Italy is a country that has gone through many changes throughout its history. It has faced many obstacles but has remained nationalistic and eager for unification. The political history of Italy is quite extensive. The Greeks were the first to settle in Italy and established colonies in the southern part of the country and in Sicily. There was not a sense of political reality as much as there was a civilization (Windows on Italy- History). While the Greeks controlled the south the Gauls, or Celtic people, ruled the north and the Po Valley.
But the most important group to settle in Italy was the Etruscans. Because of their advanced civilization, the Etruscans were the only ones to establish political and cultural ideas before the Roman Empire (Windows on Italy- History). At the end of the Etruscans rule, Rome began a unification of Italy and established Latin to be the general language (Defusco). By 6 th century BC, the city of Rome came into power. During this growing power, Rome began fighting other civilizations to expand its territory. Amongst these populations was Rome’s long time friend Carthage.
Rome soon became greedy and made war on Carthage in the Second Punic War (Defusco). The Punic Wars lead Rome to gain territories along the Mediterranean basin. At the end of the Third Punic War, Rome defeated Carthage and became the major Mediterranean military power (Windows on Italy- History). In all of Rome’s defeats, Greece was the most significant. The Romans adopted Greek customs and ideas as their own. This changed the society of Rome by developing a new culture and way of thinking.
The Roman Empire was soon developed by the ideas of Augustus, leading to a more democratic way of governing. The Empire created an expansion of Roman civilization by its leaders conquering other civilizations. The Empire ruled for many years under many different Emperors. During this time there was a mixture of rule between a hereditary Emperor and a Senate.
With the fall of the Empire after the death of Theodosius, Italy was then attack from neighboring civilizations in the north and west. These invasions soon lead to the rising of power in individual city-states (Defusco). The citizens of the cities abolished the ideas of feudalism and searched for their own identity. Their searching lead to violent acts amongst themselves in determining who should govern, but despite the fighting, each city contributed greatly to the economy and helped to raise the cultural energy of Rome (Defusco). By the year 1861, a unified Italy was established with the help of France and England. The Kingdom of Italy did, however have its problems.
There was much concern about the growing cities in the north while the south remained to depend on its agriculture for support. These concern have not yet been resolved to this day. To gain more territories, Italy joined Germany and Austria in the Triple Alliance in 1882 to conquer Ethiopia and Turkey (Defusco). At the outbreak of World War I, Italy remained neutral until 1915, when the Allies promised Italy more territories (Defusco). At the end of the war Italy only received two of the territories it was promised, which created a strong nationalistic view and disappointment amongst its people. The war created many social and political problems throughout the country and by the election of 1919 things changed dramatically.
The socialists and popular Catholic parties took over the Parliament, which lead to the ideas of a revolution among the people (Defusco). One leader of this revolution was Benito Mussolini, who founded a movement called Fascism. After four years of revolution, Mussolini took over as the dictator of Italy and eliminated civil liberties, political parties, and encouraged a totalitarian regime (Defusco). Mussolini soon joined forces with Hitler and World War II came into affect. The Fascists later turned on Mussolini and Italy joined the Allies to fight Germany. This reaction lead to a strong anti-Fascist movement called the Committee of National Liberation (Defusco).
By the year 1946 the idea for a republic was anonymous. Various parties were created and Italy joined the EU and North Atlantic Treaty Organization as well as the United Nations. The new government stressed industrial growth and a higher standard of living. Like the United States, Italy’s government is made up of three branches of government; Executive branch, Legislative branch and Judicial branch.
The government is highly centralized and is adopted by twenty different regions. Five of these regions including Sardinia and Sicily, function with autonomy statutes (U. S. Department of State).
Under the constitution, each region has limited governing powers. The Executive branch consists of similar players as the United States. The President of Italy is known has the chief of state (U. S. Department of State).
The President is elected by an electoral college, which consists of both houses of Parliament and fifty-eight representatives from each region. The term for the Presidency lasts for seven years (CIA: World Factbook). The next highest in command is the head of government or the Prime Minister. In Italy, this position is referred to as President of the Council of Ministers (CIA: World Factbook).
This position is granted by the appointment of the President along with the permission of the Parliament. The last players of the executive branch are the cabinet members or Council of Ministers. The Prime Minister along with the approval of the President appoints these members. The Legislative branch of the government is made up of a bicameral Parliament and based on a vote of confidence (Windows on Italy-Constitution). The Chamber of Deputies house consists of 630 members while in the Senate there are 325 members (U. S.
