« The Scumbag Line | Main | Sucky Wizards » Italy -- More Normal Than Ever22 Apr 2008 03:24 pm
Alex Massie makes the point that though Italian politics seems kind of screwed up today, it's way more normal than it used to be. After all, Italy experienced almost the entire Cold War with a revolving door cabinet system masking a partisan stranglehold on power, ridiculous corruption, etc. Now it's moved -- and is increasingly moving -- toward a more conventional system where power rotates between competing political coalitions. Photo by Andreas Tille Comments (21)
A point entirely not emphasised enough in the previous thread is that part of what is so anti-democratic (and a key part of his political comebacks) about Berlusconi is that he owns a large proportion of the TV stations and other media. It'd be like Rupert Murdoch buying NBC and then standing for President. 
Alex makes the key point about Italian politics, which is that the legendary instability of the government (averaging more than one government per year) masks an extraordinary continuity in those doing the governing. The prime minister's chair changed hands a lot less often than in the UK, or even in America during that period.
First, it's not really been two parties (or two groupings of parties) exchanging or rotating power. Essentially, the past 15 or so years has been Italians voting Berlusconi in, then realizing his absolutely vapid slogans prove completely meaningless as a coherent policy, and booting him out. And then watching various faceless mushy "left"(?) technocrats flounder around, only to return to Berlo's happy babytalk. We're now on the third round of this nonsense. Second, neither the People of Freedom nor Forza Italia are at all anything beyond Berlusconi's personal vehicles (Forza Italia was long heavily staffed by Berlusconi's business subordinates in analogous positions to those they simultaneously occupied in his business empire, for instance). Anymore than Putin's Unity Party is actually a political party either. It's true that the American Republican Party has degenerated into being the Bush Party, but at least the Republicans have comparatively long prior history before that.
The partisan stranglehold on power was aided and abetted by a United States that made it clear it would not tolerate a PCI-led government - even if it was the largest party in Italy. This aid included the creation of a secret organization, Operation Gladio, whose aim was to lead an uprising in the event of a PCI election victory (although the official excuse was a Soviet invasion of Italy). When this story first broke in 1990 various Italian Prime Ministers came forward to say their entire knowledge of Operation Gladio came from a single piece of paper shown to them on their first day in office. The game was up when one Prime Minister from a small party said he had never seen it. The President of the Republic, knowing he was ex-officio safe from prosecution, did a big speech admitting the plot and, more or less, told everyone else to shut the fuck up.
Echoing Clark's comment, Gianantonio Stella and Sergio Rizzo have written an extraordinary book on this topic called "La Casta" or the Caste. I don't know if it's been translated into English, but for any Italian expatrates or anyone else who can read Italian, I truly recommend. No modern country's government is as corrupt as Italy's, and no premier as corrupt as Silvio Berlusconi. Buona Fortuna a noi! Sandy
Eh, Italy had crazy coalitions in the post-war era in order to keep the communists (who usually got just under 30% of the vote) from gaining power. Now that the communists are gone, normal parliamentary politics is happening in Italy. No big surprises there.
As I said in the earlier thread, the idea that Italy might be heading towards a US style two-party polity, with Berlusconi heading (and herding) the loose, baggy right, isn't exactly reassuring from all manner of perspectives. (Not least, Michael Ledeen now has two governments to tinker with.) Massie's right about the 'many elections, one ruling bloc' aspect of Italian political history that ended with Mani pulite in 1992. But the obvious point, again made in the earlier thread, is that Berlusconi's attitude towards anti-corruption investigations is barely discernible from that of the Mafia.
"conventional system where power rotates between competing political coalitions." That sounds so much nicer then "wingnuts", "commie pinko's", "fascists",
"conventional system where power rotates between competing political coalitions." That sounds so much nicer then "wingnuts", "commie pinko's", "fascists",
"conventional system where power rotates between competing political coalitions." That sounds so much nicer then "wingnuts", "commie pinko's", "fascists",
It's DC (Democrazia Cristiana), not CD.
