9422811 Welhofer As the world seemingly experiences the collapse of empire, the spread of democracy and the expansion of capitalism, we must recognize that the past contains lessons for our understanding of the present. This research examines democratic transition in Italy during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- a crucial period of nation- and state-building marked by the extension of political citizenship, the construction of national consciousness and the transition to market capitalism. Democratization is a longitudinal, dynamic process best understood in comparative, historical perspective. Previous theoretical and empirical work on Britain, Norway and Argentina furnish the comparative, historical context for the Italian experience. Italy constitutes a pivotal case in the study of democratic transition; its origins in the collapse of empire, its struggle to institute liberal-capitalist democracy, its collapse into Fascism and imperialism, its post-war transition and current crisis make it a central case for the study of democracy. The research design examines four stages in the democratization process across the four cases: non-democratic regimes prior to democratization in the 19th century, transitional regimes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as stable and unstable democratic outcomes. Norway provides the case of the transition to stable social democracy; Britain, the case for triumph of a stable liberal democracy, and Argentina, a non-European case of democratic break-down and unstable politics. Italy provides a third European case in which democratic transition was followed by break-down and a return to democracy in the post-war period and currently undergoing a second democratic transition. Three interpretations of democracy initially guide the inquiry into democratic transition: political cultural, institutional design and social structural explanations. In addition, the research employs core-periphery analysis to exam ine the impact of peripheral nationalism, state traditions, and crossnational forces on democratization. The research examines a mix of micro- and macro-level processes, employing both qualitative and quantitative historical information to test explanations of democratic transition. Historical, comparative in-depth studies systematically consider the political cultural, social structural and institutional design elements before, during and after efforts at democratization. The proposed project is the first systematic, quantitative historical investigation of Italy's transition to democracy and provides important theoretical insights into Italy's past and current politics. Moreover, when coupled to the comparative analysis of Britain, Norway and Argentina, the current project generates valuable theoretical and substantive findings in the study of democratic transition for newer democracies, particularly in eastern and southern Europe and Latin America.
