Ein älterer Artikel aus der "New York Review of Books" über Italien, mit dem Schwerpunkt auf der ersten Hälfte der Neunziger. ("Corruption probe" betitelt die BBC diese Zeit).

A necessary catalyst [for the beginning of anti-corruption measures] was the end of the cold war and the fall of the Berlin wall; many voters now felt they no longer had to support parties that for more than forty years, by magnifying and exploiting the fear of communism, had maintained an increasingly unmerited dominance over Italian politics.

Another momentous change came when the Italian Communist party dissolved itself in 1990, permitting its more moderate members to form a quite different Democratic Party of the Left, which the die-hards refused to join.

Interessant auch, daß Denis Mack Smith - zumindest 1995 - Umberto Bossi Positives abzugewinnen weiß:

Equally important in changing the political balance was the formation of Umberto Bossi's Lombard League which, along with other regional groups in the north, achieved a remarkable electoral success as a populist party of protest against corruption and over-centralized government.