Saturday, January 26, 2008

Italian Government Collapses

By Dr. Steven Taylor

Via the LAT: Italy’s government collapses

Twenty months after it came to power, the Italian government fell late Thursday when Prime Minister Romano Prodi lost a vote of confidence in Parliament and was forced to resign.

The demise of Prodi’s center-left coalition caps weeks of bitter political fighting but sends Italy into a new period of uncertainty while either an interim government is installed or fresh elections are called.

And now the fun begins. (Indeed, the photo with the story shows MPs with champaign bottles celebrating Prodi’s loss).

I would note that while the language used to describe these types of events (e.g., “collapsed,” “fell,” etc.) sounds quite dramatic to American ears, the situation is not dire and really simply means that a new “government” (meaning, essentially, the chief executive and cabinet) must be formed. It does not mean that the entire governing apparatus of Italy is somehow nonfunctional or broken. It is about negotiation and reorganization, and perhaps a new election, not about dysfunctionality.

It is now up to President Giorgio Napolitano, the nonpartisan head of state, to consult with leading politicians and elder statesmen to figure out what to do next. He could call elections or ask an elected politician to form an interim government.

Any election, however, would be undermined by a problematic system that complicates the way winning parties are given seats in Parliament and that can weaken a government, as it did Prodi’s.

Now, one might wish to criticize specific institutional features with the Italian state, but that is another matter entirely.

And this caught my eye:

Prodi, a former economics professor known for a somewhat plodding style, had survived a confidence vote just a day earlier in the lower house of Parliament, where he had a comfortable majority.

An economics professor who’s plodding? Come now, I find that hard to believe!

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