Saturday, April 14, 2007

Italy Better Democracy than US - Those Not So Crazy Italians - Huffington Post

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Well it looks like somebody finally heard me.

 

For years Anti -Italians have charged the frequent change of Italian Governments created Chaos. 

 

For years, I have been responding by stating that is was better to have changing governments frequently to reflect the changes in circumstances, and move a few portfolios around, than have a government that sticks to it's agenda regardless, and then after 6 or 12 years there is an absolute pendulum 180 degree swing, and an almost complete change over in key government positions.

 

That's Chaos!!!!

 

David Horton of the Huffington Post has now become a believer, and sees now how Italy is a better Democracy than is the US. !!!

 

Those Crazy Italians ?

Huffington Post - New York,NY,USA
David Horton

April 12, 2007

 

When the Italian government was recently in trouble and looked like losing office, the media were all over the story in their usual way. It would be 61 governments in 62 years since the war, they pointed out. Isn't this terrible, those silly Italians, just don't know how to govern themselves, wouldn't know a stable government if they fell over it.

No way to run a country. Stable government, stable government, stable government.

And once upon a time I used to buy this kind of narrative. The Italians seemed uniquely incompetent at getting their political act together. All these parties, representing every part of the political spectrum, and a voting system that ensured they all got represented in parliament, and often as part of government, and that allowed for instant elections when coalitions fell apart, as they did regularly. Hopeless, just hopeless.

But the older I get the more contrary I get, and when I hear opinionated right wingers carrying on like this, and asserting that the only attribute of a democracy that is important is 'stability', my hackles rise, my hypocrisy and self-interest detector goes into high gear, and I am more likely to believe that the opposite is true.

I mean, just to take the most obvious test of an opinion - is it actually true? Italy has one of the leading economies of the world and is part of the G8 group of nations. It has apparently happy people, an extraordinarily rich culture and history, cars and designer clothes that people everywhere long for, great food, a pleasant countryside, great footballers. By any test I can think of, having, on average, a new government every year for 60+ years has done the Italians absolutely no harm at all. On the other hand Zimbabwe, one man rule for 27 years, is the poorest country in the world with a basket case economy, culture shot, brutalised people fleeing the country, and little, if any, happiness (only Robert Mugabe, I guess, is happy), but stable at the point of a gun.

So what do the right wingers really mean by stability being a good thing? Well, even leaving aside Zimbabwe, they don't mean stability in a general sense, otherwise they would have been singing the praises of Saddam Hussein instead of invading his country and making it completely unstable, and would be singing the praises of Fidel Castro instead of trying to overthrow him and creating instability in Cuba.

No, what they really dislike about Italy I think is that all these different parties have a voice - people concerned about worker's rights, the environment, media control, justice, foreign affairs (including Iraq), culture, religion, particular regions, pensioners, all get to elect people to parliament. And, as a result, all of these interests (and more) get to have an influence. A coalition government has to take account of these diverse interests and if it tries to ignore them, or ride roughshod over them, the government will fall. This is anathema to the interests of corporations. In all western countries the corporations have worked to ensure that the two major parties, whether blatantly of the Right or nominally of the Left, will in fact reliably carry out the wishes of the corporations, will enact policies favorable to them, will remove regulation that slows down their increase in profit making.

So when the corporation mouthpieces on radio and tv demand 'stability' in politics, they really mean, ideally, permanent government by the party of the Right, or failing that, by a party of the 'Left' which can be relied on to follow exactly the same economic policies. And they will do their best to ensure that electoral processes (instant runoff, proportional representation, preferential voting) that enable minor parties to have an influence in or on governments will not be introduced to countries that don't have them, and will be removed from countries that do. Minor parties don't do the bidding of corporations, they represent different groups of citizens, and they are therefore dangerous.

What corporate interests demand is first-past-the-post voting and fixed terms of government. Both of these features in themselves essentially ensure that either the Right or pseudo Left will rule forever, and that smaller parties not only can never take part in government, but can never have any effective influence on the policies of the major parties. As an example, more people wanted a US president of the Left than of the Right in 2000. But the wishes of the combined Gore and Nader voters counted for nothing and Bush was elected.

The most stable government in Italy in recent times was that of right wing Silvio Berlusconi, which ruled for five years. And he was determined, through his control of Italian media, and the judiciary, to rule for much longer. If he had achieved this, then Italy would have been moved towards a nearly permanent, and stable, corporate government, like those of so many western countries. Had it done so corporate interests would have been the big winners, and the Italian people the losers. Nowadays whenever the Right gets into power in any country they set about a program to ensure that they rule forever. And they learn from each other.

So 60 governments in 60 years? Good for the Italians. With a bit of luck, and a lot of care, they can aim for a hundred governments in 100 years. Good for the Italians, and their democracy.

So what do you want, stable government or democracy?

 

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