The Lega Nord and the northern question in Italian politics

"The Lega Nord has arguably been the most important new force in Italian politics in the last two decades. This book is the first attempt to study the Lega as a phenomenon which arose in the industrial areas of Northern Italy in the 1980s and which succeeded in mobilizing the entrepreneurial class in a campaign against the Italian state." "The Lega was instrumental in bringing down the Italian political system at the beginning of the 1990s and is still today a force to be reckoned with on the national scene. The authors recount the Lega's bold attempt to create a new nation called Padania in Northern Italy and chart its descent into a party of the extreme right. Above all the book underlines that the demands of the rich North present a major challenge to Italy's political class and institutions. The Lega put this challenge on the national agenda and introduced the themes that dominate Italian politics today."--Jacket.