Torino

How has the electoral geography changed in Italy’s major cities? Is it true that left-wing parties have abandoned the "peripheries," while populist forces have become the voice of protest for the "places that don't matter" and for the territories "defeated" in the process of globalization? In the best tradition of research and studies by the Cattaneo Institute, this volume provides rigorous answers to these questions and offers, for the first time in Italy, a detailed analysis of the transformations in voting behavior that have taken place within cities over the past decade. The picture that emerges from the research shows an Italy split in two, not only between North and South but also between urban centers and peripheries—between disadvantaged urban areas and zones of relative prosperity. This territorial dualism, particularly evident in 2018, has translated into a new political dualism, with left-wing forces entrenched in the affluent and educated neighborhoods of Italian cities and populist parties winning votes in socially disadvantaged peripheries. But now that the pandemic has expanded and, at least partially, reshaped areas of social hardship, how will urban peripheries change, and which political actors, new or old, will interpret their needs? The volume is accompanied by a rich online appendix where readers can view electoral maps of metropolitan cities and the data used in the research.