A bell tolls for Italy

World Policy Journal

Volumn 23, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 45-50

  Gilbert, Mark ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TRENTO   (Italy)

Author keywords

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Indexed keywords

EID: 33748523847     PISSN: 07402775     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/wopj.2006.23.2.45     Document Type: Review

References (5)

1. Napolitano was one of the historic leaders of the Italian Communist Party. He was elected to parliament in 1953 and stayed in the party, despite some personal torment, after the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. He subsequently became the leading member of the so-called miglioristi, the faction within the party that advocated a socialdemocratic turn in the party's policy. Napolitano was president of the Chamber of Deputies from 1992 to 1994, and interior minister from 1996 to 1998. He was made a life senator in October 2005.
2. Rifondazione Comunista, the Greens, and the "Communists of Italy" have between them 38 senators and 72 deputies, as well as several ministers, in the new government. These parties will not always agree among themselves. But they will be united in objecting to anything smacking of liberalization and free-market reforms.
3. For the Northern League and Padania, see Anna Cento Bull and Mark Gilbert, The Lega Nord and the Northern Question in Italian Politics, (London: Palgrave, 2001), especially ch. 4.
4. The reference is to Nanni Moretti's 1998 film, Aprile, where Moretti's character is watching a television debate between a leading center-left politician, Massimo D'Alema (D'Alema is foreign minister in Prodi's new government) and Berlusconi, Moretti says: "D'Alema, answer back, say something, respond, say something, answer, say something leftwing, say something not even left-wing, just civilized."
5. For a persuasive argument that the comparison with Argentina is not misplaced, see Desmond Lachman, "Italy Follows Argentina Down Road to Ruin," Financial Times (London), March 16, 2006.