Foreign Correspondent Inside Track On World News By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster Eric Margolis ,,ggddY"""Ybbgg,, ,agd888b,_ "Y8, ___`""Ybga, ,gdP""88888888baa,.""8b "888g, ,dP" ]888888888P' "Y `888Yb, ,dP" ,88888888P" db, "8P""Yb, ,8" ,888888888b, d8888a "8, ,8' d88888888888,88P"' a, `8, ,8' 88888888888888PP" "" `8, d' I88888888888P" `b 8 `8"88P""Y8P' 8 8 Y 8[ _ " 8 8 "Y8d8b "Y a 8 8 `""8d, __ 8 Y, `"8bd888b, ,P `8, ,d8888888baaa ,8' `8, 888888888888' ,8' `8a "8888888888I a8' `Yba `Y8888888P' adP' "Yba `888888P' adY" `"Yba, d8888P" ,adP"' `"Y8baa, ,d888P,ad8P"' ``""YYba8888P""'' Italy Suffers under Plague of Politicans by Eric Margolis MILAN, ITALY - A grim, grey winter sky hangs over this great industrial and commercial powerhouse of Italy. The , chilly dampness, patches of snow, and Milan's bustling citizens, make the city and surrounding Lombardy look more like Germany than the usual image of sunny, easy-going Italy. In fact, southern Italians call the Milanese and other northerners, `Tedesci' - Germans. The snobbish northerners dismiss their southern compatriots as `Africani.' Thanks to the hard-driving `Tedesci,' Italy now enjoys the fastest growing economy among leading industrial nations. Some years ago, Italy overtook England to become Europe's third ranking economy after Germany and France. By now, its economy may well have surpassed France's. No one is certain: Italians are grand masters at evading taxes, under-reporting profits, and hiding wealth. Some estimates put Italy's real GDP at 40% higher than official figures. This is a remarkable achievement considering that Italy t has been in a state of political chaos for the past four years. The old, rotten political order, an unholy alliance of corrupt politicians, extorting civil servants, venal churchmen, and gangsters, collapsed. Nothing has yet taken its place. Italy's political system lies in ruins. Back in 1994, I was in Rome, covering the newly named prime minister, media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. At the time, I shared the hopes of most Italians that Berlusconi would drag Italy out of its evil, Cesare Borgia politics, and somehow produce clean, efficient government. Alas, Berlusconi proved a major disappointment: a would-be Dusesconi, intolerably arrogant, and politically inept. He refused to address the outrageous conflicts of interest over his media empire. Berlusconi's shaky coalition collapsed. He is now on trial for bribery. Berlusconi was replaced by a technocrat, Lamberto Dini, whose caretaker government fell last month. This week, after the umpteenth crisis, another technocrat, the aptly named, Antonio Meccanico, was designated to try to form a government. None of the politicians want elections. That might cost them their seats and perks. The squabbling politicians and their fragmenting political parties in Rome have lost all contact with the real Italy. They might as well be on the moon. Italians shrug, ignore them, evade their taxes, and go on making money. This would be fine, except that to win votes, politicians ran up gargantuan deficits that are undermining the economy. Italy's debt is now 124% of GDP, exceeding that of even bankrupt Canada, and almost as bad as broke Belgium. The cost of supporting a huge bureaucracy and featherbedding state industries is crushing, but the politicians don't dare cut spending. As a result of voracious government gobbling up national resources, Italy's unemployment has reached 12%. Politicians are clearly the enemy of Italy's prosperity. Not only do they suck up the national wealth, politicians seriously dislocate the economy by granting special deals to their supporters. As a result, Italian business spends vast amounts of energy and money dodging politicians and bribe- seeking civil servants, money that should go into productive investment. In effect, politics in Italy - but not just Italy - is little more than a gigantic protection racket that feeds on business. Nor is this anything new. Back in 1831, the great British historian Macaulay described Italians as, `a race corrupted by bad government.' Yet what's really noteworthy about Italy is not its endemic corruption, political chaos, nor the chicanery at every level of society. It's that Italians manages to prosper mightily in spite of rotten government. This, in turn, raises the question: what might Italy do if it had decent government? One that balanced budgets, rooted out corruption, collected taxes fairly, slashed the bureaucracy, and ended the maze of strangling regulations and nourishes corruption? In other words, if the enormous entrepreneurial power of the Italians, propelled by their superb style and grace, were unleashed. Why does this brilliant people keep poisoning themselves on the toxin of putrid politics? The revolution Italians staged four years ago swept away much of the old order - and yet the old order still has its tentacles on the levers of power. Clearly, Italy needs another great leap forward, or, to chose a more felicitous image, another Garibaldi, to cleanse Rome of political infestation. Italy's case is extreme, yet its affliction is shared by many democracies. The entrenched political class, backed by armies of bureaucrats, workers of state-owned firms, and teachers, has become the main impediment to economic growth and increased employment. So far, no western nation has found a way of breaking this stranglehold - witness the failure of the Republican 'revolution' so far to change politics- as- usual in Washington. This is, of course, because the same politicians who feed off the system are being asked to reform it. The acidly cynical Italians call politicians `ladroni' - bandits, an unavoidable scourge that must be endured. But just over the Alps from here, rich Switzerland runs like a Swiss watch with hardly any government,and is free of political plague. Germany and Austria have competent, honest governments. Why must Italy - or at least the Lombard north - continue to suffer? Rome will always be corrupt - it's the heat, and history. But chilly Milan should be different. Maybe Italians should not be allowed into politics. Imagine Italy, run by the Swiss. ........... copyright E. Margolis February 1996 ***************************************************************** --------------------------------------------------------------- To receive Foreign Correspondent via email send a note to Majordomo@lglobal.com with the message in the body: subscribe foreignc To get off the list, send to the same address but write: unsubscribe foreignc Back Issues can be obtained from: ftp.lglobal.com/pub/foreignc For Syndication Information please contact: Email: emargolis@lglobal.com FAX: (416) 960-4803 Smail: Eric Margolis c/o Editorial Department The Toronto Sun 333 King St. East Toronto Ontario Canada M5A 3X5 ---------------------------------------------------------------