Italian Law in 20th century: The distinctive features of The Constitution of the Italian Republic
Outline
Main features of Italian Constitution, highlighting aspects of laws governing regions and implementation of democracy
Historical background
• Constitutional institutions in Italy have over 150 years of history
• Through those 1,5 centuries the country have seen frequent changes in regimes such as constitutional monarchy to totalitarian fascist dictatorship and to constitutional democracy after 1946
• First constitution, statuto Albertino, was written in 1848 and remained the basic law of united Italy for a century until the rejection of Italian monarchy after WW2
• Constitutional Assembly initiated a return to democratic state by overseeing the drafting of the new constitution which came into force in 1948 and is considered the first republican constitution
‘Revolutionary’ democratic
• It was recognized that Italian Constitution is one of the most democratic constitutions, formulated in post WW2 Europe
• Democracy of it is supported by dedication to rights of individuals, introduction of various political parties and parliamentarism
• EG Arts. 35-47 state that the state is responsible for elimination of economic and social obstacles that hinder freedom and equality of citizens and holds them from participation in political, economic and social life of the country
Sources of law
• Italian legal system rests first and foremost upon The Constitution which is one of the
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).
Italy’s problems started with the fact that it didn’t have one main ruler, but two people and a concept, resulting in a different approach to the unification. Gulseppe Mazzini had a radical program focusing on a centralized democratic republic based on universal suffrage and the will of the people. Vincenzo Gioberti, who was a catholic priest called for a federation of existing states
After the Congress of Vienna Italy consisted of six separate states. Controversy over whether or not Italy should be unified stirred up during the mid to late 1800’s. The unification of the Italian states was an ongoing debate for quite some time. During the years of the debates people found the unification to be positive change, a negative change, and some had different opinions for their own certain reasons.
In any given constitution a nation, the recording of bills of rights has been a gradual process. All the aspects of life in society were done with respect to the law. The society requires being guided by certain principles and guidelines that would define and evaluate each and every aspect of their lives. To ensure that the entire society remained focused and concentrated in the given policies and guidelines, they recorded in the constitution and made available to each and every member of the society for the purpose of doing reviews. The action of the people would be judged in accordance with the constitution. With society running several errands towards the realization of development, many fields had to be covered. Criteria for the operation of the people would require significant efforts to accomplish the set objectives. Violations in the society occur either due to misunderstanding or lack of awareness of the rights present in the constitution. Any form of violation is evaluated by the appropriate form of punishment offered. (Hand, 1965)
Again, both society’s beliefs are common also to Italy and not only US. When being interviewed at TV regarding issues of public administration, most of the time Italian politicians root the causes of the problems to bureaucracy and as a consequence they highly promote privatization. A last recent example is the referendum in Lombardy, which is asking for more independence in the financial sector and health sector, in order to prevent government intervention which, especially in Italy is a sign of disruption and corruption. The benefits of privatization could be high, as also Sandy Spring showed in the US. However, as also Douglas Amy states, in the end the difference among state bureaucracy and privatization is minimal and negligible.
How successful were Giolitti’s government in promoting political stability in Italy in the years 1903 -1914?
Geographically, Italy is comprised of a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, as well as two large islands. The shape of Italy has been depicted as a ‘boot’ in many cartoons and drawings for years. The country covers over 116,000 square miles, making it approximately the combined size of Florida and Georgia. (Killinger, 2002) Italy is a democratic republic that has a current population of around 60 million people, making it the twenty-third most populous country in the world. Italy
The general understanding of democracy is that it is a state of leadership where citizens of a country participate equally either directly or by representative individuals in the establishment of laws, which run the society. However, like many other forms of leadership, democracy has its cons and may not give the citizens the necessary freedoms that they think they have. Different philosophers have different insights on democracy in terms of concepts such as liberty, which they embraced. This paper will look at Benjamin Barber and Joseph Schumpeter’s idea of democracy contrasting their definition in terms of citizenship, obligation, rights and duties of each individual in the society declaring whose idea of democracy creates a compelling vision (Terchek & Conte, 2001).
When discussing the twentieth century in Europe everyone can agree that this period was a brutal one for the continent. A common opinion, many have is that despite all of the turmoil experienced throughout this period, including two world wars, the success of democracy as a style of government was never truly in doubt. This paper will go against this widely held belief, and argue that democracy’s success in this period was not written in stone.
Italy, positioned in southeastern Europe, is a beautiful country that is faced with high unemployment, corruption and massive debt. Although it appears to be one of the most developed countries in Europe, Italy is somewhat of a laggard in globalization. Ranking twenty-third in world population, Italy stands at 56,126,212 people as of July 2009. The north and south seem to be split in economic terms with the north being well developed industrially and the south facing high unemployment and poverty. Italy is a democratic republic that replaced a monarchy back in 1946. Although it ranks seventh in world GDP and public debt and attracts millions of tourists every year, its current debt to GDP ratio continues to skyrocket. World economists
The Fascists’ social and economic policies up to 1939 significantly aided their control over Italy yet may not be cited as the sole cause. The Fascist party’s social and economic policies along with other factors attributed to the overall control of Italy. Through such policies it was a certainty that the Fascist party would hold complete power over the population of Italy in each aspect of an individual’s life whether it was their leisure time through the Dopolavoro or at work under the corporate state system which was formally introduced in 1934. This complete domination of the Italian peoples’ lives could be argued to have been the instrumental factor behind the Fascists’ control over Italy up to 1939. Other factors which assisted the
Italy holds a long and rich history, starting from how it became one country during ancient times. For thousands of years, people have lived in Italy, relying on its vast amount of assets and resources. There was no established group of settlers to arrive first, because the chief pioneers entailed many different types of people who spoke different languages. Italy was at first preceded by several non-Italian cultures, including Greeks. The Greeks occupied southern Italy, including areas around Sicily. This remained a wealthy extent of land because of the tremendously fertile soil, which then caused the sprout of new cities and civilization. These Greek cities ultimately stood taken over by Roman control. As far as northern city-states, the Etruscans lived in areas influenced by Greek culture. The Etruscans stayed well-known engineers, builders, and traders. Italy was always back and forth in the control of foreign authorities, but finally landed in the power of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire took over at about 450 B.C., but eventually collapsed. The land that now stands as Italy was ruled by Julius Caesar. There were many civil wars before and after Julius Caesar’s death. The land was then restored by Octavian, Caesar’s son, who later passed his throne to his son Tiberius. Although ancient Italy had been taken over by diverse commands, it still held on to its vast culture and
As a result of how Italy was created but not fully unified, the new Italian state suffered from a variety of weaknesses which the new liberal state was unable to tackle these. This made Italy susceptible to the appeal of fascism, and therefore aided Mussolini’s rise to power.
Now Italy has many problems in economic sector. The first is that it has very high debt level. Because of it Italy now is in crisis situation. Also Italian living standards have a considerable north-south divide. Italy suffers from structural weaknesses due to its geographical conformation and the lack of raw materials and energy resources. The country has an inefficient state bureaucracy, low property rights protection and high levels of corruption, heavy taxation and public spending that accounts for about half of
Obviously, the newly united Italian state was greeted with much celebration. Unfortunately, it was also only a start. In truth, fundamental problems still plagued the country and had to be addressed if complete hegemony was to be achieved: firstly, the new Kingdom of Italy suffered from extreme backwardness and secondly, it was still deeply divided. The new Italy was split between north and south, between cities and countryside, between regions, between cities and localities,