Tangentopoli or the democratization of corruption: Considerations on the end of italy’s first republic

Journal of Modern Italian Studies

Volumn 1, Issue 1, 1995, Pages 124-143

  Sassoon, Donald ^a  

^a QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84953035132     PISSN: 1354571X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13545719508454910     Document Type: Article

References (20)

1. The mechanism is well analysed by Donatella Della Porta in ‘La capitale immorale: le tangenti di Milano’ in S. Heilman and G. Pasquino (eds), Politica in Italia 1993 (Bologna: 11 Mulino, 1993).
2. See comment by Ilvo Diamanti, ‘La Lega’, in Ilvo Diamanti and Renato Mannheimer (eds) Milano a Roma. Guida all'Italia elettorale del 1994 (Rome: Donzelli editore, 1994), p. 55.
3. Cited in Andrea Pamparana, II processo Cusani. Politici e Jaccendieri della Prima Repubblica (Milan: Mondadori, 1994), p. 146.
4. On the P2 see Marco Ramat, Giuseppe D’Alema, Stefano Rodota and Luigi Berlinguer, La resistibile ascesa della P2 (Bari: De Donato, 1983).
5. For a good journalist account see Rupert Cornwell, God’s Banker. The Life and Death of Roberto Calvi (London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1984).
6. Arrigo Benedetti, ‘Capitale corrotta e nazione infetta’, in L'Espresso, No. 1, 1958, collected by the magazine in a paperback: L’Espresso 1955-85. 30anni di scandali, edited by Giampaolo Pansa (Rome: Espresso spa, 1985).
7. Ernesto Rossi, Settimo: Non rubare (Bari: Laterza, 1953).
8. See the lucid comments on this by Giulio Sapelli in his Cleptocrazia (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1994), pp. 86-87.
9. Cited in Pamparana, II processo Cusani, pp. 147-148.
10. Similar conclusions have been reached by Donatella Della Porta, Lo stambio occulto. Casi di corruzione politica in Italia (Bologna: II Mulino, 1992)
11. Franco Cazzola, Della corruzione. Fisiologia e patologia di un sistema politico (Bologna: II Mulino, 1988) and L’Italia del pizzo. Fenomenologia della tangente quotidiana (Turin: Einaudi, 1992);
12. C. Sennet, La coscienzadell'occhio (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1991). Of a contrary opinion is Marco Marturano, Mafia e corruzione. Un libro scritto da 150.000 italiani (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 1994), p. 194. Though the survey data Maturano used simply show that ordinary people respond to pollsters by expressing their dismay at corruption, the opposite would be surprising.
13. Of the many instant books describing these intrigues see Marcella Andreoli, Processo all’Italia. II Belpaese alia sbarra: Storie di delitti ordinari e di castighi eccellenti (Milan: Sperling Kupfer Editori, 1994), and Pamparana, II processo Cusani.
14. Surveys conducted in 1992 and 1993 show that 76.6 per cent of citizens think that the majority of Italians are honest. See Marturano, Mafia e corruzione, p. 183.
15. Gherardo Colombo, Piercamillo Davigo and Antonio Di Pietro, ‘Noi obbediamo alia legge non alia piazza’, Micromega 5(1993): 13.
16. This was revealed by the three magistrates to the Assize Court of Rome at the end of 1993; see the extracts in Maurizio De Luca, ‘Mani pulite prima di mani pulite’ Micromega 1 (1994): 165-171.
17. Edmondo Bruti Liberati, ‘Magistral e politici: una difficile convivenza’, Micromega 5(1993): 31-45.
18. Maurizio De Luca and Franco Giustolisi, ‘Gli anni ottanta fra giudici einsabbiatori’, Micromega 2(1993): 101-117.
19. The exceptions were few and significant; one was Sergio Cusani, theprotagonist of the main trial so far, the other was Primo Greganti, a Communist who said that he had stolen the money for himself not for the party. In Cusani’s case, the reason for his silence may have been due to the assumption that he will never serve his full eight years and will be able to spend the rest of his life enjoying the vast sums distributed in bank accounts. As for Greganti, if he lied it was to protect his party, in which case his cause gave him strength.
20. In Italy the ex-Communists campaigned on a programme which could have been written, and some say was written, by the Bank of Italy.