Good Italy, Bad Italy: Why Italy Must Conquer Its Demons to Face the Future

Travelers to Italy this summer may find economic catastrophe as omnipresent as monuments and sidewalk cafes, according to this former editor-in-chief of the Economist. Emmott’s breezy narrative provides a quick overview of the beleaguered Italian economy and sketches some background causes for its woes before offering glimpses of a brighter future. He outlines how Italians would like to share the European belief that public spending and taxation should be used to finance services and redistribute after-tax incomes, but lack faith in government’s ability to do so “effectively or equitably.” Traditionally, Italian politicians have manipulated power for the protection and enrichment of themselves and their friends, fulfilling a dual vision of government as both provider and leech. Emmott also reflects upon the North-South economic divide and the specter of Mafia power, suggesting that Italy’s strengths, paradoxically, largely mirror its defects; creative measures are taken in defiance of prevailing conditions, like the “Addiopizzo”: a youth movement challenging Mafia power. Little attention is paid to the constraints of European Union membership or whether the much emphasized Italian uniqueness truly exists. Regardless, Emmott’s key insight may be that the simplistic divide between “Good Italy” and “Bad Italy” is moral and philosophical, not economic, though failure to resolve the conflict still threatens looming disaster. Agent: Arthur Goodhart, AWG Literary Agency. (Aug.)