations and party support. We focus on Italy, which had a unique technocratic government during the crisis. Our results show that trust in science is positively associated with government support and negatively associated with radical right party support. However, distrust in science and support for radical right parties depend on whether these parties are in government or in opposition.

ABSTRACT This article examines how individual changes in the frequency of political information consumption and discussion across different communication environments influenced affective polarization (AP) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Using a three-wave panel survey of Italian citizens and fixed-effects models, we find that increased exposure to political information through legacy media and face-to-face discussions heightened AP, whereas similar engagement on social media had no such effect. Additionally, we explore the moderating role of economic uncertainty in this relationship. While financial insecurity was directly linked to lower AP, it intensified polarization when combined with greater political information from legacy media, face-to-face discussions, and, to a lesser extent, social media. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of AP and its connections to media consumption and communication dynamics.