ITALIAN POLITICS & SOCIETY

THE REVIEW OF THE CONFERENCE GROUP ON ITALIAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY

No.67 Spring 2009 General Editor Book Reviews Editor

Eleonora Pasotti Francesco Stolfi Department of Politics School of Politics and International Relations University of California, Santa Cruz University College Dublin 1156 High St. Belfield Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA Dublin 4, Ireland Tel: +1 831 459 2583 Tel: +353 1 716 7502 Fax: +1 831 459 3125 Fax: +353 1 716 117 [email protected] [email protected]

Italian Politics and Society is published twice yearly, in the spring and fall. To ensure delivery, please send updates to your email address to [email protected] and Richard Katz at [email protected]. Proposed contributions should be sent to Eleonora Pasotti, and proposed at the above email address. For membership information, please contact Richard Katz directly.

1 CONGRIPS OFFICERS:

President: Anthony C. Masi, McGill University [email protected]

Vice-President Alan Zuckerman, Brown University [email protected]

Executive Secretary/Treasurer Richard Katz, Johns Hopkins University [email protected]

Program Chair Maurizio Carbone, University of Glasgow [email protected]

Webmaster Osvaldo Croci, Memorial University [email protected]

Executive Committee

Mabel Berezin Cornell University [email protected] Vincent Della Sala University of Trento [email protected] Amie Kreppel University of Florida [email protected] Daniel Ziblatt Harvard University [email protected] Mauro Calise (ex-officio) University of Naples, Federico II [email protected]

Congrips Liaison Officer with North American European Politics Group: Julia Lynch, University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]

Congrips Liaison Officer with European Politics and Policy Groups in Europe: Simona Piattoni, University of Trento, [email protected]

Former Presidents

Norman Kogan (1975-77); Samuel Barnes (1977-79); Gianfranco Pasquino (1979-81); Robert Putnam (1981-83); Joseph LaPalombara (1983-85); Sidney Tarrow (1985-87); Giacomo Sani (1987-89); Peter Lange (1989-91); Raphael Zariski (1991-93); Steve Hellman (1993-95); Alberta Sbragia (1995-97); Miriam Golden (1997-99); Richard Katz (1999-2001); Filippo Sabetti (2001-03); Carol Mershon (2003-05); Raffaella Nanetti (2005-2007).

2 CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE

News and Announcements 4

Forthcoming Events and Publications 6

Articles:

‘The stories of the Italian extreme right: issues of history, memory 7 and identity’ Anna Cento Bull

‘Travel and Writing in Fascist Italy’ 14 Charles Burdett

Book Essays and Reviews

Gianfranco D’Alessio (ed.) L’amministrazione come professione. I dirigenti 22 pubblici tra spoils system e servizio ai cittadini, reviewed by Gaetano D’Auria

Roberto D’Alimonte and Carlo Fusaro (eds.) La legislazione elettorale 25 italiana, reviewed by Luca Verzichelli

Paolo De Ioanna and Chiara Goretti La decisione di bilancio in Italia, 28 reviewed by Francesco Stolfi

Ariella Lang’s Converting a Nation. A Modern Inquisition and the 29 Unification of Italy, reviewed by Umut Korkut

3 NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

CALL FOR PAPERS

SISE - Società italiana di Studi Elettorali announces the Tenth International Conference in Torino, 12-13 November 2009, with the title: “Local and Regional Governments in Europe. Electoral Systems and Voters’ Choices.”

The proceedings will feature both plenary sessions and a set of workshops devoted to specific subjects which SISE will organize taking into account the papers which will be submitted. As usual this Conference will be open to academics of all different disciplines devoted to study the elections (sociology, political science, statistics, constitutional and public law, history etc.). We will accept any well construed proposal concerning the topic of our Conference; meanwhile we suggest the following topics:

• Voting behavior in local elections • Voting behavior in sub-national elections • The peculiar features of local and sub-national elections • Voters’ turnout at the different layers of government • Old and new electoral systems at local level • Old and new electoral systems at sub-national level • The direct election of municipal and sub-national chief executives • Electoral laws and political regimes • Direct election of the chief executive and role of the assemblies • The selection process of candidates • Electoral campaigns • Direct election and party systems • The performances of sub-national parties • The performances of local lists or parties • Electoral management in general and the role of electoral commissions • Local and sub-national elections history • Methodological issues concerning the study of municipal and subnational elections outcome.

As usual the proceedings of the Conference will be in Italian or in English. Presentations may also be given in French and Spanish. SISE urges all those who are interested in taking part in the conference to submit their proposals by writing to: [email protected], attaching an abstract. Deadline: 30 June 2009. SISE will be able to host a number of those whose proposals will have been accepted. The best paper presented by an author under 35 will receive a special recognition.

4 For further information, please contact: CP 69 50100 Firenze www.studielettorali.it

SISP - Società Italiana di Scienza Politica L’Università LUISS Guido Carli ospita il XXIII Convegno annuale della Società Italiana di Scienza Politica in programma dal 17 al 19 settembre presso la sede a Roma in Viale Pola, 12. Il programma e’ online all’indirizzo: http://www.sisp.it/convegno/2009/ programma

APSA - American Political Science Association Congrips will be present at APSA with one panel. The panel will be chaired by Maurizio Carbone and the participants will be Anthony Masi, Alan Zuckerman, Richard Katz and Filippo Sabetti. Theme, paper titles and abstracts are not available. The panel will meet on Thursday, Sep 3 at 2:00 PM

5 FORTHCOMING EVENTS AND PUBLICATIONS

Joseph LaPalombara and Luigi Tivelli published Stati uniti? Italia e USA a confronto with Rubbettino Editore. On May 27, a "presentazione" of the book took place at the Centro Studi Americani at Rome, presided by former prime minister Guiliano Amato.

The latest volume (23) of Italian Politics has been published. It is edited by Paolo Onofri and Mark Donovan, and it is titled Frustrated Aspirations for Change. The weblink is: http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title.php?rowtag=DonovanFrustrated

La fiducia nella democrazia by Fabrizio Elefante, recently reviewed for the Newsletter by Marco Almagisti, has been translated into English with the title Faith in Democracy (ISBN: 9788895145402).

NEW BINATIONAL/DUAL DEGREE PROGRAM BETWEEN CARDIFF AND TURIN UNIVERSITIES The program is available at both bachelors and postgraduate levels. Full information is available at the following weblinks. For Cardiff University: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/euros/degreeprogrammes/undergraduate/turin/index.html This innovative programme allows students to obtain the BSc (Econ) in Politics and International Relations from Cardiff University, as well as the Laurea in Studi internazionali from one of Italy’s most prestigious Politics Departments, in Turin University, via a three-year programme.

For Turin University: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/euros/degreeprogrammes/pgtaught/ politicsinternationalrelations/index.html The MScEcon Politics and International Relations is designed principally for students wishing to obtain this qualification and the Laurea Magistrale in scienze internazionali (Turin).

For further information, please contact Mark Donovan at [email protected].

6 The stories of the Italian extreme right: issues of history, memory and identity

Anna Cento Bull University of Bath

All the trials [on the bombing investigations to be carried out, resulting in massacres] were botched, independently of re-trials, most notably in relation to the the ability of individual judges [...] so all the Piazza Fontana bombing, for which the re- defendants have been found not guilty […] it trial ended in 2005, and for the 1974 Brescia is odd the ease with which the ‘culprits’ massacre (for which a re-trial opened in have been identified after 30 years [thanks November 2008 and is on-going). So far, the to] a ‘superpentito’ who remembers new trials have similarly ended with a practically everything and reveals names number of ‘not guilty’ verdicts, again on and surnames so these people are arrested grounds of insufficient evidence, but they and then it emerges that the ‘superpentito’ have also fully established the responsibility had provided no valid clue and had been of Italian neofascism in this campaign. paid but it is never discovered who paid him While a vast literature exists on and told him to say certain things. stragismo and the Strategy of Tension (Excerpt of an interview with a high- (mainly in Italian), the majority of works are ranking member of Alleanza Nazionale). either of a journalistic or a polemical nature. In particular, there exists a gap as concerns The above excerpt sums up the dominant the truth ascertained by the judicial re-trials views among the Italian extreme right on the massacres on the one hand, and concerning the outcomes of recent trials on current reconstructions put forward by the stragismo (bombing massacres). The first neo and postfascist right on the other. It is massacre took place on 12 December 1969, for this reason that in my recent work when bombs exploded in both Milan and (Cento Bull 2007; 2009; 2009 forthcoming), Rome. One of these, in Piazza Fontana in I both examined the body of judicial Milan, resulted in 17 people dead and 84 evidence on stragismo, and I also carried wounded. Many other bombing attacks were out various interviews with past protagonists carried out in Italy in the first half of the of the neofascist movement, in the hope of 1970s, although the bloodiest attack of all achieving a more comprehensive was perpetrated on 2 August 1980 when a reconstruction of the bombing campaign bomb exploded at Bologna railway station, than the one that has so far emerged from killing 85 people and wounding 200 others. judicial investigations and trials. These massacres have famously been linked Obviously political memoirs of this type to a so-called Strategy of Tension, which need to be treated with the utmost care, as aimed at killing innocent civilians and at they run the risk of being simply vehicles creating an atmosphere of terror and for self-serving and self-justificatory disorder in the country ostensibly with a renditions. As Blee observed, ‘one issue that view to promoting a turn to the right. A first plagues studies of right-wing extremists is round of trials on the stragi took place in the the desire of informants to distort their own 1970s and ’80s, mainly with neofascist political pasts. The evidence that such defendants; each lasted several years and informants present to the oral historian is at typically ended with ‘not guilty’ verdicts for once revelatory and unreliable’ (Blee, 1993, insufficient evidence. In the 1990s, the p. 325). In addition, as has been argued in availability of new ‘repented’ witnesses the case of political memoirs in Northern from the extreme right allowed fresh Ireland, ‘the primary purpose of such

