Economic imaginaries and beyond. A cultural political economy perspective on the League party

ABSTRACT

In the face of enduring crisis phenomena, quantitative evidence of the renewed salience of socio-economic agendas advanced by radical right populist parties calls for more qualitative research work and in-depth case studies. The present paper aims to contribute to filling this gap through a cultural political economy (CPE) investigation of the Italian League (Lega) party that foregrounds its socio-economic positioning by reconstructing the party’s ‘economic imaginary’. The suggested synergy between CPE and a critical discourse analysis of the League’s practical argumentation in the 2013 and 2018 electoral manifestos points to a composite economic imaginary that prioritizes: 1) production (vs financialization); 2) support of internal demand; 3) lowering of fiscal pressure; 4) protectionism and 5) welfare. The analysis shows how, under Salvini’s leadership, the party’s practical argumentation in EU matters has become constitutive of its overall political strategy and so exacerbated the claims at the core of the respective economic imaginary. In this vein, the League’s Euroscepticism has also polarized the relationship between the party’s socio-economic and socio-cultural stance, thus urging to go beyond the focus on economic imaginaries and sketch out a CPE research agenda on the League’s more encompassing struggle for hegemony in the Italian political economy.

KEYWORDS:

• League
• Euroscepticism
• cultural political economy
• economic imaginary
• critical discourse analysis

Acknowledgments

This research work has been funded by the Central China Think Tank (grant number: 2020HZZK008). I am grateful to Adriano Cozzolino, Nina Elena Eggers, Diego Giannone and Mauro Santaniello for their encouraging feedback on the early intuition behind this research work, as well as to Bob Jessop, Nicolina Montesano Montessori and Ngai-Ling Sum for their support and insightful discussions at the 2020 International Conference on Cultural Political Economy. Thanks to the editor John Richardson for precious literature suggestions and continuous support in the hard working conditions imposed by the pandemic. Last but not least, my deepest thanks to the two anonymous reviewers: your thought-provoking comments have unleashed an invaluable and far-reaching learning process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Lega Nord. The quotes of primary and secondary sources in Italian are author’s own translations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniela Caterina

Daniela Caterina is a lecturer at the School of Philosophy of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China. Her research focuses on, among others, critical discourse analysis, critical political economy, (neo-)Gramscian theory, materialist state theory, European integration, right- and left-wing populism and Italian politics. Her recent publications include the monograph ‘Struggles for hegemony in Italy’s crisis management. A case study on the 2012 labour market reform’ (2019, Springer International) as well as papers in international journals such as Antipode: ‘Gramsci in China: Past, present, and future of a still open encounter’ (2021, online first); Capital & Class: ‘Disciplinary effects of capital accumulation: Exploring the steering and fiscal capacity of the state in Italy and Spain’ (co-authored with Nikolai Huke, 2020, online first); and Critical Discourse Studies: ‘Investigating hegemony struggles: transdisciplinary considerations on the role of a critical discourse analysis of practical argumentation’ (2018, 15:3).