Italy

Situated in southern Europe, Italy is a peninsula of 301,230 square kilometers (116,275 square miles) that includes two large islands: Sicily, which is separated by the Straits of Messina (only 3 kilometers, or less than 2 miles, wide), and Sardinia, which lies between Italy and Spain, separated by the Tyrrhenian Sea. On the north, the Alpine arc separates Italy from France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. Enclosed within the Italian territory are the Holy See (the Vatican City) and the Republic of San Marino (39 square kilometers; 15 square miles).

Italy had a population estimated in July 2003 at 57,998,353. The capital is Rome, with more than 2.5 million inhabitants. Important cities include Milan (3.5 million inhabitants), Turin (2 million inhabitants), Naples (3 million inhabitants), and Palermo (more than 1 million inhabitants). Other cities of significance include Bologna, Florence, and Bari.

The Italian currency was the lira, but like ten other European countries, on January 1, 2002, the euro became the only legal tender.

Italy has a strategic location, dominating the central Mediterranean region and representing the southern part of Europe facing the ethnic and cultural areas of North Africa and the Arabic-Islamic civilization.

Contemporary Italy has an increasingly diversified economy, but with a still strong internal division between a developed industrial North and an agricultural South, the latter of which depends heavily on government social assistance and is characterized by an average unemployment rate of 20 percent, which is quite high in comparison with the national average of about 9 to 10 percent.

the history of unified italy

The history of a unified Italy starts in the nineteenth century with the Risorgimento, a struggle for liberation from foreign rule and for the unification of the several Italian micro-states. The leaders of the Risorgimento were Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872), an idealist and republican, and Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), who represented the military myth of the Risorgimento. Unification of Italy was achieved when Rome was finally conquered and declared capital of Italy in July 1871.

The new state was established as a monarchy with a parliamentary government. Unified Italy embraced many liberal values, but was not democratic. The government was guided by aristocratic oligarchs and supported by a very narrow electoral base. Universal suffrage was not established in Italy until 1946.

Economic and social conditions were miserable, particularly in the southern part of the country, where only a few peasants owned land and labor contracts were oppressive. Most of the country's approximately 25 million people could not read or write, and the entire country suffered from a high mortality rate. The conditions of labor, extreme poverty, harsh taxation, and the birth of the socialist party provoked episodes of strongly repressed insurrection and the assassination of King Umberto I (1844–1900) in Monza on July 1, 1900.

fascism

World War I (1914–1918) revealed the weakness of the old aristocrat-liberal regime and its inability to face new challenges. The ruin and disillusionment following the war, the growth of the socialist party, anarchy, and the efforts for the bourgeoisie to maintain the political and economic control to reach higher levels of development prepared the ground for the success of fascism. Benito Mussolini (1883–1945), leader of the National Fascist Party, gained power in 1922 via revolution, with only thirty deputies of his party seated in the parliament. Fascist propaganda promised a new political system that would be neither capitalist nor communist and that would offer solutions to the working class and rationalize Italian capitalism. But fascism soon developed into an authoritarian regime. It failed only after the disaster of World War II (1939–1945).

The landing of Allied troops in Sicily on July 10, 1943, provoked a strong reaction against Mussolini. He was arrested after a palace coup , and a new government was formed. Mussolini was, however, rescued by a German commando raid and created a new rival government in the northern Italy under Nazi protection. This led to a civil war, which started spontaneously in September 1943 by the youth, who were disillusioned with fascism, and members of the Resistance Movement. These groups included people of different political ideas: communists, socialists, republicans and Christian Democrats. After the collapse of the last German defense lines in the North, Mussolini was caught and summarily shot.

the first italian republic and the new political system

On June 2, 1946, the electorate voted by a majority of 54 percent to establish the Italian Republic, although the monarchy was still supported by a substantial margin in the South. The people also elected a constitutional assembly, in which all the parties that had supported the resistance movement were represented. A new constitution was approved on December 22, 1947, and went into effect on January 1, 1948.

The Republican constitution founded a new political and social order based on a pluralistic democracy. It recognized human labor as a fundamental right, provided recognition for the role of political parties and trade unions, institutional pluralism, political and administrative decentralization , and protection of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. It created twenty regions, including special status regions to protect linguistic and cultural minorities.

The political system was organized on the principle that the people are the true holders of sovereign power, which may be exercised both directly, through elections, and indirectly, through institutional representation. Through the ballot, which is universal, direct, and secret, the people choose their political representatives; through referendums they can decide directly to repeal a law or modify the constitution and also change regional and local laws.

