key: cord-0060533-31sylkes
authors: nan
title: Italy
date: 2021
journal: The Statesman’s Yearbook 2021
DOI: 10.1057/978-1-349-95972-3_93
sha: e91c27af4955bf1e4eb4d7cbaf528506bb0fcdc0
doc_id: 60533
cord_uid: 31sylkes

Excavations at Isernia have uncovered remains of Palaeolithic Neanderthal man that date back 70,000 years. New Stone Age settlements have been found across the Italian peninsula and at the beginning of the Bronze Age there were several Italic tribes, including the Ligurians, Veneti, Apulians, Siculi and the Sardi. The Etruscans were established in Italy by around 1200 BC. Their highly civilized society flourished between the Arno and Tiber valleys, with other important settlements in Campania, Lazio and the Po valley. The Etruscans were primarily navigators and travellers competing for the valuable trading routes and markets with the Phoenicians and Greeks. During the 8th century BC the Greeks had begun to settle in southern Italy and presented a challenge to Etruscan domination of sea trade routes. Greek settlements were established along the southern coast, on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples and in Sicily where the Corinthians founded the city of Syracuse. These colonies were known as Magna Graecia and flourished for six centuries. Magna Graecia eventually succumbed to the growing power of Rome where the impact of the Hellenic culture had already been felt.

Augustus reigned for 45 years. With the aid of a professional army and an imperial bureaucracy he established the Pax Romana while extending the empire and disseminating its laws and civic culture. The arts thrived with writers, dramatists and philosophers such as Cicero, Plautus, Terence, Virgil, Horace and Ovid developing Latin into an expressive and poetic language. In 100 BC Rome itself had more than 1Á5m. inhabitants and the Roman Empire was a unified diversity of many races and creeds. It had more than 100,000 km of paved roads, a complex of sophisticated aqueducts, and an efficient army and administrative system.

In AD 14 Augustus was succeeded by his stepson, Tiberius, who ruled in an era that saw the rise of Christianity. Successive emperors tried to suppress the new religion which spread quickly throughout the empire. The deranged Emperor Nero, who came to power in AD 54, intensified persecution of the Christians and was accused of setting Rome on fire. His death in AD 68 brought the Julio-Claudian dynasty to a close and, after a period of instability, Vespasian, the son of a provincial civil servant, took the throne and began some of the most ambitious building projects the Empire had seen. He started the Colosseum (completed by his son Titus) and the Arco di Tito (where the Via Sacra joins the Forum).

In AD 98 the Senate elected Trajan as emperor. Beginning a century of successful rule by the Antonine dynasty, he expanded the empire with the conquests of Dacia (Romania), Mesopotamia, Persia, Syria and Armenia. By the end of his reign the Roman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to Britain, from the Caspian Sea to Morocco and from the Sahara to the Danube. Trajan was responsible for several great architectural projects. A huge column depicting his Dacian campaigns served as his tomb in Rome. Trajan's successor, Hadrian, continued this programme of huge constructions, including Hadrian's Wall in Britain. After his death in 138, his tomb was converted into the fortress of Castel Sant'Angelo on the banks of the Tiber.

Under pressure from Teutonic tribes along the Danube and as a result of the increasingly strong influence of the Eastern religions, Rome began to lose control of its empire at the start of the 3rd century. In 306 Constantine became emperor. After he converted to Christianity in 313 his Edict of Milan established Rome as the headquarters of the Christian religion. A new building programme of Christian cathedrals and churches began throughout Italy. At the same time, Constantine cultivated the wealthy eastern regions of the Empire and, in 324, he moved his capital to Constantinople (now İstanbul). The decline of the Roman Empire continued when, after the death of Constantine, two brothers, Valens and Valentian, divided the Empire. The west and east gradually became alienated, separated by invaders, language and religious interpretation. 'Rome' endured in the east as the Byzantine Empire, the most powerful medieval state in the Mediterranean.

