Fresh from… well, fresh from doing something, one presumes, the Italian parliament is ready to vote on a law hamstringing the press even further (the so-called <a href=”http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2010/05/19/news/senato_accelera-4186524/?ref=HRER1-1″>legge bavaglio</a>). The main provisions of the law relate to the publication of leaks from public prosecutors’ office: in particular, a ban on any information before the initial [...]
Thank God someone’s bringing this out in the UK — for my classes I’ve had to rely on an Italian copy with outrageously bad English subtitles.
Back in Italy, one can always count on the left to tear itself apart just when some ministers in the Berlusconi government are under fire.
So, it’s election time here in Italy, and as usual, all politicians are concentrating on how to make Italy’s stagnant economy perform better. Oh, sorry, no, they’re talking about how much time they get on television. Silvio Berlusconi has now been formally placed under investigation for pressuring officials within Agcom (the sectoral regulator) and Rai. [...]
Some image-heavy slides from my presentation on the Italian media. Thanks to Jeppe for reminding me.
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 prospettiva comparata, to rehabilitate clientelism, [...]
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 [...]
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.