Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
POST-WAR ITALY
At war's end, a national referendum abolished the monarchy and installed a parliamentary
republic. Socialists and Communists, repressed under fascism, re-entered the political
arena, drawing strength and support from the industrialized north. Conservative voters co-
alesced around the Catholic Church, and the political arena became host to multiple parties
and factions. In the immediate post-war years, pushed by the Stalinist regime in the Soviet
Union, the Communist Party asserted a forceful presence in Italian politics. Even further
to the political left were revolutionary brigades whose shadowy branches kidnapped and
murdered those in the center and on the right. The far right contained remnants of Mus-
solini's fascists. In the center of the political spectrum were Christian Democrats who
pledged the expansion of the welfare state. To their right, but as an ally, was the strong in-
fluence of the Catholic Church.
Since the end of the Cold War, new groups have thickened the political and parliament-
ary mixture. A large Muslim population is countered by anti-foreign, anti-Islamic agitation.
Widespread bureaucratic corruption brings nostalgia for the good old bad days of Mus-
solini. More recently, the government was dominated by a president whose personal life
was fuel for titillating stories.
To give representation to the many factions and interests in Italian politics, the Parlia-
ment has nearly 1,000 members: 630 in the Chamber of Deputies; 315 in the Senate, plus
seven Senators appointed for life. The structure of Parliament—the number of members
and the number of parties—is designed to prevent any single party or ideology from con-
trolling the government, a safeguard against returning to a dictatorship of either the right or
the left. With no party able to command an outright majority, Parliament works by means
of coalitions.
Coalitions, by their nature, are shifting and unstable. By one count, in the sixty-plus
years since Italy became a parliamentary republic, it has had almost that many changes of
government. Prime ministers and their cabinets come and go. But many of the same per-
sons appear and reappear as leaders of government. This is not surprising given the bar-
gaining around which coalitions are built and the need to maintain the support of at least
50 percent of Parliament members.
Coalition government has predictable consequences. Its policies are rarely boldly in-
novative. As such, they evoke widespread criticism from those who want government to
solve long-standing problems: unemployment, corruption (cases in point: kickbacks and
theft in government contracts), intimidation and bribery of judges, the disparity in incomes
between north and south, and the sharing of responsibility between national and regional
governments, which often leads to inaction rather than action (cases in point: the annual
flooding of St. Mark's Square in Venice; the power of the mafia in the south).
Despite all this, Italy is a democracy. It boasts a thriving middle class. It is a member
of the European Union and uses the euro as national currency. It contributes to the United
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