The western half of the Roman Empire, having embraced Christianity as the state religion, came under repeated attacks from Central European ('Barbarian') tribes. The Germanic Vandals had cut off Rome's corn supplies from North Africa, and the Visigoths, a Teutonic tribe, controlled the northern Mediterranean coast and northern Italy. In 452 Attila the Hun, from the steppes of Central Asia, invaded and forced the people of northeastern Italy onto a lagoon haven that became Venice. Rome was captured and sacked in 455 by the Vandals and in 476 a Germanic mercenary captain, Odovacar, deposed Romulus Augustus, the last of the Western Roman Emperors. This date is generally accepted as the end of the Roman Empire in the West.

In 493 Odovacar was succeeded by Theodoric, an Ostrogoth who had acquired a taste for Roman culture. Theodoric ruled from Ravenna and by the time he died in 527 he had managed to restore peace to Italy. On his death, Italy was reconquered by an emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, Justinian, who together with his wife Theodora laid the foundations of the Byzantine period. Although the Lombards drove back the Justinian conquest, Byzantine emperors managed to retain control of parts of southern Italy until the 11th century.

In the mid-5th century Attila the Hun had been persuaded not to attack Rome by Pope Leo I ( 'The Great') . This and a document known as the 'Donation of Constantine' secured the Western Roman Empire for the Catholic Church. In 590 Gregory I became pope and set about an extensive programme of reforms, including improved conditions for slaves and the distribution of free bread in Rome. He oversaw the Christianization of Britain, repaired Italy's network of aqueducts and created the foundations for Catholic services and rituals and church administration.

The invasion of Italy by the Lombards began before Gregory became pope and, although they eventually penetrated as far south as Spoleto and Benevento, they were unable to take Rome. They settled around Milan, Pavia and Brescia and abandoned their own language and customs in favour of the local culture. However, they were sufficiently threatening to cause the pope to invite the Franks under King Pepin to invade. In 756 the Franks overthrew the Lombards and established the Papal States (which survived until 1870). Pepin issued his 'Donation of Pepin', which gave the land still controlled by the Byzantine Empire to Pope Stephen II, proclaiming him and future popes the heirs of the Roman emperors. Pepin's son, Charlemagne, succeeded him and was crowned emperor on Christmas Day 800 by Pope Leo III in St Peter's Basilica in Rome. The installation of a 'Roman' emperor in the West-what was to become the Holy Roman Empire-endorsed the separation between Rome and Byzantium and moved the seat of European political power north of the Alps.

After Charlemagne's death it proved impossible to keep the enormous Carolingian Empire intact. In the period of anarchy that followed, many small independent rival states were established while in Rome the aristocratic families fought over the Papacy. Meanwhile, southern Italy was prospering under Muslim rule. By 831 Muslim Arabs had invaded Sicily and made Palermo their capital. Syracuse fell to them in 878. They created a Greek style civilization with Muslim philosophers, physicians, astronomers, mathematicians and geographers. Cotton, sugarcane and citrus fruits appeared for the first time in Italy and taxes were lowered. Hundreds of mosques were built and all over the region centres of academic and medical learning sprang up. Southern Italy lived harmoniously under Arab influence for more than 200 years while the north remained unsettled. After the collapse of the Carolingian Empire, warfare broke out between local rulers, forcing many people to take refuge in fortified hill towns. In 962 Otto I, a Saxon, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, the first of a succession of Germanic emperors that was to continue until 1806.

At the beginning of the 11th century the Normans began to enter southern Italy in great numbers, where they had originally been recruited to fight the Arabs. Establishing themselves in Apulia and Calabria, they assimilated much of the eastern culture, co-existing peacefully with the Arabs. The architecture of churches and cathedrals built during this period shows the merging of the two cultural and religious influences. Roger II of Sicily (reigned 1112-54), nephew of the adventurer Robert Guiscard, extended Norman Hauteville power over southern Italy and his navy was dominant in the Mediterranean. He presided over a famous court of scholars and artists, many from the Muslim world, making Palermo a model of tolerance and learning.

