Abstracts
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Abstracts |
The paper deals with the follwing topics:
Italian politics after the end of World War II. The main political forces. The ideological divide.
The weight and conditioning of the US and the Soviet Union as sources of funding for Italian political parties.
Enrico Mattei, chairman of ENI and tycoon of Italy's state enterprise. His role as funder of political parties and as first, great briber in Italian politics: the "incorruptible corruptor", and "honest bestower of bribes", as Indro Montane-lli, Italys's most prestigious journalist, once described him.
The state controlled industry and financial companies as prime sources of patronage and corruption in Italian politics.
The Seventies and the Eighties: How politicians survived a wave of scandals and judicial prosecutions, and how terrorism and the Cold War contributed to keep them in business. Michele Sindona and Roberto Calvi: two emblematic stories of bankers who did business with the Mafia and lended money to politicians.
Then came the fall of the Berlin Wall and Tangentopoli: the collapse of the political system and of the old political establishment.
1992-2000: the years of transition. What about corruption after Tangentopoli? Did the magistrates of Mani Pulite really defeat it? The judiciary as political actor: the rise and fall of Di Pietro and his fellow prosecutors, from national heroes to oblivion.
2001: Money goes to power. Berlusconi, the fading of ethics and the triumph of business values and practices in Italian politics.