7 publications can be to continue the conflict neofascists, my interviewees claimed that by other means … whereby the protagonist state bodies had indeed obstructed the seeks to use memoir as a proxy weapon, course of justice but in order to protect conducting the battle by force of argument, extreme left perpetrators and put the blame rather than by the argument of on neofascists; while the trials have force’ (Hopkins 2001: 75). Even more established that the massacres were intended fundamentally, as Portelli and others have to create an atmosphere of panic and terror shown, oral sources are hardly ever reliable; in the country that would facilitate a turn to indeed this constitutes their appeal, since the right, my interviewees stated that the ‘the discrepancy between fact and memory massacres, which had been masterminded ultimately enhances the value of the oral by left wing activist and wealthy publisher sources as historical documents. It is not Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, aimed at caused by faulty recollections […] but simulating a coup d’état climate which in actively and creatively generated by turn would promote a revolutionary memory and imagination in an effort to insurrection in the country at large. make sense of crucial events and of history In this context, I could not treat the in general’ (Portelli 1991, p. 26). stories I was told as sources that would help Despite these caveats, when I started my to throw additional light upon the history of research I believed that it would be possible the massacres; what I was presented with to find out some reliable information about was an alternative and oppositional truth in the massacres by talking to past neofascist relation to the judicial truth. So, what value activists, particularly in view of the demise did these stories have? What, if anything, of the old neofascist party, the Movimento did they reveal about the past? And what did Sociale Italiano (MSI), and its they reveal about the myth-making and the transformation into a democratic party, psychology of my interviewees, of present- Alleanza Nazionale, which has distanced day Italian neofascism and postfascism and itself from both fascism and neofascism. I of the 1960s and 1970s neofascist groups? expected that this transformation would It was easier to relate these stories to the allow some previous neofascists to revisit present, in ways that illuminated the their own past behaviour and that of the contemporary consciousness of their tellers. groups they identified with in a more A ‘narrative psychology’ approach, based questioning and self-reflective manner, primarily on the works of Crossley (2000, thereby adapting their views about the past 2003), Freeman (1993, 2003), Gergen to fit the stance they have since adopted. I (1991) and Labov (1972, 2001), allowed for also expected to find some kind of a better understanding of the ideological and acknowledgement of the judicial evidence mythic nature of the narratives of my that has established that the bombing interviewees as well as their personal and massacres were carried out by neofascist collective identity construction work. From groups. this perspective, it was possible to view By contrast, I was confronted with an these stories as the memory work of impressive number of individual stories and individuals whose self-narratives identify memories of the past which amounted to a closely with a political and ideological collective shared narrative that was totally group and are bent on constructing both the and uncompromisingly at odds with the narrators and their group in a persecuted yet judicial truth – whereas successive trials heroic light. With one exception, the have established that neofascists had dominant genre adopted by my interviewees perpetrated the massacres, neofascists and for their self-narratives was the ‘quest postfascists alike insisted that the real story’ which, as Feldman has argued, culprits were anarchists and/or extreme left indicates that the self-as-character is a hero activists or indeed secret service agents on a spiritual mission, engaged in fighting ‘a masquerading as neofascists; whereas the much stronger, but morally inferior, trials had ascertained that state bodies had antagonist’ (p. 133). By contrast, one obstructed the course of justice by narrative adopted an ironic (and self- concealing evidence incriminating the deprecatory) style, which indicates a clear

8 awareness of the distinction between the it is not simply a question of acknowledging self-as-narrator and the self-as-character in that certain ideas were wrong, as required the story, as well as providing different by the transition to democratic values, but perspectives between ‘now’ and that those ideas had been betrayed in an ‘then’ (Portelli 1998, p. 70). underhand fashion by their own believers The interviews were also illuminating in and proponents. terms of revealing the personal and The second set of reasons concerns the collective psychological reasons accounting issue of the alleged collaboration of for the narrators’ manipulation of the past. I neofascist groups and leaders with both state want to explore briefly these psychological forces and external forces, such as the CIA reasons which can be associated with the and NATO, in the context of the Strategy of prevailing attitudes of denial in relation to Tension. This collaboration, which was the culprits and aims of the bombing substantiated by the recent judicial massacres. evidence, was refuted by all my The first set of reasons concerns the interviewees (with only one exception, and values associated with both fascism and this is someone who is no longer a neo/ neofascism in the eyes of my interviewees: postfascist). After the war, the vast majority these were presented as values revolving of neofascists had rejected the bipolar logic: around the ideal model of the warrior, in while they were strongly anti-communist, accordance with the ideas they associated they also deeply resented the Allies’ victory with extreme-right thinker and guru Julius and American imperialism, representing the Evola: bravery, honour, scorn for death, triumph of capitalism and liberalism. As honesty and truthfulness. These values, reported in my book (2007, p. 113), in 1997 indeed virtues, were repeatedly presented as one of the AN representatives on the frontally opposed to the vices of the Parliamentary Commission investigating the opponents of the neofascists, be they the massacres made it clear that in his view state or the extreme left: cowardice, prosecuting magistrate Guido Salvini, dishonour, dishonesty and falseness. The responsible for re-opening investigations problem with the bombing massacres lies into the Piazza Fontana bombing, had made precisely in the fact that they stand for evil a serious mistake when he had come to the and vice, in the eyes of all my interviewees. conclusion that Ordine Nuovo had As Stefano Delle Chiaie, founder and leader collaborated with the CIA and the of Avanguardia Nazionale, stated: ‘Whether Americans in the Strategy of Tension. the hand was right or red, they were American imperialism and the CIA, he criminals’, as well as monsters, and must be stated, were considered ‘the enemies and condemned as such. This is in stark contrast political adversaries of Ordine Nuovo on the with other terrorist groups, for instance the same level as the Soviet Union and the IRA or ETA, which have had no qualms in KGB’. When the judge replied that it was claiming bombing massacres as their own. possible to make a tactical choice and justify However, for my informants the bombing it in the name of fighting ‘an absolute evil’, massacres carried out in Italy stand for while remaining loyal to an overarching cowardice (because the perpetrators did not ideology, the AN representative insisted engage in open fighting and did not risk that Ordine Nuovo had ‘first and foremost their lives), dishonour (the perpetrators been anti-American, much less so and only attacked innocent civilians not combatants), secondarily anti-Communist. If this is your as well as dishonesty and falseness (because idea, I respect it, but it contrasts with the perpetrators did not own up to the History’. bombing). Therefore, to accept As this example shows, the problem for responsibility for the massacres today would both neo and postfascists is having to mean to acknowledge that the values all acknowledge that Italian neofascism did not neofascists ostensibly adhered to were play an independent role during the Cold betrayed in order to face up to a ‘present and War but was subordinated to one of the two clear danger’ that is, the threat of superpowers. Once again, this would bring a communism. In short, for postfascists today loss of self-esteem, as it smacks of betrayal,

9 falseness, dishonour and even cowardice a common history through their and flatly contradicts the image of recollections of their past activism. As one neofascists as a persecuted political group interviewee from Alleanza Nazionale stated, which heroically stood their ground after the ‘we were victims of the political situation, war. Even worse, collaboration with the of our complete lack of representativeness Americans suggests that the neofascists, as hence a community exposed to reprisals and the war losers, were taking orders from the relentless attacks’. On this basis, one of the winners after the war and lost agency. significant findings of my research was the The third set of reasons concerns the existence of a substantial passive opposition public image of Italian neofascism to change among the ranks and even some compared to its historical enemy, of the elites of Alleanza Nazionale. While communism. There were very strong the transformation of this party into a feelings of resentment and grievance among postfascist party has seemingly been my interviewees in relation to what they accepted by its members and activists, this consider is a ‘demonization’ of the has not led to a reframing of traditional neofascists in contrast to a prevailing narratives about the past, so that both neo idealized vision of the political violence and postfascist activists continue to engage perpetrated by the extreme left. One of them in similar practices of counter-memory, and articulated these feelings most clearly, as is in so doing continue to create and transmit a evident from his own assessment of the need common subcultural identity which sits for a ‘shared memory’ (Cento Bull 2007, p. extremely uneasily with AN’s present image 118): and positioning. Returning to the history of the massacres “There is a problem of shared memory and the Strategy of Tension, do we need to because we cannot allow that our children conclude that these stories are totally will be taught, as we were taught and it is unusable as sources for understanding the still being taught, the reading that on the past, and only revelatory in relation to the right we had the massacres and the most present? It seems to me that there are areas – cowardly and sinister type of terrorism, again in relation to individual and group whereas on the left they carried out an psychology - where these narratives can armed struggle for other motives, both help to throw some light on the events of the social and political. Hence as far as we are past. concerned we continue this fight for the First of all, they suggest that the truth about what happened from the 1960s massacres were carried out by a relatively onwards, not just the massacres but also small number of individuals, in line with the terrorism, because tons of books have been organizational model of all main radical written on the connivance between real or neofascist groups operating in the 1960s and presumed extreme-right elements and 1970s, as they were made up of a generic representatives of the secret services etc. circle of supporters and activists and an etc., and there are at least as many [cases] inner core of hardliners. It is highly on the extreme left but these are still untold probable that only the latter were in the or if they come out they do not become know as regards the massacres. This is also exemplary … if on one side there were the in line with various judicial findings. The links with the CIA so it is proved that on the official neofascist ideology thus remained other side there were links with the KGB, ‘untainted’ by any connivance with state the Stasi and various Arab socialist bodies or other anti-communist countries.” organizations, allowing neo and postfascists today (some of them possibly in good faith) So the narratives I heard were concerned to continue to uphold the uncompromising primarily with memory and identity, that is and independent stance of the radical groups to say, with the construction of a counter- of the 1960s and ’70s. The exception is memory of neofascism as an oppressed yet those neofascists, such as Vincenzo heroic group. Somewhat to my surprise, Vinciguerra, responsible for the 1972 both neo and postfascists proudly reaffirmed Peteano massacre and currently serving a