Meanwhile, the delicate relationship between the Holy Roman Empire based in the north of Europe and the Papacy in the south was maintained by a common desire to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims. Crusades were launched, mostly from the northern states, but achieved little. Germanic claims to the southern territories grew and after Frederick I (known as Barbarossa) was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1155, he married off his son Henry to the heir to the Norman throne in Sicily. Frederick II, Barbarossa's grandson, came to the throne of Sicily as a child in 1197 and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1220. An enlightened and tolerant ruler, he was known as 'Stupor Mundi' ('Wonder of the World'). An accomplished warrior, he valued scholarship and the Arab culture and allowed Muslims and Jews freedom to follow their own religions. He founded the University of Naples in 1224 with the intention of producing a generation of administrators for his kingdom and moved the court of the Holy Roman Empire to the newly built octagonal masterpiece, Castel del Monte, in Apulia.

During this period a new middle class emerged; with the seat of government so far south, some of the northern cities began to free themselves from feudal control and set themselves up as autonomous states under the protection of either the pope or the emperor. Milan, Cremona, Bologna, Florence, Pavia, Modena, Parma and Lodi were the most important of these new states, each dominated by a powerful family, exercising governmental power in the form of signorie. These states functioned autonomously within larger regional areas: Veneto, Lombardy, Tuscany, the Papal States and the Southern Kingdom. In 1265 Charles of Anjou (a Frenchman who had beheaded Frederick II's grandson) was crowned king of Sicily. Greatly increased taxes, especially on rich landowners, made him unpopular despite his programme of road building, reform of the monetary system, improvement of the ports and the opening of silver mines. In 1282 an uprising known as the Sicilian Vespers was sparked by a French soldier assaulting a Sicilian woman. As a consequence of the opposition to the French in southern Italy, Palermo declared itself an independent republic while supporting the Spaniard Peter of Aragon as king. By 1302 the Anjou dynasty had established itself in Naples.

The Black Death (La Peste), the deadly plague that swept throughout Europe towards the end of the 13th century, ravaged the populations of the major cities, which were already struggling with famine after years of war. Despite this, the strength of the northern and central Italian city-states was increasing. The rival maritime republics of Venice and Genoa had their own fleets. Venice had added the ports of Dalmatia, the Peloponnese and Cyprus to its possessions and Genoa's influence stretched as far as the Black Sea. Meanwhile, the pope and the Church turned their crusading zeal from the East towards European heretics. Pope Boniface, elected in 1294, came from Italian nobility and was determined to safeguard the interests of his own family. He claimed papal supremacy in worldly and spiritual affairs with his Papal Bull (Unam Sanctam) in 1302.

Meanwhile, a rival Papacy had appeared in Avignon, where John XXII was based. Rome had lost most of her former glory and had become little more than a battleground for the power struggles between the Orsini and Colonna families. The Papal claim to be temporal rulers of Rome was under threat and the Papal States began to fall apart. The period 1305-77, when seven successive popes ruled in Avignon, became known as the 'Babylonian Captivity'. In 1377 Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome after Cardinal Egidio d'Albornoz managed to restore the Papal States with his Egidian Constitutions. Rome was in such a ruined state that Gregory was obliged to set up his court in the Vatican, which was fortified and protected by the proximity of the Castel Sant'Angelo. Gregory died a year later and the Roman cardinals elected one of their own, Urban VI, as his successor. Urban's unpopularity was such that the French cardinals rebelled, electing their own pope, Clement VII, who set up his rival claim in Avignon. Yet another rival pope set himself in Pisa and thus began the Great Schism that would separate the papacy from Rome for nearly half a century.

In 1418 the Great Schism was brought to an end by the Council of Constance and Rome began to recapture her previous glory. Italy was at the forefront of the Renaissance, a flowering of artistic and intellectual humanist expression in the city-states. After the Peace of Lodi in 1454, the powerful ruling families-among others the Medici in Florence, the Gonzaga in Mantua and the d'Este in Ferrara-were at leisure to sponsor the Renaissance and Rome became again the centre of Italian political, cultural and intellectual life. In Florence the Signoria was taken over by a wealthy merchant, Cosimo de Medici. His nephew, Lorenzo II Magnifico, became one of the great patrons of the arts. Feudal lords like Lorenzo de Medici frequently switched allegiance between the popes and the emperors, becoming wealthy bankers and captains of adventure in the process. Having defeated its arch-rival, Genoa, in 1381, Venice grew enormously, transforming its commercial maritime empire into a territorial empire that stretched almost to Milan.

