Italy's new order laid bare

ITALY AND ITS DISCONTENTS: 1980-2001 by Paul Ginsborg (Penguin, pounds 25)IAN THOMSON

IN the 1980s, Italy surpassed Britain to become the fifth industrial power of the Western world. Italians spoke proudly of il sorpasso - the overtaking. In the scramble to acquire wealth, the country's birth rate dropped to the lowest in Europe. And the family, once so deeply woven into Italy's social and political fabric, was under threat.

Nowhere was the roseate flush of prosperity more striking than in Bologna.

Traditionally the gastroerotic heart of Italy, abortion rates soared in the city. Its hedonism seemed manifest in the street

names: Vicolo Bacidame (Lady-Kisser Lane), Via Fregatette (Rub- Tits Street).

Pope John Paul II declared that he was unhappy with Bolognese epicurianism and licentiousness.

In this important social primer, Italy and its Discontents, Paul Ginsborg assesses the nation's vaunted social and economic renewal between 1980 and 2001. In those years, Italy reportedly purged itself of the old political order. Yet organised crime has not diminished. Indeed, the baleful influence of the Mafia is a keystone in Ginsborg's analysis. In some ways, the Cosa Nostra, with its powerful matriarchs and clan loyalty, is a grotesque parody of Mediterranean family life. Mafia clans are often referred to as cosche, from the Sicilian dialect for an artichoke's leaves. These clans fit snugly inside each other, overlapping tightly. The roots of corruption remain in Sicily, but The Octopus (as the Mafia is known colloquially) has spread its tentacles into northern Italy as far as Milan. By the early 1980s, mobsters had begun to kill reporters, magistrates and police, anyone who obstructed their massive traffic in heroin. "Here dies all hope of honest Italians," bewailed a bystander in 1982 after General Della Chiesa, Prefect of Mafia investigat -ions in Sicily, was brutally murdered.

Italy's present government under Silvio Berlusconi came to power on the promise of a crusade against corruption. Yet there is no evidence to suggest that Berlusconi is any less venal than other Italian prime ministers. (His pearly teeth and doctored hair suggest the opposite).

Disturbingly, Berlusconi's coalition includes neo-Fascists as well as members of the federalist and blatantly racist Northern League.

Italian politics acquired a showbiz tawdriness during the Thatcher years.

In 1987, the porn star Cicciolina (Sweetie Pie) notoriously campaigned on behalf of Italy's maverick Radical Party. Her electoral campaign featured floorshows in which a python, Piti-Piti, disappeared as it wound itself round the Hon Cicciolina's body. (She got into trouble with the Italian Friends of the Earth for that.) Better a stripper in parliament than another Mafioso, it was observed, yet Cicciolina was symptomatic of a new, meretricious Italy.

Half a century has passed since the Italian Republic was founded in 1946.

And since then the hopes for a fairer, better Italy have not been met, says Ginsborg. The discontent is especially felt by the older generation who combated Fascism.

The orderly queue is unheard of, tax evasion widespread, beaches polluted and museums are falling down. The so-called values of the Resistance - national unity, Liberalism - appear to have been trampled upon.

For all that Italy is a modern nation state, it would still be hard to imagine a Sicilian property developer applying for planning permission, or a businessman not bribing a telephone engineer for the speedy installation of a line. Paul Ginsborg, a veteran Italophile, is disillusioned but not unduly pessimistic. Italians have a famed ability to make the best of a bad deal.

Their disregard for the rules has been the undoing of the political system, but it has created a vital and wonderful people. As well as a valuable reference, Ginsborg has written a substantial guide to the virtues and misdeeds of Europe's most foxy political class.

Ian Thomson's biography of Primo Levi is published next month.

Copyright 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.