Introduction to Italian History
and Culture
The Italian Society: Past and Present
The Paradoxes of the Italian Society
• “In Italy for thirty years
under the Borgias they had
warfare, terror, murder and
bloodshed but they
produced Michelangelo,
Leonardo daVinci and the
Renaissance. In Switzerland,
they had brotherly love, they
had five hundred years of
democracy and peace and
what did that produce? The
Cuckoo clock.” Orson Welles
in The Third Man
The Paradoxes of the Italian Society
• "First of all, let's get one thing straight. Your Italy
and our Italia are not the same thing. Italy is a soft
drug peddled in predictable packages, such as hills
in the sunset, olive groves, lemon trees, white wine,
and raven-haired girls. Italia, on the other hand, is a
maze. It's alluring, but com- plicated. It's the kind
of place that can have you fuming and then purring
in the space of a hundred meters, or in the course
of ten minutes. Italy is the only workshop in the
world that can turn out both Botticellis and
Berlusconis." Beppe Severgnini, Journalist and
Writer
The Paradoxes of the Italian Society
• For us to go to Italy and
to penetrate into Italy is a
most fascinating act of
self-discovery - back,
back down the old ways
of time. Strange and
wonderful chords awake
in us, and vibrate again
after many hundreds of
years of complete forgetfullness. D.H. Lawrence
“The Creator made Italy from the designs by
Michelangelo.” Mark Twain
The Paradoxes of the Italian Society
• “But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the
subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they
don’t. Don’t evaluate Italy from the fact that it
produced Raphael and Michelangelo.”
- Umberto Eco
-
The Paradoxes of the Italian Society
• “Mussolini never killed
anyone. Mussolini used
to send people on
vacation in internal exile.”
• “The racial laws were the
worst fault of Mussolini
as a leader, who in so
many other ways did
well.” Silvio Berlusconi,
January, 2013
• Late in industrialization The Italian Economy
• Business caught up with
and overtook Western
European countries,
particularly in the north.
• Metallurgical and
engineering industry
• Weakness: lack of raw
materials and
cumbersome
bureaucracy and
regulations
The Italian Economy
• Problems: North – South
divide
• Industrial North and
agricultural South
• Two largest sectors:
chemical and garment
industries
• The fourth largest GDP in
Europe following
Germany, France, and GB,
surpassing Russia
The Italian Economy
14 May Fabio Strada
European Luxury Brands
in the Asian Market
The Italian Economy
• 4 June
• Tiziana Alamprese
• Promoting the Italian
Automotive Culture in
Japan. Fiat 500
The Italian Economy
• Italian agriculture and
Italian food industry
• Italian cuisine:
simplicity; healthiness;
good ingredients than
elaborate preparation
• Regional variety
• International popularity
• 11 June Maria Gioia
Vienna, Italian Food
The Italian Economy
• Italian economic problems
• Inefficient levying of direct
taxes
• Since the creation of the
republic after WWII,
economy relied on public
loans to finance public works
• Many did not pay direct
income tax till the 1970s
• Tax evasions
• Thriving underground
economy
The Italian Economy
• By 1991 public debt exceeded GDP and still does in 2012
• After the economic recession since 2007 the Italian
economy stagnated, GDP continues to fall, and
unemployment topped 10 %
• One of the acronym ‘PIIGS’
• In referendum, Italy replaced
monarchy with a republic
• A new constitution
• Built-in guarantees against
easy amendment
• Sovereignty belongs to the
people
• Rights of men
• Equality before the law
• Freedom of speech and faith
• Abolishing the patriarchal legal
system and legalization of
divorce and abortion
Government and
Society
• Bicameral parliament –
Chamber of Deputies and
Senate
• Members of the Chamber of
Deputies popularly elected via
a proportional representation
• Members of the Senate too
via PR, but several members
appointed by the president(s)
• Difference – the minimum age
to be an electorate and
candidate
• 18 and 25 / 25 and 40
• Terms 5 years
Government and
Society
Government and Society
• The Presidential Office
• President as the head of
state
• Elected by the two-thirds
majority of a college of the
two chambers and three
representatives from each
region
• Calls special sessions; delays
and authorizes legislation
• Dissolve parliament at his
own initiative or at the
request of the government
Government and
Society
• Electoral System
• Full proportional
representation after WWII
• The 2005 reform allocates
a number of bonus seats
to the winning coalition to
guarantee a majority for
victors. (Deputies)
• No such privilege for the
Senate
• The same legislative power
Governement and
Society
Governement and Society
• 18 June
• Eduardo Crisafulli
• Author of biography of
Bettino Craxi, prime
minister and leader of
the Socialist Party
during the 1980s
• Post-War Italian Political
History
• Political parties from the
end of WWII to the 1990s
• Two major parties –
Christian Democratic and
Italian Communist parties
with small parties
• The fall of communism in
1991, prosecutions of
corrupt officials and
politicians (mani pulite),
electoral reforms
• Demise of the First
Republic and
disappearance of major
political parties
Government and
Society
• Tangentopoli (tangente =
kickback, poli = cities) cities
of kickbacks and bribes
• Investigations called mani
pullite (clean hands)
revealed massive kickbacks
given for public work
contracts
• More than the half of the
members of parliament
under indictment, but
mainly CD and PS
• More than 400 city and
town councils dissolved for
corruption charges
Government and
Society
Government and Society
• A Milan judge, Antonio Di
Pietro, had a Mario Chiesa
arrested for corruption. In
the end Bettino Craxi was
indicted also corruption.
• 7 May, Martijn Boot,
Machiavelli and Clean
Hands Politics
• 25 June Andrea Ortolani
The Administration of
Justice in Italy
• The Second Republic
• Three major parties rose to
dominate the political right –
Forza Italia, the Northern
League and the National
Alliance
• PCI reborn as Democratic Party
of the Left (later DS)
• In 2007 DS merged with a
centrist Daisy (Margherita)
Party and became the
Democratic Party (centre-left
• FI joined with AN to create the
centre-right People of Freedom
(Popolo della libertá) Party
Government
and Society
Government and Society
• 15 Regions 5 autonomous
areas
• 21 May, Hiroko Kudo
• Regionalism and
federalism in Italy:
political, administrative
and fiscal reforms
Education
• Compulsory education for
those between 6 and 16 years
• Now about two-thirds of
people of university age
attend university, and almost
nine-tenths of people of high
school age attend high school.
• Most schools and universities
are run by the state, with
uniform pragrammes across
the country
• Less than one tenth attend
private schools
Italy from Various Sides
• 16 April, John Oliphant, An
Italian Education
• 2 July, Fabio Spaziani
Environmental concerns in
Italy: problems, approaches
and unsolved issues
• 9 July, Silvio Vita
Environmental concerns in
Italy: problems, approaches
and unsolved issues
• 16 July, Italy and EU