Die italienische Krise

The article discusses the economic, political and cultural factors which led to the transformation among the parties and in the Italian democracy. The sudden outbreak of the crisis in 1992 is described as a conjunction of external and internal crisis factors. International adjustment constraints, economical missmanagement, the inefficiency of the central govemments, social and political movements in Northern and Southern Italy, as well as the resolute action of judges and public prosecutors against the corrupt political elite, finally made the historical break with the traditional conditions in Italian politics possible. But only in Southem Italy the political caesura was accompanied by social transformations. Finally, this continuity of social conditions explains the rise of Berlusconi

"Prologue" to Salviamo l'Italia (Einaudi, 2010)

The Prologue to Salviamo l’Italia reflects on the problems of contemporary Italy through the eyes of the Risorgimento generations to suggest striking similarities and to highlight differences in realities,  perceptions, and attitudes.  Canova’s sculpture of Italia weeping at the tomb of Alfieri is an icon of the prevailing sense, then and now, of cultural, social, political, and, at bottom, moral decadence and decline.  The chief differences lie in today’s resignation about political corruption, the precipitous collapse public morals, and the fixation on the economics of consumption at the expense of shared civic interests and values.  Over and against a culture of passivity or complicity, there are neglected or forgotten democratic values in the Risorgimento that may offer a usable past for a progressive future

Comment expliquer la crise italienne ?

Explaining Italy's Crlsls. Paul Ginsborg [5-23]. Against analysis that consider Italy's 1992-94 crisis as the resuit of the inescapable breakdown of a system of power that contained in itself the seeds of its decadence, this article proposes an historical explanation for this crisis. It retraces a specific sequence of events that precede the crisis. From this perspective, the crisis is not the result of an homogeneous historical process, but proceeds from the conjunction of very different elements (public finance's crisis, judges' mobilization against corruption, weakening of the civic sense, increasing individualism politically expressed by Lega and Forza Italia, the failure of the left in proposing a changing political project) that require a political and cultural recomposition of Italy which is happening in a democratic framework and, since it does not challenge the foundations of the State, should not be considered as revolutionnary process.Comment expliquer la crise Italienne ? Paul Ginsborg [5-231. Contre les analyses qui font de la crise italienne des années 1992-1994 le résultat d'un effondrement inéluctable d'un système de pouvoir qui aurait porté en lui-même les germes de sa propre décadence, l'article propose une interprétation historique de cette crise en retraçant la séquence spécifique d'événements qui la précèdent et dont elle apparaît comme l'aboutissement. La crise n'est pas, selon ce point de vue, le fait d'un processus historique homogène ; elle procède plutôt de la conjonction d'éléments très divers (crise des finances publiques, mobilisation de la magistrature contre la corruption, affaiblissement du sens civique et individualisme croissant dont la Lega et Força Italia se sont fait les expressions politiques, échec de la gauche à proposer un projet politique de changement) qui oblige à une recomposition politique et culturelle de l'Italie, dont il faut noter cependant qu'elle s'opère dans un cadre démocratique et, ne mettant pas en cause les fondements de l'Etat, ne peut être considérée comme un processus révolutionnaire proprement dit.Ginsborg Paul. Comment expliquer la crise italienne ?. In: Politix, vol. 8, n°30, Deuxième trimestre 1995. Incertitudes italiennes, sous la direction de Jean-Louis Briquet , Christophe Bouillaud, Jean-Yves Dormagen et Isabelle Sommier. pp. 5-23

"Prologue" to Salviamo l'Italia (Einaudi, 2010)

The Prologue to Salviamo l’Italia reflects on the problems of contemporary Italy through the eyes of the Risorgimento generations to suggest striking similarities and to highlight differences in realities,  perceptions, and attitudes.  Canova’s sculpture of Italia weeping at the tomb of Alfieri is an icon of the prevailing sense, then and now, of cultural, social, political, and, at bottom, moral decadence and decline.  The chief differences lie in today’s resignation about political corruption, the precipitous collapse public morals, and the fixation on the economics of consumption at the expense of shared civic interests and values.  Over and against a culture of passivity or complicity, there are neglected or forgotten democratic values in the Risorgimento that may offer a usable past for a progressive future