Politics in Italy
Politics in Italy
Unlike many other countries, politics has a very central role in our daily life. From early morning 40% of the main stories are about politics. If there is no news then a politician will be commenting on sport, art, a movie or other news events. We then talk about politics all day, from our early morning coffee at the bar, at work, and around the table at home.
Almost everything in Italy has a political bias – left or right – including music, books, films, TV channels and news. There was a time when even to get a job you had to have a membership of the political party of the management board of the company, though thankfully those days have now passed – unless of course you’re a politician.
Our political education starts early. At 10 we study 19th and 20th Century Italian history and the formation of modern democracies. We learn about the birth of Italian politics studying Cavour, Garibaldi and Verdi – men who gave shape to the modern nation and politics of Italy, and their names to a 1000 Italian streets. Our 20th century history was characterised by a split of the country into the extremes of Fascism and Communism and the legacy of this today means that politics is still highly polarised.
At the age of 13 we have a political consciousness, though it probably comes from our parents rather than our teachers or peers at this age, and at 18 we vote for the first time of what will be a lifetime of going to the polling booth for council, regional and parliamentary elections. We do like an election and turnout for general elections is regularly over 80%. We feel like we are contributing to the democracy of the country perhaps like our Roman ancestors in the forums. But what worries me is that it’s all talk and unless we translate this talk into action we’ll meet the same end as the Roman Empire.