10 life sentence, who harbour very strong course, Nico Azzi was caught red-handed grievances against their ex-comrades and this fact contradicts the ‘petty criminals, precisely because they believe that many of deranged characters’ picture, but then this them carried out underhand acts of violence episode is treated as an isolated case in the and in so doing shamed and betrayed stories of the extreme right, since they neofascist values and ideals. In his memoirs, present him as a hot-headed character who Vinciguerra (1989, 1993, 2000) has was totally disconnected from the extreme denounced the participation of neofascists in right groups. the Strategy of Tension in no uncertain Finally, these narratives seem to confirm terms. that the neofascists had not themselves Second, these stories help explain why developed the Strategy of Tension but had the massacres had not only to appear as participated as (subordinate) co-belligerents having been carried out by anarchists and/or within the wider coalition of forces the extreme left activists - in line with the operating in the context of this Strategy. logic of the Strategy of Tension, which This cannot be proved, but it seems aimed at placing the blame on the left - but significant that the stories of the extreme also to utilize/implicate dubious and right give ample resonance and prevalence ambiguous characters as far as possible, as to two methods of political subversion, both opposed to recognizable neofascist activists. considered as legitimate and even proudly A typical example of the first course of laid claim to: a coup d’état and the armed action is provided by the attempt in 1973 by struggle. In the context of a coup d’état, a a neofascist named Nico Azzi to blow up a few of them admit reluctantly but still crowded train by planting a bomb in a toilet. significantly that neofascists collaborated - Fortunately for the passengers, the bomb on equal terms - with various state forces on exploded between his legs and Azzi was a tactical basis. Conversely, as regards the arrested. He had been careful to leave armed struggle carried out by extreme right around a few copies of the extreme left groups, the consensus among interviewees paper Lotta Continua, just to make it clear is that it was a spontaneous (however who the culprits were. An example of the misguided) form of violence directed second course of action, which is morally against the state. What is glaringly missing even more disturbing, is that of an attack is any reference to a third form of violence, carried out in Milan in 1974, which left 4 consisting of a bombing campaign. Yet, on people dead and 25 injured. It was carried the basis of judicial evidence, there is reason out by a man named Gianfranco Bertoli, to believe that the neofascists provided the who claimed to be an anarchist, both at the manpower for such a campaign as a prelude time of the attack and in the subsequent to a coup. It is the total refusal to even take trials, indeed until he died in 2000. Yet what this hypothesis into consideration that emerged from judicial evidence was that he characterizes all the stories of the extreme used to befriend neofascists and had been right today, with a surprising uniformity not kept in isolation, indoctrinated, only between neo and postfascists but also brainwashed, and almost subjugated by his between different generations of neofascist ‘friends’ in the days before the attack and activists. While the prevalent opinion finally taken to the designated place, in case circulating among young activists in the he might have second thoughts. The attack 1970s was that the previous generation of carried out in Brescia in 1974 might have neofascists had indeed collaborated in the followed a similar logic, depending on the bombing campaign with state and ‘Atlantic’ outcome of the new re-trial. forces, nowadays they all declare that they This specific framework typical of the had been mistaken and that all neofascists massacres is what today allows neo and must be exonerated from such a charge. postfascists to continue to argue that they To conclude, virtually all the stories told were not the culprits and that, as a bottom by the extreme right (including by the line, we should all concur that in most cases middle ranks and even some leaders of the attacks were carried out by psychopaths Alleanza Nazionale, as well as by right- and/or deranged common criminals. Of leaning intellectuals close to the party)

11 converge into a single collective dominant References narrative which paints a victimhood scenario. As I have written elsewhere (2009 Baldoni, A. (1996) Il crollo dei miti. forthcoming), ‘the Strategy was the main Rome. tool devised by their enemies to defame, Blee, K. (1993) ‘Evidence, empathy and stigmatize and dehumanize them as ethics: lessons from oral histories of the ‘legitimate opponents’, as well as to turn Klan’, in The Oral History Reader, edited them into scapegoats’. The condition of by R. Perks and A. Thomson, London, victimhood has thus been appropriated by Routledge, pp. 333-43. one of the groups considered responsible for Cento Bull, A. (2007) I t a l i a n the massacres. Neofascism. The Strategy of Tension and the The stories reveal an enduring depth of Politics of Nonreconciliation, Oxford and resentment towards a variety of ‘enemies’, New York, Berghahn. including the communists, the extreme left Cento Bull, A. (2009) ‘Neofascism’ in and the state, who are blamed not only for The Oxford Handbook of Fascism, edited by being the real ‘villains’ in the Strategy of R. J.B. Bosworth, Oxford, OUP. Tension but also for having escaped Cento Bull, A. (2009 forthcoming) condemnation for their part in the political ‘Political violence, stragismo and ‘civil conflict. As an interviewee complained: ‘if war’: an analysis of the self-narratives of they arrest Sofri there is a race at whoever three neofascist protagonists’, in Imagining goes first on TV to declare that Sofri is Terrorism. The Rhetoric and Representation innocent’, whereas in the case of neofascists of Political Violence in Italy 1969-2009, there is no escaping public opprobrium for edited by P. Antonello and A. O'Leary, the bombing massacres (despite the Oxford, Legenda. inconclusive and ‘manufactured’ judicial Crossley, M.L. (2000) Introducing evidence). The stories also reveal a strong Narrative Psychology: Self, Trauma and the sense of injustice over the murder of Construction of Meaning. Milton Keynes. activists from their own ranks, whose Crossley, M. L. (2003) ‘Formulating (extreme left) perpetrators have never been Narrative Psychology: The Limitations of discovered or put on trial and whose Contemporary Social Constructionism’, memory their political side has a duty to Narrative Inquiry 13(2): 287-300. keep alive. While these grievances largely Feldman, C.F. (2001) ‘Narratives of explain widespread attitudes of National Identity as Group Narratives: intransigence within Alleanza Nazionale, Patterns of Interpretive Cognition’, in J. they combine with more sinister aims Brockmeier and D. Carbaugh (eds), among some activists, especially those who Narrative and Identity. Studies in militate in the radical right groups which Autobiography, Self and Culture. still adhere to fascist ideals. The main aim Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 129-44. of safeguarding the reputation of neofascism Freeman, M. (1993) Re-writing the Self: as a revolutionary movement untainted by History, Memory, Narrative. London and any crimes or underhand deals thus consists New York. in the promotion of a new militancy. Freeman, M. (2003) ‘Myth, Memory, Finally, by comparing the stories of the and the Moral Space of Autobiographical neo- and postfascist right with the outcomes Narrative’. Paper delivered at the Second of the judicial trials, my research findings Tampere Conference on ‘Narrative, have questioned the usefulness of the latter Ideology and Myth’, Tampere. in terms of helping the country draw a line Gergen, K. (1991) The Saturated Self. under its divided past and successfully Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. achieving national reconciliation. New York. Hopkins, S. (2001) ‘History with a Divided and Complicated Heart? The Uses of Political Memoir, Biography and Autobiography in Contemporary Northern Ireland, Ethnopolitics 1(2): 74-81.

12 Labov, W. (1972) Language in the Inner Portelli, A. (1998) ‘What makes oral City. Philadelphia. history different’, in The Oral History Labov, W. (2001) ‘Uncovering the Event Reader, edited by R. Perks and A. Thomson, Structure of Narrative’. Paper given at the London, Routledge, pp. 63-74. Georgetown Round Table in March 2001, Vinciguerra, V. (1989) Ergastolo per la available at: liberta. Verso la verita sulla strategia della http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/ tensione. Florence. uesn.pdf Vinciguerra, V. (1993) La strategia del Portelli, A. (1991) The Death of Luigi depistaggio. Bologna. Trastulli, and Other Stories. Form and Vinciguerra, V. (2000) Camerati addio. Meaning in Oral History, State University Storia di un inganno, in cinquant’anni di of New York Press. egemonia statunitense in Italia. Trapani.

13 Travel and Writing in Fascist Italy

Charles Burdett University of Bristol

It has been the case for some years now us, encoded in both verbal and non-verbal that travel writing has attracted a great deal language. Travel can, to put this point of critical attention. New journals have been slightly differently, encourage an awareness set up with the explicit purpose of looking at of the limits of personal autonomy and the travel and writing while a steady stream of extent of the power that collective versions publications have appeared which either of identity exert. In upsetting an individual’s explore the characteristics of the genre or understanding of what is familiar or which look at aspects of its working during seemingly natural, the experience can incite specific historical periods.1 What is perhaps criticism of restrictive notions of gender, most noticeable about the growth in interest sexuality and ethnicity. Alternatively, the act in travel writing is that it is common to a of travelling beyond the confines of the variety of subjects within the arts and social everyday can just as easily excite strong sciences.2 Though the genre has given life to feelings of adherence to a national or ethnic some great works of literature, more often it group. has produced writings which from a purely Travel writing, almost by definition, literary point of view are of middling or low presents encounters with people who belong importance but which, because of their to traditions of thought and behaviour that closeness to political or social realities, can are other to those of the writer. Such serve as a means of telling us about the encounters rarely take place outside a power continuation over time of influential modes structure of some kind and since the of perception. Travel writing, moreover, publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism because of the often dubious nature of its much of the interest that the genre has literary quality, its pretension to be purely aroused has focussed on what it reveals referential and its clear intention to offer a about European attitudes to non-Western reflection on the functioning of society cultures.3 As well as visiting a location that seems to require an approach that does not exists in the world of material reality all sit comfortably within the boundaries of travellers at all times travel through or are only one discipline. enmeshed in the web of concepts, traditions It is perhaps not difficult to understand and modes of perception that constitute one the reasons behind the continued growth in culture’s understanding of another. The interest in travel writing and its appeal literature of travel and exploration provides across a broad spectrum of subjects since clues to the development of the everyday the issues that the genre provides a means to working of colonialism and it indicates explore are important – they are all in some some of the characteristics that were way concerned with questions of identity projected onto the subjects of Western and otherness. Anyone who travels cannot domination. It is one means, among many, avoid becoming involved in the translation of showing the levels at which the rhetoric of one sign system into the terms of another, of imperialism functioned and of the role thus the act of moving between spaces and that subject communities served in the recording the experience is one way of fashioning of the image of the metropolis. becoming conscious of some of the basic Having written on the representation of assumptions of one’s own culture and the travel and on aspects of literary culture of way in which they are, as semiotics informs the 1920s and 1930s, my intention in writing

14 Journeys through Fascism was to determine, of travel writing by adopting a methodology broadly speaking, who was writing what which, indebted to the insights of post- kind of travel literature in the interwar structuralism, saw the texts not as a period and what the close reading of a series collection of fully autonomous works but as of the most significant travel texts might a series of representations which are reveal about a particularly dramatic period indicative of the working of collective in Italian history.4 Many critics are agreed patterns of thought and association. My that the years before the outbreak of the approach fully endorsed the suggestion of Second World War constituted a singularly Orientalism that every text that sets out to rich period in the history of travel writing in capture the essence of another place is itself English, with figures of the status of Ernest ensnared in the web of ideas and images that Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence and Katharine have previously defined the way in which Mansfield all contributing to this particular that place has been thought or written about. literary practice. In Italy a number of But if you are working on Italian texts of renowned individuals within the world of the 1920s and 1930s, the overriding letters, including Corrado Alvaro, Carlo question that you face is what they will tell Emilio Gadda and Filippo Tommaso you about Fascism; what they will tell you, Marinetti, also narrated the journeys that in other words, about the meanings that its they undertook to one place or another. The system of ideas assumed for individuals who genre was swollen by the work of other were prepared to record and disseminate writers, such as Arnaldo Cipolla or Arnaldo their experience of, and in most cases their Fraccaroli, who published prolifically before support for, the dictatorship.6 An important the war but who are now largely forgotten. part of my research was therefore concerned But perhaps one of the most important with examining the part that writing on features of this area of literary production travel performed during the ventennio and it was its connection with journalism: what sought to engage with the conclusions and were later to become evocations of countries questions raised by a growing body of or regions tended to begin life as foreign scholarship on the dynamics of culture correspondence in the columns of a national under Fascism.7 More specifically, my aim daily. Thus the boundaries between what we was to examine how many of the ultra- would now define as foreign nationalistic concepts that lay at the heart of correspondence and travel writing were not ideology of the regime were expressed and sharply delimited; newspapers like the elaborated on in the travel writing and Corriere della Sera, La Stampa or Il Popolo foreign correspondence of the time. The dell’Italia published writings that in many myth of Roman dominance, the supremacy ways shared the characteristics of both. of Italian civilization, the irresistibility of There are, of course, a variety of collective action, the deification of the approaches that it would have been possible leader all exerted their influence over the to adopt when considering this body of way in which places were viewed or literature. One approach, for example, international events reported. would have been to concentrate each chapter The work of Emilio Gentile has on the work of a separate writer as Paul exercised a profound effect on the way in Fussell did so successfully in his study of which studies of Italian culture under British literary travelling between the wars.5 Fascism conceptualize the relationship But the problem with the Italian case is that between politics, society and religion.8 His the number of works by highly sophisticated thesis that mass political movements have, writers that it contains is limited. It is thus in the decline of established religion, more appropriate to discard the distinction appropriated a collective notion of the between the canonical and the non sacred and succeeded in transforming an canonical, and to concentrate on the expectation of the world to come into the perception of other cultures and peoples that anticipation of the radical alteration of this one can trace across the whole of this form world provides a powerful explanation of of writing. It was with this consideration in how relatively recent ideologies have been mind that I attempted to address the corpus able to graft themselves onto belief