Department of State). In the Chamber of Deputies, the people directly elect 475 of its members and 155 are elected by regional proportional representation. In the Senate, 232 members are directly elected and 83 are elected by regional representation. The Senate also has life long members that include former presidents (CIA: World Factbook). Members of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are elected for a five-year term, but can also be dissolved before the end of their term (U. S.
Department of State). Lawmaking bills can be formed in either house but must have a majority vote in each has to be passed. The Judicial branch consists of a Constitutional Court and lower magistracy courts based on Roman law modified by the Napoleonic code (U. S. Department of State). The Constitutional Court is made up of fifteen judges.
About a third of the judges are appointed by the President, another third elected by the Parliament and the rest elected by the ordinary courts (CIA: World Factbook). Judicial review in this system only goes into affect under certain conditions and in only the Constitutional Court (CIA: World Factbook). Like France, Italy has a number of different parties that are forced to sometimes form a coalition. There exist about 12 different parties in Italy after the parties have joined together. Some of the parties include: Forza Italia, National Alliance, United Christian Democrats, Socialist, and Italian People’s Party (U. S.
Department of State). Different coalitions are created all the time and throughout the years the government has changed hands frequently. Between 1992 and 1997 Italy underwent major changes among the parties. Voters were sick of the corruption and debt of the government, and they voted to move from a proportional to an almost majoritarian electoral system (U.
S. Department of State). This election resulted in an overturn of power in the government. This forced the coalition of parties to take another look at there ideas. The government not only gets pressure for policies from the various parties but it also gets pressure from groups like the Italian manufacturers and merchants association, organized farm groups and the Roman Catholic Church.
Italy is very involved with world organizations. Along with the European Union, Italy is also a member of NATO and the United Nations. Italy supports every effort to keep peace throughout the world and respects the policies that are created to do so. Although significant changes have occurred in Italy’s economy since the end of World War II, it remains to be Italy’s biggest concern. The land that Italy resides on is not well equipped with many natural resources. Italy makes most of its money from tourism (Embassy of Italy).
The next highest source of the gross national product is industry with 30. 4%, and is ranked fifth amongst the world’s top leading industrial economies. But most of the materials that are need for manufacturing are imported (U. S.
Department of State). The strength of Italy’s economy lies within the small family owned firms that produce the manufactured goods (U. S. Department of State). The major exports of Italy are textiles, metals, machinery, motor vehicles and chemicals (Electric Library). There is a major economic divide between the northern and southern parts of Italy.
The majority of the industry and business resided in the northern part of the country, while the southern part produces mainly agricultural goods. Throughout the years the south has suffered greatly because of this divide, developing a more than 20% unemployment rate (CIA: World Factbook). The south is less developed and trails behind in the economic growth of the country. Because of its economic struggles, Italy has had a hard time keeping up with the standards of being a member of the European Union.
Since the beginning of the 1990’s, Italy has focused their policymaking agenda on strengthening and stabilizing their financial sector (Embassy of Italy). Since then there has been a tremendous increase in the GDP, rising from 0. 7% in 1996 to 2. 9% in 2000 (U. S. Department of State).
Also since 1990, Italy’s deficit has been decreasing from 11. 1% to 1. 5% in 2000, and today is now showing a surplus (Embassy of Italy). Italy strongly supports the European Union and favors the unification of currency with the Euro.
Italy is a country that has greatly developed after World War II but still has some kinks to work out. Italy has always had to deal with the underground business of the Mafia. The violence and corruption has served as a continuing battle for the people of Italy. Many efforts have been made to eliminate Mafia leaders but it is hard to convict them when they have corrupted certain leaders of the government. Italy is also not a country that has many communication networks. There are not enough roads for the increasing truck traffic, but efforts are being made to improve the situation.
The ports of Italy are not being utilized throughout the country (Embassy of Italy). Developing the ports could lead to an increase in exports. And since the beginning of its unification, Italy has battled with the differences of the north and south. It will take a long time to achieve economic stability in the south, but one that must be reached in order to increase the economic growth for the whole country. With its strong nationalistic views, Italy is well on its way to achieving its goals. SOURCES CITED CIA-World Factbook-Italy.
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