mar
5
2011
Where is Italy heading for?
Autore: andrea
Where is Italy heading for? ‘Immobilismo’, has never been as awake as it is now. Silvio Berlusconi’s government was about to collapse last months. And even if his political enemies spend a lot of time speaking about innovation, change and reforms, the truth is that almost every Italian would-be Prime Minister tries to win elections by claiming to be a hero, the one that will change everything.
Silvio Berlusconi was elected three times because the Italian voters felt attracted by his speeches full of political changing intentions. This happened before Berlusconi became Prime Minister and it is happening now, too. The problem is that the only winner of this political instability is its own immobilismo. Maybe it is worth we ask ourselves why Italy is still stuck between the unclear awareness of a bygone past and the never fulfilled promise of a real change. A possible answer could be that the Italian society has too much faith in the State to understand that it is one single person who can make a real difference.
But the problem is the Italian way of thinking, which led the whole economic and political system to lots of inefficiencies. Let’s take into consideration the above mentioned call for reforms. It has been a long time- at least fifteen years- since a big network of scholars, politicians, foundations and associations has pushed for the reform of the functions of the National Parliament’s two chambers.
Italy is the only country in the western world to keep the old-fashioned and inefficient way of passing bills and statutes, since the two Chambers of the Parliament effectively do the same things. Sometimes it takes years to have a piece of legislation passed as the two Chambers have to agree article by article. “Much ado about nothing”, Shakespeare would say.
Furthermore, the Italian Constitution doesn’t provide for the would-be Prime Minister to be directly elected by its people. It is the Head of the State who literally appoints him after consultations take place among the political parties. That is why Italian politics has always been affected by instability. And speaking about the administrative level is even worse.
In order to get any sort of authorisation, as a citizen, you have to be a friend of a friend of somebody working within the public administration. Otherwise, you have no chance. The public administration has too much power to interfere within the life of individuals. Local politics is even worse than that one at national level. The winning coalition, which is supposed to set the rules, is actually bound by a lot of gentlemanly agreements with unknown lobbies, religious groups and associations often linked with the opposed coalition. The result is that, even if you have two different coalitions fighting each other to get the political power, what happens is that you have one big coalition bound by personal interests.
That is why so many things do not work even at a local level, especially in the south. Take for example the Health Care Service. The vertices of the system are appointed on a political party’s lotting basis. There must be something wrong with the Italian way of thinking. What happens in politics is a consequence of what happens on a downstream level. The role of the young generations should be taken into urgent consideration. But if you can, have a quick look on how the education system works in Italy, and you will understand what I mean. Italian students are not used to developing their own opinions. They have to just sit down and take notes about what the teacher or the professor says. There is no Socratic dialogue. No learning by doing approach. No discussion and no solution of problems. When you have to sit exams, you are just supposed to write repeating what the teacher had said during the class. In Italian we use the word “istruzione”( which means instructions) to refer to education. And that is why speaking about employment in Italy is a taboo.
Unsurprisingly, Italy’s labor law is based on a 19th-century Napoleonic model. The best job you can aspire to get is to work in the public sector as a civil servant. You then have no fear of being sucked, no fear of having to work more to improve your incomes. The longer you stay, the more you will be paid.
It is not a surprise that Italian economic growth is always stuck. As it is not a surprise that it is impossible to introduce a flexicurity-based model within our labor law. It is basically implying that if you are young and don’t have a friend of a friend in politics or you don’t have your parents in a good position, maybe it is better for you to make for another place where merit is not considered as a sin but as a gift. Especially since after the crisis, a lot of Italian politicians have started demanding for more rules, as well as powers, to the state and less to the market.
You can only claim for less market if you have already had a real effective free market. Unfortunately, Italian politicians do not believe in a free market as they do not believe in competition. Politics is the consequence of the way of thinking you find on a downstream level. How could it be different if, as mentioned above, the merit of the individual is seen as something to be kept down because it is only politically correct that everybody is considered in the same way? That is how Italian immobilismo works. It may be hard to admit it, but only the truth will set it free.