Italy: the Political Right and concepts of civil society

In this paper I will argue that civil society has come to represent a new ‘grand narrative’ which is used by all political forces, and notably by the right, as an alternative channel of political representation which in part substitutes and in part integrates a discredited electoral process. Catering to mounting anti-parties and anti-state views, which in the Italian context often amount to tout-court anti-political sentiments, an ideological emphasis on civil society is also an idealized alternative channel for service delivery in key policy sectors. Idealizing these features has enabled the right to claim ideological cohesion. However, on the basis of an empirical examination of the electoral texts of the Italian centre-right, the paper argues that different kinds of right conceive civil society in different ways, variously stressing its anti-state and anti-parties features, its contribution to a reconstruction and enhancement of an idealized national public sphere, and its local-community integrative functions.