15 structures that are extremely deep-laid more nuanced stance that writers like within Western culture. Part of what I was Corrado Alvaro or Emilio Cecchi were attempting to do in Journeys through prepared to assume. While Alvaro used the Fascism was to explore how writers and record of his journey to Russia in 1935 to journalists of the inter-war years represented imply a series of highly ambiguous their sense of Italian or Fascist identity suggestions about Fascism, a writer like through the experience of travel and how, in Appelius, as early as 1924, wrote a particular, they related recent notions of collection of articles on India for identity to more long-standing philosophies Mussolini’s newspaper, Il Popolo d’Italia, in of collective belonging. which he expounded his view that the Duce Many writers, of course, simply asserted was a messianic leader whose ability to see or implied that Fascism enjoyed mass the spirit of the nation through the masses of consensus and that the ways of thinking and the Italian people had done nothing less than feeling that it sought to promote had been establish a new religion based on the cult of realized. But in quite a number of texts one the nation. can find the expression of a more complex As well as offering a record of differing reception of the ideology of the regime. degrees of personal identification with the Both travel writing and foreign aims of the regime, the writing on travel correspondence allow their author also provides an account of the stages of the considerable space to construct an supposed realization of the utopian proposal autobiography of impressions and of creating a new type of society, one which encounters while he or she purports to do no would guarantee military might, order and more than observe reality. Thus one can prosperity all in the space of relatively few approach the genre as a vehicle that allows years of extremely determined action. It is for an extensive amount of self description: true that the alteration of Italy’s urban it is possible to analyse not only the details landscape occurred with great rapidity – as of the writers’ lives that are contained within the work of Medina Lasansky has the texts but also the attitudes, opinions and demonstrated – and it was used by the reactions that form part of the texts’ record authorities as a means of demonstrating the of their authorial consciousness. Perhaps effectiveness of Fascism in creating the most interestingly, one can examine how future that it had promised to bring about.9 some of the most basic concepts underlying Many writers, including Gadda and Ojetti, Fascism influenced the writers’ sense of speculated on the significance of the themselves and how these ideas were architectural renovation of the peninsula, subject to individual and, on occasions, often eliding the rational description of the contradictory kinds of elaboration. work that was being carried out with an If it is true, as the work of Gentile irrational appreciation of its meaning. In this argues, that it was the aim of Fascism to form of literary production one finds a series orchestrate a wholesale change in the way of frequently repeated metaphors concerning that Italians thought about themselves and the re-apparition of the Roman Empire, the other people, then one could argue that it is expression of the ‘spirit’ of the community, possible to measure the degree to which a or the appearance of the archetype within writer was prepared to subscribe to such an the everyday. But the device that was most aim by assessing how far the record of his or consistently deployed in this writing was to her subjectivity conformed to the model of compare the visit to one or other of the selfhood that the regime sought to newly accomplished building projects of the propagate. The corpus of travel writing of regime to the experience of entering, in the the inter-war years certainly offers an array words of Foucault, an ‘effectively enacted of different positions concerning the utopia’.10 assimilation of Fascist ideology: the range When they wrote on the new towns south of positions stretches from the fanaticism of of Rome, the building of EUR or other those figures like Alessandro Pavolini or monumental projects of the time, the more Sandro Volta who identified entirely with discriminating commentators of the age the notion of the new Fascist man to the succeeded in revealing how adept Fascism

16 was in manipulating its adherents’ the writing may conclude that there was a willingness to subscribe to a narrative of progressive element to this discourse. Many collective becoming. The sensitivity that of the most prolific commentators claimed these writers displayed lay in their ability to that the aim of the nation’s expansion was represent their own responses, their own not simply to procure material advantage but experience of awe when confronted with to pursue a spiritual mission – the certain spectacles and their own readiness to dissemination of the Fascist concept of the collude with the underlying purpose of such nation – and by so doing to penetrate the spectacles. The writing, in other words, deepest workings of the societies over which often represented an intense psychological Italy aspired to rule. Indeed, one could argue experience as well as evincing an advanced that in their desire to assert Italy’s right to understanding of the internal mechanisms expand its possessions, many writers on which the propaganda of the regime unmasked and critiqued some of the most could play. Any analysis of the states of basic features of established European mind, the examples of the kind of ego colonialism, expressing sympathy with the disturbance that were both consciously and aspirations towards national self unconsciously reported in the texts is likely determination of various subject to be more effectively if it uses a language populations, and even predicting the that has some recourse to Freudian ideas – eventual unsustainability of colonial on the shock of the unfamiliar, for example, exploitation. or on the submission to the figure of the Yet, if one reads deeper, if one looks at leader – and their elaboration in a some of the implied meanings of apparently substantial body of cultural criticism.11 progressive statements that were made in the As the pace of imperialism accelerated in justification of imperialism, if one looks at the 1930s, the records of journeys that were some of the metaphors of colonization that undertaken to Italy’s expanding empire were most often relied upon, then one further exemplified the revolutionary discovers – perhaps not surprisingly – that utopianism that lay at the core of the Fascist they assert a hierarchy of cultures at every worldview. The writing on Italy’s colonial level. The image of ancient Rome, for possessions represents, as one might example, was one to which those who wrote imagine, a distinct body of material within on empire rarely tired of referring and in the larger corpus of writing on travel. All the some cases it may genuinely have been used texts that were produced on the empire, as a symbol of universality, but in other whether they were written by high-ranking contexts, sometimes in the work of the same colonial officials or by more lowly authors, the status of the concept was quite observers, rehearsed the arguments in favour different. Rather than standing for the shared of Italian expansionism and predicted a participation in a set of common ideals, the future of successful colonial enterprise. The putative endurance of the spirit of Rome interest of this writing lies principally in the served as a means of defining a notion of way in which it displays the perceptual Italian racial identity.12 By pointing to the categories that determined the expansionist imposing structures of Roman architecture viewpoint: in whichever form they were and their astonishing endurance through framed, the texts indicate the desires, time or by writing on the creation of modern investments and projections that were simulacra of ancient buildings, Italian central to the imperial rhetoric of the time. administrators and observers presented the The complexity of the identifications that image of a powerful, authoritarian society were made in prose writing that may, on one that symbolized the community to which level, seem very simple becomes, of course, they felt that they belonged and the end to much clearer if the writing is analysed with which Italian history under Fascism was reference to the work of Homi Bhabha and moving. other theorists of the representation of the Travellers to Italian East Africa were colonial encounter. keen to express their support for the policies A superficial reading of the expansionist of racial segregation that were pursued with discourse that finds expression in much of increasing vigour in the late 1930s and

17 which have been documented, among not simply that ruling and subject population others, by Angelo Del Boca, Luigi Goglia appreciated a common cult of leadership but and Barbara Sorgoni. They did not challenge that Mussolini could claim to possess the the increasingly strict distinctions between attributes of a Muslim ruler. colonizers and colonized, between those Though a large part of Journeys through who dominated and those who were Fascism was concerned with the writing that dominated. It did not occur to them to was produced on empire, a premise of the contest the physical separation between study was that our understanding of the races that was planned for the future representation of colonialism is enhanced if development of Ethiopian towns and cities, it were seen as part of the same continuum to challenge the prohibition of collective as writing that covered the other major activities or the criminalization of conjugal international events in which Italian Fascism relations between Italians and Ethiopians. became embroiled. As well as writing on Despite the claim that expansionism under Libya or charting the progress of settlement Mussolini served an evangelizing purpose, in Ethiopia, many of the same writers and that it would spread a common philosophy journalists adumbrated the complex of ideas of nationhood and that it would do nothing that motivated Italy’s allegiances and its less than transform the very consciousness interventions, reporting on the country’s of the populations that were or that would be affinities with some nation states and subject to Italian rule, most observers presenting a radically dystopian vision of expressed a consistent hostility towards and others. The aim of the latter part of Journeys indeed a fear of any indication of cultural or was to look at some of the writing that was racial hybridity.13 produced after the assault on Ethiopia and in In the representation of travel to sites the years immediately before the outbreak of within the empire one does not, of course, the Second World War. More precisely, it find only instances where the identity of was to examine the ways in which those observer and observed are posed sharply in who were sent to cover the Spanish Civil opposition. Some of the most interesting War framed Italian involvement in the passages of the writing arise precisely when conflict. It was to look at the perception in distinctions between self and other begin to the Italian press of the mesmerizing example falter or when it is possible to witness a of Hitler’s Germany. Finally, it was to mixing of cultures taking place or, to use the consider how evocations of Stalin’s Russia language of Mary-Louise Pratt, a process of and Roosevelt’s America in the late 1930s transculturation, willed or otherwise, substantiated the claim of the regime that it occurring.14 Pratt has explored how the offered a system of government that obsessive desire of the metropolis to present safeguarded Italy from the terrors of and re-present the importance of its colonial communism on the one hand and the possessions exercises a subtle and, for the dangers of unbridled capitalism on the most part, unacknowledged transformation other.15 of the self image of the imperial power. When looking at writing on all of these There are many instances where one can see places it is naturally easier to speak about this happening in the literature of the support for the foreign policy that had been interwar years but perhaps the most decided upon and which was being followed dramatic of these is the writing that through but there are moments where one surrounded Mussolini’s visit to Libya in can detect a certain kind of resistance taking March 1937. In the reporting on the event shape. Italian Fascism represented an there was a deliberate attempt to suggest evolving – and to some extent a syncretic – that the regime had assimilated aspects of body of ideas and there were instances when Muslim culture at the same time that its own an individual commentator expressed a view models of speech and behaviour had been on an ideological or societal question before replicated by the people over whom it had the regime had had time to elaborate a imposed its rule. Indeed, the image of the coherent policy on the issue. Several Duce being presented with the sword of the accounts of Germany written in the ‘Protector of Islam’ was intended to suggest immediate aftermath of the Hitler’s