The peace was shattered in 1494 by the invasion of Charles VIII, king of France. Encouraged to pursue his claim to the crown of Naples by Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, Charles shocked the Italian cities into an alliance to expel his army. As cities competed to become the richest and most cultured, a Dominican monk, Girolamo Savonarola, preached against humanism in Florence. He persuaded Charles VIII to overthrow the Medici family and declare a Florentine republic. Although he was eventually excommunicated, hanged and burned at the stake, Savonarola exerted a lasting influence on Florentine politics. The Venetian expansion, through diplomatic and military guile, had alienated Venice's neighbours, who formed in 1508 the League of Cambrai, which came close to eradicating the Venetian Republic.

The appearance of Spanish power in Naples began the Habsburg-Valois wars that used Italy as a battlefield until the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. These Italian Wars radically altered the political landscape of the peninsula, leaving Spain dominant in Italy. Florence's time as a republic was brief. The Emperor Charles V, who had sacked Rome in 1527, reinstated the Medici, who went on to rule Florence for the next 210 years.

By the second half of the 16th century, the Church of Rome was obliged to respond to the rise of the Protestant movement (the Reformation), inspired in Germany by Martin Luther. During the Counter-Reformation, the Inquisition, backed by Catholic Spain, was used to suppress heresy. Spain succeeded in dominating Italy during the second half of the 16th century but when Charles II (the last of the Spanish Habsburgs) died in 1700, the War of the Spanish Succession saw Italy become a prize for the dominant European powers. Italy was divided amongst the Austrian Habsburgs, the Spanish Bourbons, Savoy and the independent states. The papacy became less influential, the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal, France and Spain and, thanks to intermarriage between many of the ruling houses of Europe and new trading laws, many national barriers were broken down. The 18th century Age of Enlightenment gave Italy some of its greatest thinkers and writers as well as liberal legal reforms.

In 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Italy and declared an Italian Republic under his personal rule. In creating a single political entity, he laid the basis for modern Italy. The Congress of Vienna, which met after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, reinstated Italy's former rulers. Secret societies, made up of disillusioned middle class intellectuals, fought for a new constitution to reunify the country. One such was founded in 1830 by a Genoan, Giuseppe Mazzini. His 'Young Italy' was committed to liberating the country from foreign dominance and to establishing a unified state under a republican government, a campaign that came to be known as Il Risorgimento. During the 1830s and 1840s Mazzini instigated a series of unsuccessful uprisings until he was exiled. By 1848 revolutionary uprisings were taking place all over Europe and the Italian Nationalist movement was gaining ground. Two supporters of the Nationalist cause, Cesare Balbo and Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, advocated an Italian constitution and a bicameral legislature.

As nationalist feeling increased, Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose terrorist activities for Young Italy had obliged him to flee to South America, returned to Italy and allied himself with the Italian National Society. Cavour, the prime minister of Sardinia-Piedmont, attempted to remove Austria from Italy with French help but it was not until Garibaldi and 1,000 volunteers (the Red Shirts) took Sicily and Naples from the Bourbons in 1860 that unification became a real possibility. Garibaldi handed over these kingdoms to Victor Emmanuel II, king of Sardinia-Piedmont. This was to the relief of Cavour, who had feared that Garibaldi might institute a rival republican government in the south. Although Italy was declared a kingdom in 1861 under Victor Emmanuel II, the country was still not unified. Venice was in the hands of the Austrians while France held Rome. In 1866 the Italians took the Veneto from the Prussians and in 1870 Rome was recaptured from the French. Only the Papal troops resisted the advance of the Italian army in 1870 and Pope Pius IX refused to recognize the Kingdom of Italy. In retaliation, the government stripped the pope of his temporal powers. Thus Italy was fully unified.

