New Social Cleavages and the Transformation of Italy’s Party-Political System in the Second Republic

The subject of the study is the transformation of Italy’s party-political system in the Second Republic and the formation of new social cleavages affecting electoral behavior and the configuration of the party landscape. The object of the study is the contemporary Italian political space, including the main parties: the Democratic Party (PD), the League (Lega), Brothers of Italy (FdI), and the Five Star Movement (M5S), as well as their electoral and organizational strategies. The author examines in detail aspects such as the influence of Euro-skepticism, the immigration cleavage, regionalism, cultural and value conflicts, and populist trends on the fragmentation of the party system. Special attention is paid to the dynamics of party support across different regions, including North–South differences, as well as the interaction between party strategies, digital media channels, and intra-party organizational modernization. The analysis explores how new lines of conflict and structural changes in the party system shape long-term trends in political mobilization, redistribution of electoral support, and strengthening or weakening of party blocs. The study highlights under-researched aspects of the Second Republic, including the complex interplay of cultural values, migration, and regional specificity. The study employs a comparative-historical analysis, the social cleavages framework of Lipset and Rokkan, and Sartori’s model of party systems. The empirical base includes ISTAT demographic statistics, enabling the identification of spatial and temporal patterns in party system transformation. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the integrated synthesis of social cleavage theory and empirical analysis of the Second Republic, allowing the identification of new lines of political fragmentation and assessment of their systemic impact on the party-political structure. For the first time in Russian and international Italian studies, under-researched aspects are analyzed: the immigration cleavage as part of a multidimensional conflict, regional differences between North and South, the role of digital media channels, and intra-party organizational modernization. The study demonstrates that new lines of conflict contribute to the redistribution of electoral support among right-wing, populist, and centrist parties, increasing the fragmentation and volatility of the party system. The Italian case illustrates the importance of accounting for cultural and structural factors in comparative analyses of European party systems.