18 accession to power, for example, poured writing which appears to offer no more than scorn on Nazism.16 There were other conformity to a coercive vision of reality. It instances where one writer or another used is also the case that any study will conclude the observation of a foreign reality as the by posing a series of questions that can be pretext for looking back at Italy and as the taken further. The whole issue of the means of articulating a veiled, sophisticated reception of the writing on places outside of but nevertheless perceptible critique of Italy during the ventennio is certainly one Fascism. This was, for example, the case in that could be explored in far greater detail the conclusion to Carlo Scarfoglio’s text on by mapping the views expressed by writers Russia where, ostensibly referring only to and journalists against those recorded by the Soviet Union, he spoke of an age that other participants in Italy’s foreign was dominated by the continual search for adventures or against those which have been ideal templates on which to model reality, retained in oral histories of the dictatorship. by the passion for creating transcendental Many literary representations of travel in the hierarchies, and by the minute planning of interwar years were accompanied by an spatial structures into which empirical extensive array of photographs and that reality refused to be forced.17 collection of visual material awaits One can argue that the very fact of comprehensive analysis. Most of the representing an elsewhere, of speculating opinions concerning other cultures that were imaginatively upon the rules governing contained in the travel literature of the time another society provided the opportunity, indicate, in some way, their authors’ not always consciously embraced, of understanding of the meaning of race and reflecting upon the contingency of the the intricacy of the racial discourse of which writer’s culture of origin. One of the most the writing on travel is a part has not been brilliant correspondents who wrote on the fully considered. Spanish Civil War, Virgilio Lilli, had no Though the geographical range of the difficulty in attempting to discover a layer of texts that I was looking at in Journeys was common humanity that he felt lay beneath extensive, the study of travel writing in the the ideological structures of modernity that interwar years does, of course, represent clashed with such ferocity in Spain and in only a small part of a vast mosaic. My which, at one level, he himself was deeply monograph was intended to contribute to the involved. Margherita Sarfatti, certainly a study of the way in which other countries prominent figure in the elaboration of the and cultures were viewed during the twenty aesthetics of Fascist culture, used the record years of Mussolini’s rule and the ways in of the semi-official journey that she made in which Italian Fascism sought to define itself 1934 through Roosevelt’s America as a relationally by setting itself apart from a means of articulating a critique of terrifying image of communism on the one rapprochement with Nazi Germany, of hand and an image of declining democratic claiming that the United States were an power on the other. The study of this area of analogue of Italy and of elaborating a cultural production could be taken further by possible future path for Fascism to follow.18 exploring the relation of the writings of Within the context in which they appeared, those who, driven by conflicting her writings on America represented an motivations, were prepared to support the instance of opposition but they also aims of the regime with those who chose the displayed the occasional, and to some extent path of exile and who saw the Italian dramatic, proximity between compliance invasion of Ethiopia or its involvement in and resistance, between the identity of the Spain in an entirely different perspective. proponent of a form of oppression and that Equally, the comparative dimension of the of its potential victim.19 study could be pursued by looking in greater The evidence of writing about travel detail at the many writings on Italy and on shows that dissemination depends on Italian involvement overseas that were relatively complex patterns of reception and prepared by observers from European and that elements of resistance – whether actual non-European countries. Taking the study or potential – are often present within forward in this way would provide one

19 means of contextualizing the development 7 This line of inquiry has been particularly of Italian colonialism and its ‘belated’ fruitful in the United States. See, for example, temporality.20 Another question that the following works: Ben-Ghiat, R., Fascist inevitably emerges if you are prepared to Modernities: Italy 1922–1945, Berkeley: consider Fascism in Gentile’s terms as a University of California Press, 2001; Berezin, M., Making the Fascist Self: The Political secular religion is its relationship with Culture of Interwar Italy, Ithaca: Cornell established religions or with other University Press, 1997; Falasca-Zamponi, S., ideologies that could equally lay claim to be Fascist Spectacle: The Aesthetics of Power in constituted as a kind of political religion. If Mussolini’s Italy, Berkeley: University of it was possible for the regime to justify California Press, 1997; Schnapp, J.T., Staging imperial expansion by claiming that its Fascism: 18BL and the Theater of the Masses purpose was to disseminate a new form of for Masses, Stanford: Stanford University Press, belief and a new form of consciousness, 1996; Spackman, B., Fascist Virilities: Rhetoric, then the way in which that claim was Ideology and Social Fantasy in Italy, assimilated or resisted represents a Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, fundamental element of inter-cultural 1996. exchange in the years between the two 8 See Gentile, E., Il culto del Littorio, Rome and world wars. Bari: Laterza, 1993 and Politics as Religion, trans. G. Staunton, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006. Endnotes 9 Lasansky, M., The Renaissance Perfected: 1 Architecture, Spectacle and Tourism in Fascist The journal, Studies in Travel Writing was, for Italy, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. example, founded in 1997 while Journeys: the International Journal of Travel and Travel 10 Foucault, M., ‘Of Other Spaces’, trans. J. Writing was set up in 2000. Miskowiec, Diacritics, vol. 16, n.1 (1986): 22-7. 2 A good example of a work exploring travel 11 The work of Theodor Adorno on the writing from a geographical perspective is Writes psychological dynamics of Fascism is of Passage: Reading Travel Writing by J. particularly important in this context. See Duncan and D. Gregory, London and New York: ‘Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Routledge, 1999. An example of sociological Propaganda’ in J. M. Bernstein, ed., The Culture interest in the literary practice is the work by C. Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, Rojek and J. Urry, Touring Cultures: London and New York: Routledge, 1996, pp. Transformations of Travel and Theory, London 114-36. and New York: Routledge, 1997. 12 3 A good example of the deployment of the Said, E., Orientalism, New York: Pantheon concept in this way is provided by Angelo Books, 1978. Piccioli in the text, La porta magica del Sahara: 4 itinerario Tripoli-Gadames, Intra: Apollon, See Cultural Encounters: European Travel 1934. Writing in the 1930s eds. C. Burdett and D. Duncan, Oxford and New York: Berghahn 13 For recent work in English on Italian Books, 2002 and Vincenzo Cardarelli and his colonialism, see Ben-Ghiat, R. and M. Fuller, Contemporaries: Fascist Politics and Literary eds., Italian Colonialism, New York: Palgrave Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Macmillan, 2005; A Place in the Sun: Africa in 5 Italian Colonial Culture from Post-Unification to Fussell, P., Abroad. British Literary Traveling the Present, ed. P. Palumbo, Berkeley: Between the Wars, Oxford: Oxford University University of California Press, 2003; Italian Press, 1980. Colonialism: Legacy and Memory, eds. J. Andall 6 As can be deduced by the occasional disparity and D. Duncan, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2005. between public utterance and private notation, 14 Pratt, M. L., Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing most writers were prepared not only to submit to and Transculturation, London and New York: censorship but willingly to distort the reality that Routledge, 1992. they saw.

20 15 On this question, see Ben-Ghiat, ‘Italian Fascism and the Aesthetics of the “Third Way”’, Journal of Contemporary History, 1996, 31: 293–316.

16 See, for example, Bottacchiari, R., Vecchia e nuova Germania, Rome: 1935 or Giovannucci, F. S., La Germania di Hitler e l’Italia. Cose viste, Rome: Signorelli, 1933.

17 Scarfoglio, C., Nella Russia di Stalin. Russian Tour, Florence: Vallecchi, 1941, p. 409.

18 Sarfatti, M., L’America, ricerca della felicità, Milan: Mondadori, 1937.

19 Following the introduction of anti-Semitic legislation, Sarfatti left Italy for France in November 1938, see Cannistraro, P.V. and B.R. Sullivan, The Duce’s Other Woman, New York: Morrow, 1993, pp. 520-30.

20 On the question of the question of temporality, travel and colonialism, see Behdad, A., Belated Travelers: Orientalism and the Age of Colonial Dissolution, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004.

21 BOOK ESSAYS AND REVIEWS

D’Auria on D’Alessio’s L’amministrazione come professione. I dirigenti pubblici tra spoils system e servizio ai cittadini, Verzichelli on D’Alimonte and Fusaro’s La legislazione elettorale italiana, Stolfi on De Ioanna and Goretti’s La decisione di bilancio in Italia, Korkut on Lang’s Converting a Nation. A Modern Inquisition and the Unification of Italy.

Gianfranco D’Alessio (a cura di), elevatissimi del welfare, forti squilibri dei L’amministrazione come professione. I conti pubblici, estese aree di inefficienza dirigenti pubblici tra spoils system e amministrativa; la ricerca di strumenti per servizio ai cittadini, Bologna, il Mulino, razionalizzare e contenere la spesa pubblica, 2008, p. 238. ISBN: 978-88-15-12218-6 anche al fine di adempiere agli obblighi finanziari imposti dall’Unione europea. Gli anni Novanta dello scorso secolo Una delle riforme che, in questo contesto, si costituirono, per l’Italia, un periodo di svilupparono fu quella del pubblico impiego, grandi riforme amministrative, certamente le realizzata fra il 1993 e il 1998 all’insegna più rilevanti – per estensione e profondità – della “privatizzazione” e, cioè, dell’obiettivo dall’entrata in vigore della Costituzione di riunificare – dopo quasi un secolo – la repubblicana (1948). Esse investirono disciplina del lavoro pubblico e quella del l’universo delle pubbliche amministrazioni – lavoro privato, non tanto per ragioni centrali, regionali, locali – e tutte le loro ideologiche, quanto per introdurre elementi ‘componenti’: le funzioni e la loro di ‘gestione aziendale’ nelle pubbliche articolazione fra i diversi livelli di governo, amministrazioni, elevare la produttività degli la tipologia e il disegno delle strutture, i apparati, rendere migliori servizi ai cittadini, procedimenti e le tecniche di gestione, la ridurre – se non eliminare – l’invadenza finanza, gli ordinamenti del personale, i della politica nell’amministrazione, controlli e le responsabilità. accrescendone il tasso di imparzialità. Di Alla base di tanto attivismo vi furono, oltre qui, un complesso di norme che all’esigenza di rimediare l’ormai prevedevano la ‘separazione’ fra poteri di insostenibile arretratezza indirizzo, spettanti al personale politico (che dell’amministrazione italiana, fattori avrebbe dovuto limitarsi a fissare piani e molteplici: la pressione delle regioni e degli programmi), e poteri di gestione (per enti locali per maggiori condizioni di l’attuazione di quei piani e programmi), autonomia; la scoperta di un esteso sistema rimessi all’esclusiva responsabilità dei di maladministration e di corruzione, dirigenti. politica e amministrativa, per lo più Già all’inizio del nuovo secolo, tuttavia, il alimentata da procedure farraginose (sovente ‘principio di separazione’ fra politica e arbitrarie) e da controlli soltanto formali; la amministrazione venne in larga misura crisi finanziaria dello Stato, con costi neutralizzato dall’introduzione (nel 2002),

