Beyond Pizza: Learning Something from Italians about Politics and Life

I was walking Harry this afternoon when I started thinking about Italy. I have duel-citizenship, American and Italian, and our five-year plan – regardless who becomes president – is to ditch the US for Italy. It makes a lot of sense, especially financially. Italy’s cost of living is significantly lower than here in the US. We won’t have to worry about medical, retirement, or lack of a safety net. The food, oh, I could spend hours babbling on about the food, and all the things to look at. The climate is the same as what I grew up with and am currently used to. And it is very interesting.

What makes Italy interesting is also its bane. The political system is impossibly convoluted and not very representative. Its criminal justice system is insane. And its judicial system is unworkable. As much we Americans complain about our politics, the limits on our democracy, and lack of true justice, the Italians have it worse. Italy is also a lot more patriarchal than the United States – though they have elected a female leader. It is also far more racist and homophobic. And the Catholic Church, though less powerful than ever, has a strong hold on politics and society.

All the things the above could be major repellants if not for one thing: Italy is also ungovernable. Because the system is so intransigent, Italians tend not to wait for permission to do what they want or need to do. Politically and legally, things might stay the same, but socially and culturally, Italians push forward. Of course, the vacuum created by systemic rigidity can result in some screwed up things, such as people building stuff illegally without regard to the environment, safety, aesthetics, or even what their neighbors think. The vacuum allows organized crime to flourish and exist as a parallel society (same with the church).

However, that ungovernability also means that Italians will ignore bad laws that they don’t agree with. When the last two right wing governments started to official crack down on immigration, plenty of Italians defied the state by helping migrants in need. Advances in women’s and gay rights are difficult to make within the system, so civil rights activists go around the law, working through culture and social bonds to weaken the state’s misogyny and homophobia. There are also an astounding number of “communes,” co-ops, and mutual aid organizations that draw upon long and strong anarchist, syndicalist, socialist, and communist traditions. And there is a national referendum system that activists use to create big change when the people get ahead of the politicians, which occurs often.

Take gay marriage, one of the cornerstones of the gay rights movement everywhere. In Italy, gay marriage is illegal. What they have is something like our old “domestic partnership.” The people, though, are overwhelmingly for partnership rights, to the tune of 60-70% of the population for marriage equality. This support is something that politicians don’t act on, largely because they fear the Vatican. But there will become a time when, politicians be damned, marriage equality will be voted in by referendum.

The referendum system is how Italians were able to secure abortion rights before other countries and prior to Roe v Wade. Early Seventies politicians wouldn’t touch it, but activists were organizing hard for abortion rights. The church freaked and made the mistake of forcing a referendum vote on it, thinking Italians would ban abortion. Activists organized hard and abortion rights passed by a very large margin.

While Italy has strong current of racism and xenophobia is alive and well, public opinion suggests that people are far more liberal on these things than Italian politics suggest. Immigration is a perfect example. Listen to Italy’s leaders, especially on the right, and you get something close to MAGA, without the high-sterics. But, but, but, within the next six months it is highly probable that Italians will make it far easier for non-citizens to be naturalized. Also, there’s been a lot of noise among the right about restricting citizenship through jus sanguinis – or “right of blood,” how I got my citizenship – but, everything on the ground looks like that process will be liberalized, too. Most observers of Italian politics are confident any referendum that makes it easier to become an Italian will pass.

The reasons for the split on immigration between the ruling parties (who are starting to come around) and the people is two-fold. First, as in the United States, the people are far less uptight about and welcoming of immigrants than our politicians. Second, Italy is a zero-population growth country. Between its low birth rate and many young people having moved abroad to study and make money, Italy’s population has dropped to a concerning level. Italy needs people to keep the country going and need supplants political expediency and bigotry.

So, yeah, the system favors the status quo and/or reactionaries and party politics stops or retards legislative change. However, given how strong-willed Italians are when they want change, they will make change. Progressive change happens in daily life and many regressive “political accomplishments” championed by the status quo get ignored. Same goes with changes in power.

Italy’s last two governments are a coalition government made up of populists and right-wingers and, currently, a coalition government of conservatives, nationalists, and the far-right. In the United States, we’d freak out about this. In Italy, they yawn. Certainly, those on the left grumbled when far-right leader Giorgia Meloni became prime minister, but they didn’t panic. They knew that there was only so much damage that Meloni could do, and that the system makes it pretty easy to bring down any government that loses favor with the people, to the extent that they are paying attention.

Now, it isn’t just a screwed-up system, public opinion, and the referendum that results in clusterfuck progress. Italian activist engage in the cluster and organize for change. It is hard and confusing work, especially because Italian politics is so fractured, but it is also very fluid. Alliances shift all the time. Governments come and go. While Silvio Berlusconi held onto power for a long time (in two separate stints), he is an anomaly. Italian political leaders tend to have a short life in power, even when their party dominates. But all that is at the top. At the bottom, people organize and push forward, and exploit opportunities that open up when those at the top falter. And when the government won’t or can’t respond, Italians practice mutual aid and do things for themselves.        

The Italian system is far from perfect. In fact, no sane person would ever thrust it on a democratic people – same can be said of our electoral college, Supreme Court, and Senate – but the history and nature of Italians, and their insight into that history and their nature, counters and sometimes conquers their political insanity. While I wouldn’t want to switch out the United States’ system for Italy’s, Americans can definitely learn something from Italians about there being more to life and change than politics. It is something that – given how important culture is to change – we should know, but we don’t.

Knowing what the Italians know means that if things go bad in the election, we are not powerless. We can and will continue to push forward and make change. And if things go well, the fight gets a little easier, while still being a fight.