Dædalus is published by The American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The Contributors are unusually Impressive. 

To repeat that which was already stated by Andrea Larson, in a previous post 
from "Italians All", but bears repeating:  "It is the first time that the 
authoritative American review dedicates a double number to a foreign country: 
the interest for the contruction of the European Union, and especially for a 
country having a double frontier, Mediterranean and Balcanic, made it 
necessary for Graubard to conduct a new socio-political research.
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Italy: Resilient and Vulnerable
Volumes I and II

Spring & Summer 2001
Publication June 28 & 29 
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Long marked by a proliferation of parties and short-lived governments, 
Italian politics has recently come into sharper focus with the election of 
media magnate Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister. Coverage of the closely 
contested race was widespread, but the real story of contemporary Italy lies 
beneath the surface, in the economic, political, and social forces that have 
transformed Italy and spurred its emergence as an integral part of the 
European Union. The authors in these two special issues of Dædalus deliver a 
first-hand view of the unique mix of new challenges and persistent old 
problems faced by modern Italy.

Much of the dynamic change in Italian civil society occurs at the local 
level, from the ground up: voluntary associations flourish, the uniquely 
Italian system of small industrial districts holds its own in the world’s 
globalized economy, innovative educational initiatives thrive in a small 
northern town. Yet there is also a tolerance of inefficiency and corruption, 
enabling organized forces of criminality such as the mafia to have influence, 
as well as legitimizing corruption in everyday life. 

The authors in these issues of Dædalus are economists and professors, 
politicians and specialists, writing from the inside a very Italian modus 
operandi. The questions are so essential, the treatment of contemporary Italy 
so important, that both the president of the Republic of Italy and a former 
prime minister, now president of the European Commission, have added their 
voices to the discussion. These essays stir debate how can the political Left 
be characterized; what is it responsible for? How does Italy, with its 
regionalism and local identities, fit itself into the larger context of 
Europe? What are the dangers of a declining population? The authors of both 
issues volume I, The European Challenge, and volume II, Politics and Society 
provoke discussion, encourage insight, and speak with candor and the 
authority of observation about their own country, the Italy of today, 
resilient, vulnerable, transforming, and unique. 
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Some ideas from authors in the issues:

If you analyze the last fifty years, you can certainly say that Europe has 
given a lot to Italy, and Italy in turn has given a lot to Europe. Europe has 
given Italy a direction; it has given support at times when Italian society 
was internally divided but had unprecedented opportunities for development 
and modernization if placed within the adequate international framework. In 
various circumstances, both in the period of social transformation in the 
1950s and 1960s and in the difficult period of terrorism, the country would 
have drifted away if it were not for the European anchor. Italy, in turn, has 
contributed heavily to Europe by courageously making the unification of the 
continent the constant objective of its policies, even at the cost of 
national interest.

                                                                                
Romano Prodi
-----------------------------
Contemporary mafia associations as well as the penchant shown by present-day 
Italians for corruption and underground economic activities can be traced 
back at least to the nineteenth century and have been influenced throughout 
their long history by a variety of social, cultural, economic, and political 
factors. 

    That said, some key agents can be pointed out. In particular, there is 
one factor that, more than any other single catalyst, seems to have favored 
the rise and consolidation of mafia associations, corruption, and the 
underground economy: the relative weakness and unpopularity of the Italian 
state ever since the country’s unification in 1861. Even today, Italy is the 
only EU country where less than half of the population approves of its own 
state institutions.                                        

Letizia Paoli
---------------------------
A sign of the parlous state of Italy’s public morality is the disinterest of 
many citizens in the possibility of a conflict of interest among public 
officials. The case of Silvio Berlusconi is well known. In 1994, when he 
first entered the political scene, Berlusconi was (and remains) the most 
important entrepreneur in the communications field. Instead of raising doubts 
about his commitment to the interests of the public as a whole, Berlusconi’s 
demonstrable success in pursuing his private interests leads a large part of 
the public to express confidence in his ability to pursue their interests as 
well. In fact, the political advertisements for Berlusconi’s party are 
precisely in this vein. The fact that interests can conflict is a lesson that 
has yet to be learned in the country that gave us Machiavelli. The mayor of a 
small town in northern Italy told me that he had modified the town’s zoning 
laws in order to enhance the value of his extended family’s property 
holdings; he explained that he might have lost the confidence of his fellow 
citizens if he had not shown he was capable of looking after his own 
interests.

