Abstract
Autore:
Coticchia Fabrizio
Titolo:
"Opinione pubblica e politica di difesa: il caso italiano"
This article looks at the complex relationship between public opinion and defence policy. A detailed literature review will provide two distinguished approaches on the nature of the public opinion. A first one, which is historically related especially to the 50’s and the 60’s, has stressed the image of an irrational and incoherent public. The absence of information on foreign and defence policy represents another crucial element in such a negative picture. On the contrary, a second phase of the research (which is emerged mainly after the War in Vietnam) has emphasizes a different representation of a public opinion with stable and rational attitudes, also toward the international scenario. The paper, through the support of national literature and recent surveys, will try to test the empirical strength of the both images, illustrating the relationship between the Italian public opinion and the profound evolution of the Italian defence policy since the end of the Cold War.