The turn of the 20th century saw popular support fluctuate between left-wing socialist and right-wing imperialist political parties. When the First World War broke out in 1914, Italy remained neutral although the State was associated with the British, French and Russian allies while the Papacy declared for Catholic Austria. In 1919 Benito Mussolini founded the Italian Fascist Party, whose black shirts and Roman salutes were to become the symbols of aggressive nationalism in Italy for the next two decades. In the elections of 1921 the Fascist Party won 35 of the 135 seats in the Italian parliament. Ayear later, Mussolini raised a militia of 40,000 'Black Shirts' and marched on Rome to 'liberate' it from the socialists. In 1922 the king asked Mussolini to form a government. His Fascist party won the elections of 1924 and Mussolini assumed the title Il Duce. By the end of 1925 Mussolini had expelled all opposition parties from parliament and gained control of the trade unions. Four years later, he signed a pact with Pope Pius XI declaring Catholicism the sole religion of Italy and recognizing the Vatican as an independent state. In return, the pope finally recognized the United Kingdom of Italy.

Mussolini's aggressive foreign policy resulted in disputes with Greece over Corfu and military campaigns in the Italian colony of Libya. In 1935 Italy invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and captured Addis Ababa. The newly formed League of Nations condemned this action and imposed sanctions. In the face of international isolation, Mussolini formed an alliance with the German dictator, Adolf Hitler, and in 1936 the Rome-Berlin Axis was formed. Having annexed Albania in April 1939, Italy entered the Second World War in June 1940. Mussolini's armies invaded Greece from Albania in Oct. 1940 but were repelled, forcing Hitler to invade Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941. This diversion of German troops has been seen as a critical factor in the ultimate failure of the invasion of the USSR, delayed from May to June 1941. The Italian colonies of East Africa were lost in 1941 and Italian forces in North Africa surrendered in May 1943. The Allied armies landed in Sicily in July 1943 and, in the face of diminishing popular support for fascism and Hitler's refusal to assign more troops to the defence of Italy, the king led a coup against Mussolini and had him arrested. In the 45 days that followed, Italy exploded in a series of uprisings against the war. The king signed an armistice with the Allies and declared war on Germany but Nazi troops had already overrun northern Italy. The Germans rescued Mussolini from prison and installed him as a puppet ruler. In 1945 after trying to flee the country, Mussolini was recaptured by Italian partisans and shot. After the Italian Resistance suffered huge losses against the Germans, the allies liberated northern Italy in May 1945.

In the years following the end of the Second World War, Italy's political forces attempted to regroup. The Marshall Plan, America's post-war aid programme, exerted considerable political and economic influence. The constitutional monarchy was abolished in 1946 by referendum and a republic was formed with a president (elected for a seven-year term by an electoral college), a two-chamber parliament and a separate judiciary. Initially the newly formed Christian Democrats under Alcide De Gasperi were in power with both the Communist Party and the Socialist Party, participating in a series of coalition governments until they were both excluded by De Gasperi in 1947. More than 300 separate political factions have struggled for power throughout the post-war era and no government has lasted longer than four years. Despite this instability, the war-damaged Italian economy began to pick up in the early 1950s. The industrialized northern regions thrived while the less industrialized south remained underdeveloped. The Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (a state fund for the South) was founded to try to redress the balance but with limited success.

In 1957 Italy became a founder member of the European Economic Community (EEC). The rapid growth of the motor industry, most notably Fiat in Turin, saw huge migrations of peasants from the south to work in the factories. By the mid-1960s the Communist Party, which had been gradually increasing its share of the poll at each election, had more card carrying members than the Christian Democrats but without participating in government. Social unrest was commonplace and in 1969 a series of strikes, demonstrations and riots followed on the heels of unrest elsewhere in Europe. Various terrorist groups were active including the extreme left-wing socialist group, the Red Brigade, founded in 1970. Right-wing neo-fascist terrorists were also in action, and in the less developed south, the Mafia, a loose coalition of crime 'families', flourished. Most of Italy's social, economic and political structures were manipulated by these unofficial organizations.