                                                                              
Alessandro Cavalli
-----------------------------
In order to maintain unchanged the ‘functioning’ of society, each newborn, 
in the course of a generation, will, in effect, have to assume the role of 
two adults in production processes, in the labor market, in social 
activities, in cultural life, in family relations. . . . It follows that a 
series of obligations and challenges will fall on the generations born at the 
beginning of this century: they will have to take the place of the many more 
numerous adults currently producing the goods that conventionally form the 
much-revered GNP of the nation; they will have to bear the weight of 
transfers to the increasing number of the old; they might even be requested 
to redress the reproductive balance dangerously distorted by their parents, 
who had been too much in love with their one lone child, or figlio unico; 
finally, they will be called upon to support their own aging parents. And all 
this will take place in a much more competitive world, where the traditional 
stable niches in the labor market (for those who know Italian, the mythical 
posto di lavoro) will be fewer and fewer.

                                                                              
Massimo Livi-Bacci
------------------------------
Today, ironically, Italy’s small and mid-level businesses are thriving. The 
adjective more commonly used to describe them is resilient, although no 
satisfactory study explaining this resilience has yet been performed. It is 
possible to say, however, that its roots lie in a variety of elements 
commonly overlooked by economic analysts: for example, the quality of life, a 
respect for traditional values, a sense of belonging to a community, and the 
value of solidarity. In the Italian context, dense networks of associations 
and groups capable of integrating diverse interests, mediating industrial 
conflicts, and diffusing information end up helping companies adjust 
successfully to changing world markets, despite a lack of technological and 
financial resources. The key Italian asset, in short, may be the extremely 
positive attitude of the country’s 'human capital' toward the future.

                                                                              
 Alessandro Ovi
-----------------------------
In promoting the EU, Italian politicians have often shown admirable 
resourcefulness and determination. In some cases, typically Italian devices, 
some of them rightly deplored in the domestic arena, proved useful in the 
European context. A few examples make the point: delaying decisions when 
agreement was hard to reach, searching for support from the opposition, 
aiming at consensual decisions acceptable to any participant in the governing 
coalition, etc. The pro-European policy and its techniques became, over time, 
part of the political culture of Italian politicians, officials, and 
analysts. They did not need to be explicitly imparted, because most persons 
involved in European matters almost instinctively thought and acted according 
to them.

                                                                            
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa
------------------------------
Contributors to Italy: Resilient and Vulnerable:

Volume I: The European Challenge (Spring 2001)                                
                                         

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi                                                          
 
President of the Republic of Italy

Romano Prodi
President of the EC and former prime minister of Italy

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa
member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank

Filippo Andreatta
adjunct professor of international relations, University of Bologna, Forlì

Luigi Federico Signorini
Director of Statistics, Research Department, The Bank of Italy

Fabrizio Barca
Director General, department for Development and Cohesion Policy, 
Ministry of the Treasury of Italy

Fiorella Kostoris Padoa Schioppa
professor of economics, University of Rome La Sapienza, and 
President of the Institute for Economic Studies and Analyses

Volume II: Politics and Society (Summer 2001)

Edmondo Berselli
political columnist for L’Espresso and member of editorial board of Il Mulino

Renato Brunetta
professor of labor economy, University of Rome Tor Vergata, and a member of 
the European Parliament within the group of Christian Democrats and European 
Democrats

Luciano Violante
professor of criminal law and procedure, Camerino University, and 
a member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Democrats of the Left

Costanzo Ranci
professor of sociology at the Polytechnic of Milan

Suzanne Berger
Raphael Dorman-Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science, MIT

Richard M. Locke
Alvin J. Siteman Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Political 
Science, MIT

Alessandro Ovi
special advisor for New Economy and Innovation to the President of the EC

Alessandro Cavalli
professor of sociology, University of Pavia

Massimo Livi-Bacci
professor of demography, University of Florence

Letizia Paoli
senior research fellow, department of criminology, Max Planck Institute 
for Foreign and International Criminal Law
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Italy: Resilient and Vulnerable
http://www.daedalus.amacad.org/issues/su2001rel.html
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