22 con riguardo ai dirigenti di più alto livello (i dirigenziali, il quale – è stato detto – segretari generali dei ministeri e i capi- metteva, e tuttora mette, il potere politico dipartimento), di un sistema molto simile a nella condizione “di influenzare anche le quello noto come spoils system, talché, ad minute scelte gestionali, perché il dirigente ogni mutamento di governo, i dirigenti che voglia essere rinnovato non oserà avrebbero dovuto ottenere, per essere mettersi contro il ministro, e, anzi, cercherà mantenuti in carica, la ‘fiducia’ del nuovo di entrare nelle sue grazie” (S. Cassese). governo. All’assenza di ‘difese’ dei dirigenti nei Ne discese l’instaurazione di uno speciale confronti della politica si aggiunse la vincolo fra il vertice politico e l’alta mancata realizzazione delle condizioni cui burocrazia, in ragione della necessità – non era subordinato il buon esito della riforma. prevista dalle norme, ma perseguita nei fatti Così, in primo luogo, i ministri (ma anche i – che i dirigenti, pur avendo responsabilità presidenti delle regioni, meno i sindaci) distinte da quelle dei ministri, offrissero a mancarono all’impegno di predisporre piani questi ultimi precise garanzie di affidabilità e programmi, con tanto di obiettivi e risultati politica, intesa come disponibilità a (e relativi standards e timings) sui quali ‘convertire’ in azione amministrativa anche impegnare i loro dirigenti. In secondo luogo, gli inputs che valicassero la linea di confine la valutazione dei dirigenti, seppur praticata fra la politica e l’amministrazione. A in talune regioni ed enti locali, rimase ‘al bilanciare questo vincolo di natura palo’ nella gran parte delle amministrazioni, personalistica e, comunque, per non talché il “Comitato tecnicoscientifico per il contraddire – almeno nelle apparenze – il coordinamento in materia di valutazione e ‘principio di separazione’, le norme controllo strategico nelle amministrazioni prevedevano un sistema di valutazione dei dello Stato” (costituito presso la Presidenza risultati conseguiti dai dirigenti, facendo del Consiglio dei ministri), dovette dipendere solo dall’esito negativo della constatare che la valutazione dei dirigenti valutazione la cessazione anticipata dei loro era regolata da “un procedimento ‘fantasma’ incarichi (per mancato raggiungimento degli di cui non esist[evano], se non obiettivi o per inosservanza delle direttive eccezionalmente, sperimentazioni pratiche”. impartite dai ministri). Peraltro, gli incarichi In terzo luogo, gli stessi dirigenti trovarono avevano durata temporanea (inizialmente, da – e trovano – utile, per le loro aspirazioni di un minimo di due anni a un massimo di carriera, non opporre resistenze ai sette; poi, la durata minima fu abolita e la desiderata dei politici (e i dirigenti più durata massima fu ridotta a tre anni), talché riottosi sono stati progressivamente sostituiti il dirigente, per ottenere il rinnovo, doveva con il meccanismo del ‘non-rinnovo alla ottenere il “gradimento” del politico, il scadenza dell’incarico’, senza motivazione). quale, alla scadenza dell’incarico, non era – Da segnalare, altresì, che le leggi degli anni comunque – tenuto a spiegare le ragioni Novanta – sempre nella logica per cui i dell’eventuale mancato rinnovo. ministri dovessero non più gestire, ma solo Un regime siffatto presentava una indirizzare l’attività amministrativa – contraddizione di fondo (che i governi potenziarono gli “uffici di gabinetto” (ora succedutisi negli ultimi dieci anni hanno denominati “uffici di diretta collaborazione” peggiorato, autorizzando assunzioni di dei ministri, dei presidenti regionali, dei dirigenti senza concorso – e, perciò, in base sindaci, ecc.), i quali – però – finirono presto a meri requisiti di affidabilità politica – e per sovrapporsi, nei fatti, alle strutture consentendo che fino al novanta per cento operative dell’amministrazione, richiedendo degli incarichi dirigenziali di alto livello a queste di operare secondo il criterio della potesse essere attribuito a persone diverse rispondenza ‘pronta ed efficace’ alle ragioni dai dirigenti generali già presenti in ogni e alle priorità della politica. E’ accaduto, amministrazione): quella per cui la perciò, che, con gli “uffici di diretta ‘separazione’ fra politica e amministrazione, collaborazione”, la ‘presa’ della politica pur solennemente affermata dalle norme, sull’amministrazione sia addirittura veniva in realtà vanificata dal carattere aumentata, operando essi come strutture – temporaneo e precario degli incarichi oltre tutto assai più poderose dei preesistenti

23 gabinetti – deputate al controllo della Gagliarducci, A. Tardiola), la responsabilità quotidiana gestione amministrativa. dirigenziale (F. Merloni), l’etica della Né ebbero concreta attuazione le norme che dirigenza pubblica (F. Merloni), i principi riconoscevano ai dirigenti di vertice il potere comuni alla dirigenza statale e alle dirigenze di assumere, “con la capacità e i poteri del regionali e locali (F. Merloni, V. Spagnuolo). privato datore di lavoro”, tutte le Ogni capitolo è corredato da proposte per determinazioni inerenti all’organizzazione l’eliminazione delle incongruenze rilevate dei loro uffici e del loro personale; per non nella disciplina vigente e delle distorsioni dire delle decisioni di spesa inerenti cui si è prestata (si presta) la sua all’attuazione dei programmi, sulle quali applicazione, oltre che delle illegittimità hanno pesato sia l’assunzione a livello censurate dalla Corte costituzionale. Ne politico delle priorità di spesa in situazione emerge un complesso di indicazioni, che si di risorse decrescenti, sia i periodici ‘tagli’ fondano su alcune scelte ritenute alle disponibilità di bilancio. indeclinabili: il ripristino su ampia scala di selezioni fondate sul merito, il Il volume che qui si presenta (pubblicato n mantenimento della regolamentazione su ella collana dell’Associazione per gli studi e base contrattuale del rapporto di lavoro le ricerche sulla riforma delle istituzioni dirigenziale, l’attribuzione degli incarichi democratiche e sull’innovazione nelle con atto motivato del vertice politico previo amministrazioni-A STRID) a n a l i z z a parere di un’apposita commissione compiutamente le tematiche cui s’è parlamentare, la fissazione di un ‘termine accennato, con riguardo sia al contesto nel lungo’ (sette anni) alla durata di ciascun quale maturò – fra il 1993 e il 1998 – la incarico, la predeterminazione di programmi riforma della dirigenza, sia alle insufficienze e obiettivi all’attività dei dirigenti, la di quella riforma e alla successiva “riforma periodica valutazione della performance da della riforma”, realizzata nel 2002 con essi realizzata (con la creazione di un un’ulteriore accentuazione del rapporto di organismo indipendente per la validazione fiduciarietà (se non di affiliazione o di delle metodologie di valutazione) e la clientela politica) fra potere politico e alta motivazione del mancato rinnovo degli burocrazia, e conseguente deperimento incarichi, la chiara individuazione delle dell’imparzialità amministrativa; donde, fra ipotesi di responsabilità aventi ad oggetto il l’altro, una serie di interventi della Corte mancato raggiungimento degli obiettivi e i costituzionale che, a partire dal 2007, ha risultati negativi della gestione. dichiarato illegittime norme statali e Una parte non irrilevante di queste proposte regionali che avevano stabilito, in semplice risulta accolta dalla recente legge n. 15 del correlazione con l’insediamento di un nuovo 2008 (che reca una serie di deleghe governo, la cessazione automatica di alti legislative al Governo per l’“ottimizzazione dirigenti statali e regionali, a prescindere da della produttività del lavoro pubblico e [per ogni valutazione circa i risultati da essi la] efficienza e trasparenza delle pubbliche. realmente conseguiti. amministrazioni”), ma sia le proposte che la Il volume si articola in una introduzione legge sembrano eludere due nodi di fondo. del curatore e in undici capitoli, che Il primo è quello delle misure per contrastare trattano: i principi costituzionali e il quadro le inerzie e le inadempienze del potere istituzionale (F. Bassanini), la managerialità politico (facilmente prevedibili, dati i della dirigenza pubblica (A. Pioggia), precedenti) davanti agli obblighi ad esso l’autonomia budgetaria dei dirigenti (A. imposti dalle norme: dalla programmazione Brancasi), la selezione e la formazione dei dei ‘processi produttivi’ all’attivazione di dirigenti (G. D’Alessio, F. Parisi), la efficaci controlli interni, alla non-ingerenza struttura e le articolazioni della qualifica nella gestione amministrativa day to day. Si dirigenziale (A. Ferrante, F. Sileri, B. tratta, come si sa, di obblighi difficilmente Valensise), gli incarichi fiduciari (F. sanzionabili con strumenti giuridici, onde Merloni), il conferimento e la revoca degli occorrerebbe intervenire con meccanismi incarichi (G. D’Alessio, A. Ferrante, A. indiretti di ‘induzione all’adempimento’, dei Pioggia), la valutazione dei dirigenti (F. quali, però, non v’è traccia né nelle

