If as London’s Daily Telegraph reports, Italy is in turmoil, then arguably it has been for the last half century. A political system based on proportional representation has given rise to an increasingly fragmented and polarised party system, and fragile coalitions where factions as much as fully fledged parties can bring down governments. Decades of Italian politics have seen governments come and go in months, while nothing much changes and nothing gets done. Romano Prodi’s attempt to push through unpopular though necessary structural and economic reforms has given his enemies on the right (though within his coalition) the opening they needed.
For more see Martin Kettle in London’s Guardian, and there’s some excellent background on Italian politics from The Economist.
