Clientelism, like corruption, is a juicy topic; it is made so by the seemingly-inexorable conflict between protestations of public virtue on the one hand and particularistic exchanges on the other. The topic becomes even more interesting when one tries, as Simona Piattoni does in her book Il clientelismo: L’Italia in [...]
This interview with Carlo Taormina is fantastic. Key points (all according to Taormina):
The “processo breve” is a bargaining tool. Offering to remove it from the agenda can be seen as a concession; a concession can win quick approval of a text of “legitimate impediment”.
The bill on “legitimate impediment” (repeated postponement of trial hearings due to [...]
Depressing editorial from Pier-Luigi Celli. Celli, a most capable man, is the director of Luiss, the closest thing (with the exception of Bocconi) that Italy has to an ENA; and yet I can’t imagine any Frenchman writing this kind of editorial.
More on the impossibility of extracting credible left-right ideal points from parliamentary roll-calls in Italy.
If you’re interested in the Partito Democratico, you might want to read this preliminary version of my article on the PD with Alex Wilson. It’s not just on Bersani’s election as party leader, but that’s there too.
By convincing all these people.
Second in a series explaining why Pierluigi Bersani won the leadership of the Partito Democratico. This post focuses on the reasons why Bersani should have been considered the favourite right from the off.
The governor of Lazio, Piero Marrazzo, has been forced to step down, ostensibly because of poor health, after four police officers attempted to blackmail him with footage of him snorting cocaine with transsexuals.
The police officers had been stupid enough to offer the photos to the print media, including Chi magazine, which is part of the [...]
Yesterday Pier-Luigi Bersani was elected leader of the Partito Democratico. This post is one in a series of posts analyzing the leadership contest, and looks at the programmatic statements of each of the three candidates (Bersani, Franceschini, and Marino).
The primaries for the Partito Democratico are today. Voting continues until 20:00 and the first data are expected at midnight.
Franceschini has closed strongly: there was an appeal signed by 75 parliamentarians, and (somewhat inexplicably, at least to me), left-wing film-maker Nanni Moretti came out in favour of Franceschini.
The nightmare scenario for the PD is that [...]