Friday, February 17, 2012

Italy's Government


Hello everyone!  I am excited to present my second blog post to all you readers. The main focus of this post will to be on the political structure of Italy.  Italy’s first type of government was a republic.  Communists tried to take power in the 1960's, but the Christian Democratic party was too strong, and was able to resist all communist influence on the Italian government.  As the years passed Italy went from a socialist government in the 1970’s, to a communist government in the 1980’s, and then back to the original government system; a republic.  Italy became a republic again in 2001 and has continued to be a republic to this day.
            In Italy’s democratic republic system there is a President and a Prime Minister.  The President of Italy is Giorgio Napolitano and the Prime Minister is Mario Monti. What is interesting about this system is that the President is not nearly as powerful as the Prime minister.   President Napolitano’s job is to make sure that the Italian government is following the rules of the Italian constitution.  He is there to prevent any corruption in the government, as well as to promote togetherness among the people country.  Prime Minister Mario Monti sits at the top of the Executive Branch, which consists of the Council on Ministers and of course, Mario Monti.  In addition to the Executive Branch, there is the Legislative branch, which made up of two houses of Parliament.  Lastly, the Judicial branch is separate from the other two branches.  Italy’s system of separation of powers can be related to the type of Democracy implemented today in the United States.
            Today, there is economic turmoil all across Europe, and the Italian economy is taking a beating.  Prime Minister Mario Monti is doing everything he can to “right the ship”.   Not only does Monti have to fix Italy, but a lot of the issues surrounding the Economy of the entire world rests on his shoulders.  In an article regarding Monti and the Economic situation in Europe, Michael Schuman (2012) writes “Monti's mission matters to everybody--from Wall Street financiers to Chinese factory workers. That's because Italy's problems have become the world's problems, and Monti must fix Italy to prevent another global financial crisis”.  Talk about pressure!  I cannot believe the stress that Monti is going through right now; knowing that if he doesn’t find a solution to Italy’s economic failures, the whole world could be affected. 

             
President Mario Monti Above.

This concludes my blog about the Italian government!  Check back in next week for more, thank you!

                                                           
                                                            References

Schuman, M.  The most important man in Europe.  Time.  37 (1), p. 28-30.

"Italian Prime Minister survives senate vote". BBC News. 2007-02-28. Retrieved 2010-08-09.

http://energytrends.pnl.gov/italy/it004.htm

1 comment:

  1. Good job with the post! I thought that this was a concise historical look at Italy’s government; however, I did notice that you did not explicitly mention how the current government and its policies affect the African diaspora in Italy. While not the current PM of Italy, you may want to investigate Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous racial gaffes and possibly relate his tenure as PM to previous policies of the state. His policies will definitely be important for your next blog, as his resignation was a direct result of the country’s economic troubles. I am not sure if it is readily available, but I am curious under which government type was the African community most politically active. Once again, great job with the post.

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