Berlusconi Saves Italy a Fortune

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September 6, 2008· Filed Under Italy  Tags: , ,

As many will know, the word ’stable’ was not often used to describe Italy’s chaotic political system.  However, the emergence of what is to all intents and purposes a two party system stands to save Italy a fortune.

Since the second world war, Italy has had something like 60 governments.  In simple terms, that is one government per year.  Such an astonishingly turbulent situation has certainly contributed towards the economic and social downward spiral Italy is now facing.  Yet Silvo Berlusconi has, and is, saving Italy money.

Phenomenal Costs of Annual Elections

The sheer cost of organising yearly national elections must have been enormous, and Italy certainly cannot boast about having any kind of reputation for efficiency, meaning that election costs in the period 1945 to 2005 will have been exaggerated.

There are hidden consequences of such levels of instability though.  Aside from the expense involved in setting up national elections annually, there is the loss of productivity resulting from everyone trying to get to polling stations to vote, and that is not to mention the cost of all the extra personell  who take time off from day jobs to earn a few pennies to help out with organisational aspects of elections.

Italy’s Politicians Don’t Work

Another more insidious aspect which, it could be argued, has led to many of Italy’s problems today, is the fact that Italy’s politicians, the most well paid in Europe, never really do any work.  Not a surprise.  These honourable persons spent a large proportion of their publicly funded time arguing, infighting, and, of course, campaigning annually.

Introducing reforms, revising legislation and generally administrating a country takes time, and problems, like trash in Naples, tend to accumulate.  Italy’s politicians, when they do actually act, work inefficiently.  Legislation is poorly drafted, and repeals are rare.

Extinguishing old legislation via repeals is a good way of resolving old problems, or it could be.  However, in Italy new legislation is tacked onto old, and, in the Italian way, problems become exacerbated as a result of excessive complexity.  It takes time to understand new legislation and to manage its effects.  In Italy though, this time does not exist, or at least it did not before Silvio.  Indeed, time which could have been productive was merely dedicated to bringing down governments, setting up elections and campaigning.  A sorry situation, which has led to many of Italy’s problems today.

Italians Rule the Roost

Yet despite all this instability, Italy remains one of the economic powerhouses of the developed world.  Why is this so?  Most probably because the non-politicians, the Italians themselves, are expert at finding ways around antiquated, complex and inefficient legislation.  Tax evasion is rampant here, but it has to be, without it, Italy would be in truly dire straits.  Yes, Italy is run by its people, and hampered by its politicians.

Enter Berlusconi - a true Italian

Along comes the jovial tanned salesman, Silvia Berluconi, who really only entered politics to protect his own back from Italy’s odd political system.  It is hard to blame him for this and was almost a necessity, in that it really was the only avenue open to him.

Despite Berlusconi’s dubious motives and curious background, the man has, and is, saving Italy boatloads of money.  During the last government he captained, simply managing to hold it in place for five years led to huge savings on election costs, and probably increased the productivity of the country’s politicians who were forced to do some work for the first time in 60 odd years.  Although it appears as though many have forgotten how to do what they are handsomely paid for.

As we all know, Berlusco is back, and protecting his back, and his government appears to be stable, even if cracks are appearing as a result of Silvio disagreeing with the proposals of his political allies.

Still, you have to hand it to the man.  He is saving Italy a fortune.  As to where all these savings are ending up, well, that is another question which is just about impossible to answer, unless you feel like risking your life and asking awkward questions that is.

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Comments

3 Responses to “Berlusconi Saves Italy a Fortune”

  1. Marco said on September 8th, 2008 11:33 pm

    He’s saving himself from jail..you have to remember to everyone what kind of “curious background” and what kind of “dubious motives” pulled him to politics..let’s remember he was in P2 (a masonic lodge) and he had in his mansion Mangano as horsekeeper..let’s remember that Mangano was a boss from sicilian mafia.
    Now the government is stable and he’s doing everything he wants because he can control a great slice of public consensus thanks to his televisions and journals. Do you think that Naples troubles will be solved thanks to new trashburners? Do you think he has not economic interests (he’s a politician) in the big Alitalia deal? He’s got power now and he’s starting to act like a politician thanks to the Lega Nord (i’m from Sicily)..they had a lot of votes because they where the only who spoke to the people in material terms.
    On the other side, Veltroni and his crew are a bunch of old style idiot politicians that can’t really think about country wellness, but at least they’re not linked with mafia and don’t have Berlusconi’s kind of economical influence, that a politician can’t never have.

  2. Alex Roe said on September 9th, 2008 12:49 am

    Hi Marco,

    Welcome to Blog from Italy.

    As I mentioned, Berlusco is covering his back, and I’ve heard about the mafia connections too, but then, this is Italy. Italy is all about connections, as you know, I imagine.

    I dare say that if you dig deep enough, you will find that quite a few of Veltroni’s chaps have some interesting connections too. The mani pulite times revealed this rather clearly - Giuliano Amato, for example, attempted to help out his allies. I wonder why.

    Berlusco is the archetypal Italian - he understands and knows how to work the system. His reward, rightly or wrongly is a fat bank account - but then most of Italy’s politicians have good sized bank accounts - remember good socialist Craxi, who got on well with Berlusco.

    Yet, of all the above, only Berlusco has and is saving Italy money - like it or not.

    I take it you have read the final paragraph?

    All the best,

    Alex

  3. polkqasw said on September 9th, 2008 12:57 am

    Berlusconi Saves Italy a Fortune … i don’t feel so lucky, why?

    Marco is right,
    i don’t know if Berlusconi want to save the Italy, and i don’t know what Berlusconi will do tomorrow;
    but i know what he have done.
    i can remeber that the first act of the new government was keep out the prime minister from law trouble (he said that this was done because the “italy need a stable government”; berlusconi was accused of corruption).
    I can remember what Berlusconi did with Alitalia (the last decision made, early days of september); Alitalia was close to be sold to AirFrance (with the Alitalia’s debts included), but Berlusconi hasn’t allow to sell.
    After the election Berlusconi had looked around for someone who would to buy the airline company, but no one would buy a company out of business.
    So, Berlusconi split Alitalia in two companies. The first is made at the order to collect all the debts of old Alitalia, it’s called “bad company” the Italy is the owner of that “bad company” and the italians will pay the debts of the our airline company (that i never used … but this’s not the point), the “good company” is sold to “Italiana” a new airline company founded by some friends of Berlusconi (anyone of these person have experience of airlines company). AirFrance have offered 2600M€ for the “good” and the “bad” company; “Italiana”, for only the “good”, have offered 600M€ … Berlusconi have sold only “good Alitalia” to “Italiana”; good deal Berlusca!
    Let’s try to remember which was the electoral promises of Berlusconi about Alitalia:
    -Keep in Italy … done
    -less laid off … no: 2000-4000 are the laid off planned by AirFrance, 5000 or more for “Italiana”
    -save malpensa (the Milan airport) … no: “Italian” will don’t use malpensa; the international traffic will arrive on Milano by Paris, London or somewhere else.

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