How and why do Italian Party Leaders survive in office or come to an end?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is twofold: to explore the dynamics of party leadership change in Italy, and to try to assess which (if any) characteristics of the leadership race (LR) to appoint (or re-appoint) the party leader, in combination with other conditions, could favour leadership re-selection in office at the end of the term, rather than a more or less forced early departure. To this end, we have taken into account about thirty LRs promoted by four Italian political parties over the last three decades, relying on a methodology which is new in this field of research: qualitative comparative analysis.