Un tempo solo Piccoli, Storti e Malfatti, ora un failed state: Italy starts to look, locally, like a failing state

 

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	Public magazine   About Public Subscribe Contact us Forward features Editorial Editorial People International Features Roundtable Business Information A life less ordinary Archive March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 September 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008		Italy starts to look, locally, like a failing state The waste fiasco in Naples exposes fatal flaws in Italy's local and regional government The Guardian Only a fortnight before the government led by Romano Prodi collapsed, the annual seminar organised for UK journalists by the Italian embassy in London had heard sanguine reports from senior ministers about progress. In the 20 months since Prodi's unwieldy coalition took office, the public finances have been taken in hand - spending cut (in proportion to GDP) and state debt similarly, along with reductions in the budget deficit. The coalition had registered successes on pension reform and in the fight against tax evasion; Italian exports were blooming, unemployment had fallen. But, as one minister put it, members of the centre-left coalition had not been "homogeneous in its attitudes towards fiscal prudence" and measures to liberalise the public sector had stalled in the senate. There the Prodi government met its fate, plunging the country into yet another protracted period of political instability leading to (yet another) election which is likely, unless the electoral system is reform, to produce future trouble. Some commentators were tempted to apply the dread phrase failed state to Italy. That is exaggerated and premature as far as the Italian state goes, but might apply to aspects of regional and local government, at least in southern Italy. The saga of waste disposal in Naples and the surrounding region of Campania has illustrated the limits of localism; there may be lessons here, too, about outsourcing and the politics of recycling and refuge to be heeded by policy makers elsewhere. All jurisdictions in western Europe face issues to do with the planning and location of landfill sites and incineration plants but the fact there has been a kind of bidding war between the environmental services companies such as Veolia and Albertis to handle the Naples' waste shows some are more accommodating than others. Read the full article in this month's Public Printable version | Send it to a friend | Clip