Posted on 04/08/2008 1:42:41 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Dismaying though it is that Italy this weekend faces yet another general election, the prospect that it will return an ineffectual government headed by Silvio Berlusconi, and staffed by the same, unredeemable caste of politicians that consistently ducks the challenges the country can no longer afford to evade, is profoundly depressing.
The outgoing centre-left coalition of Romano Prodi, in power less than two years, had made modest progress – especially in improving Italy’s disastrous public finances – as it lurched from one crisis to another. Nothing in the previous record of Mr Berlusconi suggests this crab-like advance will continue.
Italy had a priceless chance to renew itself politically when the Tangentopoli investigations by activist magistrates began unknotting the interests of businessmen, politicians and mafiosi; and a golden opportunity to re-engineer its economy, after swapping the lira for the euro sharply reduced its borrowing costs. It did neither.
Few among the political class can escape blame for this. But the five wasted years of 2001-06 under Mr Berlusconi, a vainglorious populist who came into politics seemingly to dodge the courts and protect his business interests, stand out – especially now it looks as though they are about to be repeated.
Walter Veltroni, the former mayor of Rome leading the centre-left’s challenge, has expressed some resolve to continue reform, for instance by slashing the thicket of laws that stifle enterprise.
But the loose spending promises from both sides ignore the realities of Italy’s low (and falling) growth, vast public debt and declining economic competitiveness. Mr Berlusconi’s unfunded public spending promises are particularly demagogic – about three times Mr Veltroni’s, according to one study – while the parties of the right appear to see saving Alitalia, the terminally loss-making flag carrier, as the main national imperative.
All this could be dismissed as the rhetorical froth of electioneering, were it not that the last Berlusconi administration saddled Italy with an electoral system that guarantees fragmented coalitions bickering over sectional interests. That will almost certainly remain true in spite of recent political mergers on both the right and the left.
Italy is in relative decline. It is sinking under a bloated public sector, over-regulation and crumbling infrastructure. Its traditional comparative advantage in manufacturing is being sorely tested. It needs determined structural reform of the economy and political renewal. It does not look like it will get them.
The Romans tried and failed. That's why they went north to Gaul; to find more reasonable people to deal with.
“italy needs reform...”
so does europe. it’s filled with marxist-leninist scu&bags who want to turn churches into warehouses and christians into slaves of socialist dogma.
With all due respect to my beloved paisani, the Italian people themselves bear some part of the blame here. My parents and aunts and uncles are Italian immigrants who go back every few years. They all busted their butts to make it in America and made a nice life for themselves, but they are shocked by what they see when they go back.
You’ve got young Italians (and not so young) endlessly prolonging their studies and disdaining going to work because they are “studenti” who shouldn’t have to work. Many live at home and mooch off their parents who get nice pensioni from the government. Then on the other end, people are retiring earlier and earlier to get those pensioni. Lots of people trying to get on/stay on the public dole, and not enough people being industrious to keep things afloat.
Of course, those who are hardworking get their legs cut out from under them by regulation and other BS.
Marriage and family isn’t even what it used to be there. It’s really changed, and not for the better. Sort of like us I guess.
but they have some darn good looking women.
Agree 100%. It's the same old story: the welfare state rewards the unproductive fellows and punish the productive ones. Besides we have an awful amount of regulation. Nonetheless, people in the north are still very much hard-working: here in the north is not uncommon to have 3 jobs...the problem lies with the south that's it.
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