Corruption, Crisis and the end of the Cold War: Italy in the 1990s

The Italian political crisis of the early 1990s was to have devastating effects on the Italian political process. The onset of the corruption revelations and the ensuing political crisis which followed all came to a head between 1992-94 when a political system with its traditional parties were swept away. The Cold War had only recently ended and the political equilibrium it had created in Italy as a loyal pro- western system disappeared. The concern and fear of Communism and Communist parties within the Italian context ceased to be a source of concern. A political vacuum was created and new parties emerged. The Italian political system had changed forever.