The long night of the First Republic : Clientelistic implosion in Italy. Stefano Guzzini. Several analysts have explained the end of the post-war political System in Italy as an effect of the end of the Cold War. Deprived of the anti-communist cement, Italians, it is asserted, were finally free to replace their corrupt regime. In fact, the recent changes should be seen as the impact of transnational and societal dynamics on moderne welfare states, which have subverted the consociational-clientelistic compact on which Italy's political economy was based. As long as the fundamental problems of thaï compact remain unsolved, for instance the lack of a clear distinction between the political and economie spheres or the systematic application of ...