The political institutions of the Italian Republic include an executive branch, composed of two offices. The president of the republic is elected for a seven-year term by an electoral college, consisting of both houses of parliament and fifty-eight regional representatives. The executive also includes a chief of government or prime minister, who serves as the president of the Council of Ministers. The ministers are confirmed by the president of the Republic on the proposal of the prime minister. To be installed, a new government must appear before parliament, present its political program, and receive a vote of confidence.

The legislative branch is composed of a bicameral parliament, consisting of the Chamber of the Deputies (Camera dei Deputati) and Senate of the Republic (Senato). The 315 members of the Senato are elected by all citizens aged 25 and older for five-year terms. Three-quarters of the senators are elected through a majority system by region. A small number of senators, including all former presidents of the Republic, serve for life. The 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected by all citizens aged 18 and older for five-year terms. Three-quarters of the deputies are elected with a majority system in single-member districts; the others are elected on a regional basis but only from among those parties that obtain at least 4 percent of the vote nationally.

The judicial branch consists of the Constitutional Court (Corte Costituzionale), composed of fifteen judges (one-third appointed by the president of the Republic, one-third elected by parliament, and one-third elected by the ordinary and administrative supreme court judges), and ordinary and administrative courts. The Constitutional Court is charged with controlling the correct application of the constitution and constitutional laws. A Superior Council of the Magistracy (Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura) monitors the selection and discipline of all judges.

The ordinary judiciary system includes 165 local trial courts, the same number of public prosecutors' offices (Procure della Repubblica), and 29 courts of appeals. Italian magistrates can be appointed to serve as either judges or prosecutors. Italian courts are organized by function into ordinary (civil and criminal) and administrative courts. At the top of the system there are two autonomous supreme courts: the first, the Court of Cassation (Corte di Cassazione), receives appeals from criminal and civil courts, and the second, the Council of State (Consiglio di Stato), receives appeals from the administrative courts. The most relevant problems of the system concern the careers of judges and the average length of trials, which may exceed several years.

italian political development

Historically, political institutions and civil society were linked by political parties and trade unions, organizations regulated also by the constitution. Since the early postwar years the two major trade unions, the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL), which is close to the former Communist party, and the Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori (CISL), which is close to the Christian Democratic party, played an important role not only in the economic life of the country but also in the political one. In the period from 1960 to 1990 the trade unions emerged as a strong political force and achieved some important social reforms. However, slowly the force of the trade unions declined, and the trade unions were increasingly threatened by single issue organizations or separate categories of workers' unions and by the local groups.

The Italian constitution regulates political pluralism by ensuring citizens the freedom to create political parties. The structure, function, and regulation of political parties remains a difficult issue for the entire Italian political system. The uncertainty and the comparative instability of democratic life in Italy result from a party-dominated system (partitocrazia). Political parties flourish and divide because of the difficulty of a stable representation system in a very fluid, fragmented, and individualistic civil society.

In the years following World War II (post-1945) formal democratic institutions often played a minor role in governance in comparison to the interests of individual parties and the pressure groups that influence the parties. This resulted in rapid changes in governments, with more than 50 prime ministers in the first 50 years of the Republic. These continuous changes in governments were caused more by internal conflict within the parties or among parties than by serious public policy differences.

The constitution does not regulate pressure groups and the activities of lobbies. In addition to the trade unions, important interest groups are the industrial and merchants' associations (confindustria and confcommercio), organized farm-groups (confagricoltura) and the Roman Catholic Church. Ownership and control of the mass media are also not regulated by the constitution and yet emerged as important instruments of social power and the target of a bitter struggle for their control.

The life of the so-called First Republic (1946–1994) was determined by a polarized conflict between the Christian Democratic Party and the Communist Party. Important roles were also played by the Socialist Party and minor parties like Social Democrats, Liberals, and Republicans in creating governments coalitions .

The most popular party, the Christian Democratic, maintained the dominant political position during the First Republic and was central to all political coalitions. Its adherents were placed in key public institutions and in the most important social and economic structures and counted on the benevolent abstention of the left or of the Monarchists or neo-fascists on the right to maneuver through many delicate parliamentary situations. The Christian Democratic Party was reinforced by the trust of the Catholic Church, which saw in it an important defense again the strongest Communist Party in Europe.

After the period immediately following World War II, the Communists appealed to the left of the Christian Democrats to open new ways to reformism and publicly affirmed that the Marxist view of class struggle made no sense in modern developed countries. They respected parliamentary democracy and the multiparty system. In 1978 Aldo Moro (1916–1978), the leader of the Christian

Democrats, promoted the "historical compromise" to allow the Communist Party to join in governing coalitions.