This is the River Arno in Florence, isn't it? I've been there, it's breathtaking.
It's the Tiber river in Rome.
It'd be like Rupert Murdoch buying NBC and then standing for President. Ted Turner would be a better parallel. For one thing, Murdoch can't run for US President, as he's not a native. There's also the sports-team angle, although the Rossoneri have been somewhat better than the Braves.
It's the Tiber river in Rome. I'm guessing that's the Ponte Sant'Angelo.
There's also the sports-team angle, although the Rossoneri have been somewhat better than the Braves. I'm sure that if the umpires cheated for the Braves the way they cheated for Milan and Juventus, the Braves would have won several championships.
Handsome is as handsome does Italien politics is screwed up? Really? When's the last time they invaded a foreign country, bombed any civilians, or tortured people? That would have been under Mussolini, which was over 60 years ago, and whom they rather decisively repudiated. And along with him, they rejected a form of, at least on the surface, strong and decisive executive-centric, government. In those last 60 years, the supposedly un-screwed-up US govt has taken over the Mussolini franchise, and done nothing but screw up the world, to no good end even if we only consider the interests of the US. We've had strong, decisive government, that has very decisively led us over cliff after cliff into one strongly disastrous quagmire after another. Oh, but we've had this strong two-party system, that certainly is a process feature that certainly should have insured a vigorous competition of ideas that certainly would have seen failed polices weeded out as the two parties vie for electoral favor. Except that it hasn't. You can measure exactly how stupid a foreign policy is very precisely by the exact proportion to which any such policy gets to be considered bipartisan and immune to criticism by all parties. The stupider a policy and therefore the more disastrous its results, the more vulnerable the whole bipartisan conglomerate would be to unraveling under any serious questioning of the policy, therefore the more sacrosanct the policy becomes. And domestic policy has been rented out on an equally bipartisan basis to corporate America, which has proven more skilled than even the Christian Democrats at preventing action on anything that isn't agreed to by all players in the corporate coalition.
... though Italian politics seems kind of screwed up today, it's way more normal than it used to be. Well, despite their recent garbage strike which may never end, it's a step up from hanging dead persons by their heels in service stations.
Bombed civilians: 1969 - Piazza Fontana bombing (Rome) Tortured people: Giuseppe Pinelli - leftist anarchist, accused of the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, was thrown from the fourth floor of the Milan police station to his death. 32 years later, neo-fascists were convicted of the bombing. It was extremely common for the police (the police, the intelligence services and the military are closely intertwined in Italy) to beat up arrested leftists on a regular basis. "That would have been under Mussolini, which was over 60 years ago, and whom they rather decisively repudiated." Mussolini's grand-daughter is an Italian representative to the European parliament. The neofascist MSI leader Fini was deputy prime minister and foreign minister from 2004-2006 and is a MP, as well as a central supporter of Berlusconi's "party", House of Freedom. Other MSI/Alleanza Nazionale members have served as environment minister, vice-minister of economy and minister of health. As well as at least two major neofascist coups, in 1970 and 1974, having been planned or attempted.
Burritoboy, A little nitpicking: Piazza Fontana was in Milan. In addition, there was the bombing of the Rome-Messina train that killed 6 in 1970. Not to mention Stefano Della Chiaie, a member of Ordine Nuovo (an organization that took the slogan of the Waffen SS as their slogan) and founder of Avanguardia nazionale. Della Chiaie also participated in terrorist attacks as part of Operation Condor, shooting Chilean exile Bernardo Leighton and his wife in Rome in 1975 and participated in other activities in addition to being a confidant of Klaus Barbie when Barbie was exiled in Bolivia.
Comments closed May 06, 2008. |
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Heads in the Sand
Fine, but if the quality of the coffee suffers from this normalization, it will not have been worth it.
Posted by live | April 22, 2008 3:47 PM