Abstract: | Abstract The collapse of the Italian political system in 1992–3 provoked enormous discussion among students of Italian politics and history on the character and causes of the crisis. Through a reading of some of the most important scholarly works on the subject, this article underlines that the end of the former regime in Italy is increasingly being explained as the outcome of a complex combination of political misjudgements and structural socioeconomic factors, and not just as a secondary consequence of the end of the Cold War. |