Political life in Italy during the First Republic may have been complex, but the nation experienced rapid and unforeseen social and economic development. In 1945, Italy was one of the poorest countries in the West, but within a few years Italy generated one of the fastest growing economies in the world and became one of the most industrialized countries.

the crisis of the system

Economic success could not compensate after the 1970s for the slow collapse of the political system of the First Republic. The kidnapping and murder of Christian Democratic Party leader Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978 demonstrated that the political system was no longer able to react to terrorist groups and that the rigid political parties could not cope with the new social and political situation. Concentration of economic power and the strong ties of economic magnates with politics generated scandals and mistrust. Antiestablishment forces became more aggressive toward the system.

Public mistrust of politics and politicians led to the growth of parties outside of the institutions of government. The loss of ideological strength by the traditional parties oriented the electorate more and more toward localism . The traditional political parties could no longer exert political control in the country and that opened the way to growing activities by organized criminal groups. These criminal organizations represented a power in southern Italy that extended to the economic and social spheres and, indeed, to some politicians. In 1992, with the assassination of the two anti-Mafia judges Giovanni Falcone (1939–1992) and Paolo Borsellino (1940–1992), these criminal organizations became a threat to Italian institutions and forced a realization that there existed a real necessity for a radical change.

A decisive event contributed to political change in Italian politics. In 1992 Italian magistrates from the Milan Court, and especially Judge Antonio Di Pietro (b. 1950), accused leading politicians of large-scale corruption. The investigation discovered a scandal of political kickbacks and payoffs that touched many top politicians. The scandal and the ensuing moralizing process that began throughout the Italian economy created conditions that allowed the Italian business and industrial systems to develop in the context of European and global competition.

The social and political climate also changed. The ideological climate based on rigid distinctions among political parties was replaced by new political tendencies open to new political organizations. The electorate was no longer a party electorate: It became a public opinion electorate, which was more fluid, more present-oriented, and more guided by contemporary events and needs. A new populist mentality emerged on the political scene. This mentality was represented by Umberto Bossi (b. 1941) and his regionally oriented Northern League, by Silvio Berlusconi (b. 1936) and Forza Italia ("Go Italy!"), and by a form of media populism. In the general elections of 1994, the right wing alliance of Forza Italia, the Northern League, and the National Alliance (born from the old neo-fascist party Movimento Sociale Italiano) won a majority in the House of Deputies and a plurality in the Senate. The first party in the coalition was Forza Italia, which obtained 155 of the 366 seats in the lower house of Parliament, and Berlusconi was named prime minister. It was a very surprising success for the party that was founded only three months before the elections.

a new political landscape

The emergence of a new political climate was clear in the decline of strong political attachments, as well as in the difficulty of linking together new and different political forces and keeping the promises of a populist program. An internal dispute in the coalition the election in April 1996 of a new center-left coalition (The Olive Tree) and a new government led by Romano Prodi (b. 1939). The new coalition included the new Democratic Left Party, derived from the reform branch of the Communist Party. Disputes in the center-left coalition again led to new elections in May 2001, which gave a large majority to a center-right coalition (The House of Freedom) in which Forza Italia, National Alliance, and Northern League were joined by the Democratic-Christian Centre and United Christian Democrats, both linked to the tradition of the old Christian Democrats. The new government of Berlusconi was more stable and appeared better able to cope with an old political structure and a new kind of public opinion. In the early twenty-first century, very difficult internal problems, such as constitutional reforms, financial crises, new scandals, and new difficulties in controlling the public opinion again tested the viability of the government coalition. Populism, mass media, and the mass-regime seem to be very serious threats for Italian democracy.

citizens' rights and freedoms

The Italian constitution defines rights and freedoms of the citizens. Equality before the law and equal rights for men and women are guaranteed as well as the right to strike and the right to an adequate health care. Among the freedoms, the constitution guarantees in particular the freedom of religious faiths, personal beliefs and ideologies, spoken and written expression, freedom of association, and the freedom of teaching and research. Some rights and freedoms are not derived directly from the constitutional text but rather indirectly from the decisions of the Constitutional Court, such as the guarantee of media pluralism.

The real practice of such rights and freedoms is, to a point, actually limited by the pressure of bureaucracy , by the lack of an effective pluralism and of mechanisms of juridical defense, and by the relative incapacity of the people to elaborate creative and proactive organizations. Suspicion of power and passivity in the active exercise of rights and freedoms allow the powerful to increase their control of the masses through the monopolistic use of mass media and permit a peculiar kind of populism that may become a strong threat to freedom. The extension of rights and freedoms is very wide in the Italian law, but the opportunity, the ways, and the conditions to use them are actually restricted, thus diminishing the real sense of democracy.

See also: Dictatorship; European Microstates; European Union; Parliamentary Systems; Political Parties; Political Party Systems; Vatican.

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Carlo Mongardini