24 proposte, né nella legge, se non per istituire essere rimesse a organismi indipendenti di – al di là dei già esistenti organismi di garanzia, cui spetterebbe anche di fissare il controllo esterno – un’altra struttura trattamento economico corrispondente a amministrativa (qualificata come autorità ciascuna posizione dirigenziale; che tutti i indipendente), che dovrebbe sovrintendere a dirigenti siano sottoposti a periodiche tutti i sistemi di valutazione adottati dalle valutazioni ad opera degli stessi o di altri amministrazioni (sia centrali che regionali e organismi indipendenti. locali). Per parte sua, la citata legge n. 15 del 2009 Il secondo è quello di stabilire se e quale appare orientata ad attenuare – attraverso i rilevanza debba avere, nell’attribuzione e futuri decreti delegati – il tasso di nella revoca degli incarichi dirigenziali, il fiduciarietà degli incarichi conferiti dal ‘movente fiduciario’ e, cioè, l’affinità potere politico, prevedendo che una quota politica (o partitica) fra il dirigente e il (al momento indeterminata) degli incarichi ministro (o il presidente della regione, o dirigenziali di più alto livello venga quello della provincia, o il sindaco) come attribuita con procedure selettive, ma senza garanzia di affidamento sulle particolari garantire che il criterio (di fatto) capacità o sensibilità del primo a ‘tradurre’ preponderante della selezione non sarà in operazioni di carattere amministrativo le quello della ‘fiducia personale’ del politico indicazioni di convenienza politica o nei confronti del dirigente. Né la legge partitica provenienti dal secondo. distingue i dirigenti che operano ai livelli più In realtà, ove una siffatta ‘fiducia’ (che le elevati delle strutture amministrative, in norme – si ripete – non hanno mai posizione di ‘snodo’ fra queste e il vertice menzionato) continuasse a trovare spazio politico, dai dirigenti che, affiancando i nella disciplina della relazione fra indirizzo ministri nell’elaborazione dell’indirizzo politico e gestione amministrativa, il politico, sono gli unici rispetto ai quali pare principio costituzionale di imparzialità ammissibile un rapporto di ‘fiducia dell’amministrazione ne risulterebbe personale’ con i responsabili politici delle definitivamente cancellato. Nel rapporto fra amministrazioni. dirigente e ministro verrebbe introdotto, Così stando le cose, la separazione fra infatti, un elemento esattamente contrario politica e amministrazione, l’imparzialità e all’esigenza – richiamata in Assemblea l’efficienza delle amministrazioni, costituente da C. Mortati – che i funzionari l’autonomia e la responsabilità dei dirigenti venissero circondati delle garanzie nella gestione dei servizi alla collettività necessarie a “sottrarli alle influenze dei rappresentano, a tutt’oggi, in Italia, valori e partiti politici”, come condizione per “avere obiettivi la cui realizzazione resta affidata un’amministrazione obiettiva della cosa all’avvento di una nuova – ed incerta – pubblica e non un’amministrazione dei stagione di riforme amministrative. partiti”. D’altro canto, nell’affrontare il tema dello spoils system, la Corte costituzionale Gaetano D’Auria ha apertamente escluso che la ‘fiducia Corte dei Conti, Roma politica’ possa costituire il ‘collante’ del rapporto fra potere politico e dirigenza. Occorrerebbe, dunque, instaurare le condizioni per impedire che la ‘fiducia Roberto D’Alimonte e Carlo Fusaro (a politica’ assuma (sia pure ‘di fatto’) un cura di), La legislazione elettorale italiana, rilievo inquinante nelle fasi Bologna, Il Mulino, 2008, pp. 424, ISBN: dell’instaurazione e della cessazione dei 978-88-15-12519-4. rapporti di lavoro dirigenziale. E, per far questo, sarebbe necessario stabilire che alle Il saggio introduttivo di questo libro ci svela funzioni più elevate della dirigenza pubblica il principale obiettivo dell’intrapresa: si acceda mediante concorso, mettendo in compiere il primo passo di un “programma competizione concorrenti interni ed esterni sistematico di ammodernamento e all’amministrazione; che le selezioni e le manutenzione della legislazione elettorale ed nomine siano sottratte al potere politico, per elettorale di contorno” in Italia. Questo

25 programma ha una motivazione forte ed è riequlibrio di genere), alle caratteristiche del subordinato a precise condizioni di metodo: voto (Feltrin e Fabrizio sulle procedure, la motivazione di fondo è quella di Gratteri sul voto degli italiani all’estero, assicurare una conoscenza precisa ed Gardini sulla campagna elettorale, Pinelli sui obiettiva della coerenza del regime elettorale rimborsi elettorali) e infine ai problemi italiano e dei bisogni che emergono da esso, relativi allo status del rappresentante ed alle muovendo dalla considerazione che modalità di rappresentanza (i capitoli di l’attenzione politica e scientifica degli ultimi Lupo e Rivosecchi e di Ciaurro su quindici anni su rendimento e adeguatezza eleggibilità e compatibilità e quello di del sistema elettorale (ovvero le regole che Curreri sui gruppi parlamentari). determinano la trasformazione dei voti in Tutti i capitoli sono molto interessanti ed seggi) non è stata sostenuta da una adeguata importanti nella logica del volume, e se qui riflessione sulla legislazione elettorale non ci soffermeremo su alcuni di essi è (ovvero la complessa serie di norme in evidentemente solo per mere ragioni di materia di competizione, modalità di voto, spazio. Focalizzeremo invece tre questioni collegamento tra esiti del voto stesso e evidenziate nel volume che, oltre ad essere funzionamento delle istituzioni più rilevanti per gli interessi del recensore, rappresentative). Le condizioni affinché tale ci sembrano particolarmente utili da programma possa aver successo, affrontate segnalare ai tanti studiosi “italianisti” che da Fusaro nel suo capitolo introduttivo, non sono esperti in senso stretto di studi attengono da un lato alla natura elettorali. necessariamente interdisciplinare dello Il primo tema da considerare è il studio, e dall’altro alla “laicità” che si cambiamento delle domande alla base della richiede ai contributori ed allo stesso lettore: legislazione elettorale, emerso dopo la l’analisi della dinamica di ammodernamento scomparsa della “delega in bianco” conferita della legislazione elettorale deve in sostanza ai partiti nei percorsi di selezione della liberarsi da ogni pregiudizio favorevole a un classe politica. Tale esigenza è ben sistema elettorale o all’altro, e da valutazioni rappresentata, per esempio, nel saggio di più o meno strategiche sul tipo di modello Floridia, dove si coglie l’utilità di un democratico che si intende raggiungere. supplemento di analisi sulla questione della Inoltre, anche se il volume è esplicitamente partecipazione al processo di selezione dedicato all’evoluzione del regime elettorale politica, e in prospettiva si pone il problema italiano, molti dei suoi contributi palesano della utilità di qualche ulteriore intervento una conoscenza approfondita dello scenario legislativo che possa importare anche in comparato in cui i vari fenomeni analizzati Italia una regolazione più stringente sull’uso si posizionano. In effetti, la virtù principale delle “primarie” o di altri criteri aperti di dei migliori contributi politologici o selezione delle candidature. giuridici in materia elettorale è quella di La seconda tematica rilevante è relativa alle saper definire i problemi e discutere le varie incongruenze oggi evidenti tra caratteristiche di un determinato caso di l’architettura istituzionale che il sistema studio nel contesto di una modellistica elettorale in qualche modo determina, democratica più ampia. unitamente alle altre variabili politiche che Il volume si struttura coerentemente con con esso interagiscono, e una legislazione questa impostazione metodologica. Dopo un elettorale di contorno che è cresciuta in utilissimo capitolo di D’Alimonte, modo irregolare e non coordinato rispetto al Chiaramonte e De Sio, dove si modello di democrazia che si stava contestualizza la riforma del 2005 (ed il delineando durante la lunga transizione dibattito successivo) rispetto ad una serie di italiana. Molti sono i riferimenti che si modelli di regime elettorale, la situazione potrebbero fare al riguardo, ma un esempio italiana corrente viene passata in rassegna che sembra macroscopico è quello costituito attraverso una approfondita analisi di dalla legislazione in materia di rimborsi tematiche relative al processo di selezione elettorali. Tale normativa appare oggi politica (il capitolo di Floridia sull’accesso costruita su una nozione di unità competitiva alla competizione e quello di Pezzini sul (partito, simbolo, lista, coalizione, a seconda

26 del contesto) sfuggente ed incoerente, e dedicato all’amministrazione complessiva presenta inoltre ancora troppi incentivi alla delle elezioni ed alle proposte sulla frammentazione, a dispetto del trend eventuale migrazione della governance opposto inseguito dai sistemi elettorali elettorale italiana dal tradizionale modello successivi alla “prima repubblica”. europeo continentale del controllo centrale a Il terzo tema che ci sembra importante quello di una “mediazione” garantita da una sottolineare è quello delle connessioni – autorità ad hoc e da un sistema regolativo di anche qui, molto spesso incongruenti – tra la garanzie. Il capitolo ribadisce infatti con legislazione elettorale vigente ed i chiarezza il rendimento complessivamente regolamenti parlamentari. Il saggio di Lupo soddisfacente del modello di legislazione e Rivosecchi, particolarmente interessante al elettorale italiano, respingendo una volta di riguardo, fa luce su una galassia di norme e più le fantasiose argomentazioni sulla di prassi parlamentari sconosciute ai più, i mancanza di garanzie democratiche nel cui effetti in termini di sopravvivenza di processo elettorale ed anche alcune visioni benefits e cumulo di mandati ci sono tuttavia complottistiche – presentate da alcuni media piuttosto noti. La palese incoerenza di una ma utilizzate talvolta con disinvoltura dagli disciplina come quella in materia di stessi leader politici. Tuttavia, proprio da ineleggibilità e incompatibilità, rilevano gli questo tipo di analisi è utile ripartire per autori, è infatti alla base di abusi e di una scoprire i limiti della attuale configurazione continua carenza di prestazioni sanzionatorie elettorale, e per proporre, come il capitolo in da parte delle assemblee elettive (e in questione e tutto il libro curato da particolare de parlamento). D’Alimonte e Fusaro fanno, un confronto Una conclusione non dissimile la raggiunge sistematico con le diverse esperienze e con i del resto anche Curreri, affrontando la modelli alternativi che possono fornire questione del “fit” tra regole della stimoli e “buone pratiche” da tenere in competizione elettorale e regolamenti in considerazione. materia di articolazioni politiche del Nel complesso, l’unico difetto di questo parlamento – gruppi parlamentari e libro – da imputare certo non ai suoi autori e componenti politiche del gruppo misto. curatori ma all’insieme degli “addetti ai L’incoerenza che ancora oggi determina la lavori” – è forse quello di giungere fluidità e la frammentazione di tali abbastanza in ritardo rispetto ad una articolazioni (ma il caso della XV legislatura evoluzione della legislazione elettorale che rappresenta evidentemente l’esempio più in Italia è in moto perlomeno da quindici ingombrante sotto questo profilo) può essere anni. La lunga fase di mutamento politico ed sconfitta con interventi di razionalizzazione elettorale ha infatti sollevato molti problemi tutto sommato minimi e non invasivi, che gli e determinato molte nuove pratiche, il cui studiosi devono tenere in dovuto conto: sia i controllo cognitivo non è sempre così politologi istituzionalisti, i quali non semplice. Questo fa si che il libro non risulti dovrebbero soltanto ascoltare le sole di semplice lettura, dati i tanti aspetti toccati suggestioni dell’ingegneria costituzionale e e i tecnicismi trattati nei vari capitoli. Ma dei sistemi elettorali, sia i giuristi che proprio il fatto di essere riusciti a contenere intendano non confondere la neutralità della così tanti e specifici aspetti in uno spazio loro analisi con un divieto di “costruttivismo tutto sommato limitato ed all’interno di una giuridico” che finisce per legittimare le – sia pure ancora iniziale – discussione palesi contraddizioni riscontrabili tra le varie organica sulla legislazione elettorale è fonti del diritto costituzionale e ovviamente un grande merito, e non certo parlamentare. una colpa. Questo atteggiamento “laico” e propositivo, attento al rispetto dell’esistente ma anche Luca Verzichelli aperto al mutamento ed all’analisi rigorosa Università di Siena dei modelli alternativi, è in definitiva il messaggio principale che cuce assieme i capitoli del libro, e conduce al tema del capitolo finale – di Luca Stroppiana –

