History of Euro-Mediterranean political systems since 1945
The aim of this course is to describe the evolution of the political systems of the countries of the Mediterranean area. On one hand, the class is going to study the evolution of the political systems of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Greece (in these three last cases with a particular attention to the transition to democracy) during the Cold War and after the fall of communism. On the other hand, the class will focus also on the political evolution of the principal political systems of the main countries of the southern side of Mediterranean, in particular Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria after French decolonization but also Egypt and Turkey. At the end of the course the idea is to question if we can consider the Mediterranean area as a compact one and in general if we can find similar evolution lines.
Syllabus
Every class will be divided into two sessions. The first part will offer a general introduction of the planned theme through frontal lesson, while the second part will be based on the discussion and comments on historical documents (political leaders speeches, newspapers articles, institutional documents, etc..). During every class the teacher will provide documents and papers required for the following lesson.
Class 1 Methodology and general political landscape of the Euro-Mediterranean Area after WWII
Class 2-3-4-5 Italian Political System: how many Republican Systems and which Euro-Mediterranean policies?
Class 6-7-8-9-10 French Semi-presidential Model and Gaullo-Mitterrandienne foreign policy
Class 11-12-13-14 The Turkish Bridge or the Turkish Problem?
Class 15 Final presentations
Readings
J.M. Magone, The Politics of Southern Europe, Praeger, 2003 (compulsory)
D. Bell-J. Gaffney, The Presidents of the French Fifth Republic, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
J. Gaffney, Political Leadership in France. From de Gaulle to Sarkozy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010
G. Formigoni (ed.), Towards a Global History of XIX and XX Century Italy, Special Issue Ricerche di Storia Politica, July 2022, https://www.rivisteweb.it/issn/1120-9526 (open access)
A. Mammone, E. Giap Parini, G. A. Veltri (eds.), The Routledge Hand Book of Contemporary Italy, Routledge, 2015 (section II-III-V)
A. Varsori-B. Zaccaria (eds.), Italy in the International System from Détente to the End of the Cold War, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018
P. Gozen Ercan (ed.), Turkish Foreign Policy. International Relations, Legality and Global Reach, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017
N. Stone, Turkey. A Short History, Thames and Hudson, 2014
C. Vaughn Findley, Islam, Nationalism and Modernity: A History 1789-2007, Yale UP, 2010