Military policing in Italy

This chapter tests a party-centred theory of military policing by tracing the choices of Italian governments from 1992 to 2001. In a context of deep political delegitimation, austerity, and rising crime, the mafia murders of Judges Falcone and Borsellino pushed parties to deploy a large Army contingent for domestic policing in Sicily. Senior Army leaders had long advocated these roles and shaped the decision. The operation projected strength, provided faster and cheaper capacity than police expansion, and quickly calmed the insecurity crisis. Its extraordinary popularity led successive governments to extend deployments across several southern regions. The internal use of the Army ended in 1999 under pressure from the radical left, but it left a durable legacy: parties learned that the Army could do this—and that Italians broadly approved.