27 Paolo De Ioanna and Chiara Goretti, La new spending decisions. As De Ioanna and decisione di bilancio in Italia Goretti make clear, this interpretation of Art. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2008, pp. 286, ISBN 81 does not imply any ex-post requirement 978-88-15-12594-8 regarding the actual evolution of public finances. Even under the more stringent In this book, authors Paolo De Ioanna and legislative rules introduced over time to Chiara Goretti set out to propose ways to limit the profligacy of Parliament (notably reform the institutions and procedures of the the introduction by law 362/88 of the Italian budget process in light of the double mandatory setting of the deficit at the challenge coming from Italy’s participation beginning of the budget session rather than in the Economic and Monetary Union at its end, when it would only sum up all the (EMU) and of the ongoing federalization of result of the parliamentary decisions rather the country. In fact, the greater challenge is than act as a constraint on it), the natural in a sense posed by federalization: Chapter 6 development of ongoing mandatory underlines the difficulties that beset the expenditure was outside the remit of the granting of fiscal autonomy to the regions, constraint at the margin imposed by Art. 81. and in particular the constant tension that However, the ex-post requirements that exists between the need to make regional derive from participation in the EMU have administrators responsible for the way in finally introduced into the Italian budget which they use the resources entrusted to process a new focus on fiscal outcomes. In them and the constitutional requirement that turn, this focus brings into relief the fact that citizens across the national territory have fiscal choices always imply a trade-off access to the same level of fundamental among different uses of public resources, services such as health. thus, at least potentially, improving the Conversely, as it becomes apparent from quality of democratic decision-making. reading the book, participation in the EMU A summary of book so rich in analysis and is at least as much an opportunity as it is a suggestions will unavoidably fail to do it challenge. True, the Stability and Growth justice. In extreme synthesis, the first Pact and the Maastricht Treaty before it have chapter provides a pithy and clear-minded given legal cogency to fiscal rules and in description of the last thirty years of this sense have reduced the leeway of budgetary reforms, with a focus on the political decision-makers in Italy and introduction of the cornerstone document of elsewhere in Europe. However, especially in the Italian budget process, the legge high-debt countries like Italy, fiscal finanziaria (financial law), in 1978, and on discipline has become necessary regardless the significant debate in the 1980s that led to of specific European stipulations, and the the reform of 1988 and the introduction, Italian political class has indeed in the past among other things, of a medium term twenty years or so increasingly internalized budgetary framework (the DPEF or a culture of fiscal responsibility. Given a Documento di Programmazione Economico- domestic context that is more aware of the Finanziaria) and of the quantification costs of unbridled debt than it was in the requirements on spending bills. 1970s and 1980s, participation in the EMU Chapter 2 zeroes in on the procedures for has brought into relief some structural fiscal analysis and for the quantification of problems in the procedures and institutions new spending. In line with the state of the of budgetary policy-making. Probably the art in the literature on fiscal policy-making, most immediate of these problems has been the chapter emphasizes the central the fact that in the postwar years fiscal importance of transparency in the production discipline has been based on the ex-ante and and dissemination of fiscal information. The “marginalist” perspective of Art. 81 of the authors do not shy away from stressing the Constitution. That is, this article has been inadequacies of the procedures underlying interpreted to mean that in the yearly budget the production of fiscal data, in particular decision Parliament must introduce with regard to the quantification of the costs measures to compensate (through increases of new spending decisions. in revenues or reductions in spending) all

28 Chapter 3 discusses the problems of the citizens/taxpayers to be able to assess the calculation and compatibility of the different quality of their elected governments. fiscal balances that are relevant for domestic This is an important and ambitious book and European purposes. Most of Chapter 4 which, as befits the expertise and is devoted to analyzing the nature of the professional position of its authors, aims to UPB (Unità Previsionali di Base, the basic move forward the debate on budget reform voting units for Parliament when it approves in Italy. It does so on the back of detailed the budget, introduced in 1997 and and very up-to-date analysis that always subsuming the much more detailed budget takes into consideration the broader items that were each individually voted until concerns and suggestions emerging from the then), their potential implications for the international literature and from way the public administration works, in international organizations as the OECD and particular with regard to the potential the EU. Another distinctive and successful increase in the flexibility and responsibility element of the book is the effective in the use of public resources, bringing up combination of theoretical discussion and the discussion all the way to the hands-on examples drawn from the reorganization of the budget into programs professional experience of the two authors. and missions in the last few years. If there is room for improvement, it is in the Importantly, the chapter also emphasizes treatment of the political dimension of some of the ways in which the quest for budget reform. Despite some references to flexibility has been interpreted in Italy. the importance of the political context for Rather than as a way to improve the reform here and there in the text (for efficiency of the administration, it has in the instance with regard to the 1978 reform that past few years been a shortcut to make up was made possible by the temporary for inadequate financial planning. inclusion of the PCI in the majority In Chapter 5, De Ioanna and Goretti address supporting the government), politics is the question of the reform of the budget largely absent. To be sure, both the left and procedures in the context of the international the right have made dubious decisions debate on fiscal rules, coming out in favor of regarding how to interpret or change the more top-down procedures that combine budgetary rules. However, the reader is left greater power for the finance minister with wondering if there have nonetheless been greater responsibility for the line systematic differences across the two main administrations and the spending ministers. political groupings that have coalesced since In particular, in spite of the strengthening of the early 1990s over how to manage and the finance minister since the 1990s, the reform budget procedures and institutions. existing planning system only focuses on the Furthermore, one may wonder if the changes deficit, and it has thus been unable to give advocated by the authors could take place the finance minister much planning control irrespective of broader political conditions. on the overall level of spending. Chapter 6 reviews the federalizing turn that Francesco Stolfi has reshaped the country from the late 1990s University College Dublin on, and Chapter 7 brings together the main conclusions and suggestions of the authors. These include the strengthening of financial planning, which ought to include fiscal Ariella Lang, Converting a Nation. A constraints for the lower levels of Modern Inquisition and the Unification of government and should enable the finance Italy, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, minister to control the overall evolution of pp. 237, ISBN-13: 978-0-230-60672-2. government spending, and the improvement of the quality of the information produced Ariella Lang’s book “Converting a Nation” by all the actors involved in the budget visits two topics of particular importance to process, from Parliament to the actors inside the materialization of the nation state the executive, as a necessary prerequisite for formation process in Italy. In terms of religious rule and secular politics, Lang

29 investigates the relationship of Catholic book regarding how the Vatican juggled the officialdom to the ideology of secular Italy liberal and Catholic ideas about the and nation state, and the problem of the unification of Italy, it would have been a situation of minority religions in the context laudable effort had the author, for instance, of Catholic culture on the peninsula. In this chosen to specify the role of the Italian respect, Lang looks at the processes of Jewry in promoting liberal ideas. It would conversion of Jews into Christianity in the have certainly helped the reader to Italian peninsula – especially in the Papal understand why the Vatican targeted the States, and proposes an account of how the Jewry and used proselytisation as a process of conversion affected the nationalist process – beyond the fact that the construction of national identity in Jews represented the religious and ethnic nineteenth-century Italy. Making a diligent Other. Methodologically, the book brings use of the archival material in hand, Lang together archival material and literature. The proposes that “Vatican supporters advocated book is a skilful and cogent effort of the conversion because they wished to ensure author to guide the reader through its rich that the newly emerging nation-state material, which presents various the literary remained culturally and religiously works of Alessandro Manzoni and Bresciani Catholic.” (p.3) In order to evince her point among others. The second part of the book, the author refers to a rich array of literary hence, is very interesting thanks to the and legal sources to this extent, and in her author’s effort to expose the reader how the book refers to Inquisition trials, conversion converted themselves also adopted the stories, novels, and newspaper stories. The narratives of conversion, Roman book is organised along three parts based on Catholicism as well as Pauline Christianity. how the author used her sources and The author also provides impressive empirical evidence. These parts are methodological insights into using literature Inquisition Trials, Novels, and finally the towards research in political history. Future Catholic Press. students of culture and history as well as The author provides evidence regarding how other fields of social sciences will surely conversion relates to the Catholic Church’s benefit from Lang’s incisive methodology to search to dissipate the Jewish population of this extent. Hence, while the book at the first Italy and how the Church uses conversion of glance appears to be specific in its scope to the Jewry to re-establish itself after the end Papacy and Italy, it still is a particularly of Napoleonic Era in Italy. The account useful text in effect to research in Lang provides is impressive: her depiction nationalism studies, cultural history, of events is a suggestion in regard to the religious history, literature and politics. background of Shoah. However, while the Thanks to its methodology, argument and author mentions that the Jews were granted rich resources, the book is a useful reading equal rights during the Napoleonic Era in the for graduate courses in History, Politics, Italian peninsula, Lang does not Literature or even Theology. “Converting a comprehensively and explicitly relate the Nation” can also offer an insightful reading process of conversion of the Jewry to the for specialised undergraduate courses such making of the nation state in Italy. The as Literature and Politics or Italian Politics. I argument of the book – which is highly would, therefore, strongly recommend thought-triggering and original – could have Lang’s book for the consideration of experts been more solid had the author dedicated a in the field. short but compact section clarifying the significance of the Jewish population of Umut Korkut Italy. Rather than offering an explicit section University College Dublin on the role, and the population figures and distribution of Jewry in Italy, Lang presents a passive Jewry who benefited out of the Napoleonic Era in Italy whose contribution to the ideological trends of the era not clearly-stated. As for the latter section of the

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