Southern Italian Peripheries at the Ballot Box. Continuity and Innovation in Electoral Behaviours in Three Southern Italian Cities during Post-Crisis Decade (2008–2019)

The article explores the social and political geography of three southern Italian cities–Bari, Napoli and Reggio Calabria–and investigates inside their centre–periphery cleavage, highlighting whether and how peripheral conditions affect electoral behaviours. It provides a multidimensional statistical analysis based on I.S.T.A.T. data on Italian cities and suburbs and on the results of the political and European elections during the post-economic crisis decade (2008–2019). The study highlights a growing predictive power, after the 2008 crisis, of the peripheral condition on the electoral behaviour, the weakening of the centre-left parties and the specular political success of 5-Star Movement (M.5.S.) in deprived urban areas.