In 1963 Aldo Moro, a Christian Democrat, was appointed prime minister (a post he held until 1968) and invited the Socialists into his government. By the 1970s he was working towards a compromise to allow the Communists to enter government when he was captured, held hostage and finally murdered by the Red Brigade in 1978. This national outrage prompted the government to appoint Carabinieri Gen. Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa to wipe out the terrorist groups. He instituted a system of pentiti (informants) who, in return for collaboration, would receive greatly reduced prison sentences. In 1980 he was asked to expand his area of operations to include the Mafia but was assassinated in Palermo a few months later. Throughout the 1970s Italy experienced radical social and political change. The country was divided into regional administrative areas with their own elected governments. Divorce became legal, women's rights were expanded (Italian women only achieved full suffrage after the Second World War) and abortion was legalized. In 1983 the minority Christian Democratic government handed the premiership to the Socialists under Bettino Craxi.

Italy was well on its way to becoming one of the world's leading economic powers but the 1990s brought fresh crises in the economic and political arenas. Unemployment and inflation rose sharply which, combined with a huge national debt and unstable lira, led to instability. On the political front, the Communist Party split with the hard-liners forming the Rifondazione Communista, led by Fausto Bernotti, while the more moderate members set up the Democratic Party of the Left. In early 1992 the arrest of a Socialist Party worker on charges of accepting bribes in exchange for public works contracts sparked off Italy's largest ever political corruption scandal. Investigations into 'Tangentopoli' ('kick-back city') implicated thousands of politicians, public officials and businessmen. Former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi was forced to resign as party secretary after he came under investigation for bribery. Allied to Italy's humiliating exit from Europe's Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), the old political establishment was driven out of office. In the April 1992 elections, the Christian Democrat share of the vote dropped by 5% while the Lega Nord (the Northern League), under Umberto Bossi, took 9% of the vote on an anti-corruption, federalist platform. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was elected president on a promise to set about reforming electoral laws and clearing up the Tangentopoli scandal. Investigations into corruption continued, despite reprisals from the Mafia. Craxi was convicted in absentia while Giulio Andreotti, who was prime minister three times between 1972 and 1992, was brought to trial in 1995 on charges of dealing with the Sicilian Mafia.

In the 1994 elections a right-wing coalition was elected. The Freedom Alliance, including the neo-fascist National Alliance and the federalist Northern League, was led by Silvio Berlusconi, a multi-millionaire media tycoon. Berlusconi lost his majority when the Northern League withdrew after nine months. Under mounting criticism for his failure to disassociate himself from his business interests and after receiving a vote of no confidence, Berlusconi resigned. After leaving the Freedom Alliance, the Northern League became more fanatical, advocating a 'Northern Republic of Padania', a separation of the rich northern regions from the poorer southern ones. The 1996 elections brought to power the centre-left 'Olive Tree' alliance with Romano Prodi as prime minister. Prodi aimed to balance the budget and create a stable political environment. He gained his first objective with a succession of economic measures that prepared the way for Italy's entry into EMU.

Prodi was succeeded by Massimo D'Alema in 1998 who, in turn, was replaced by Giuliano Amato in 2000. By the time of the 2001 elections Berlusconi's popularity had revived and he formed a new centre-right coalition. He introduced the first major constitutional reforms in 55 years, allowing the nation's 20 regions increased responsibility for their own tax, education and environmental programmes.

Berlusconi's tenure was dogged by questions over his private business interests. In Oct. 2002 parliament passed new criminal reform legislation that critics claimed was partly designed to allow Berlusconi to escape charges of corruption. He nonetheless stood trial in May 2003 on corruption charges related to his business dealings in the 1980s but the trial was halted the following month when the new law granted the prime minister immunity from prosecution. The legislation was declared void by the constitutional court in Jan. 2004 and his trial resumed three months later, culminating in his acquittal in Dec. 2004.

The proposed EU constitution was approved by parliament in April 2005, shortly before Berlusconi's government collapsed after a poor showing in regional elections. He was then asked by the president to form a new government but was beaten by Prodi in the general election of April 2006. The following month Giorgio Napolitano was elected president. Prodi resigned in Feb. 2007 when his foreign policy failed to gain Senate backing but resumed his premiership after winning confidence votes in both the upper and lower houses.

In early 2008 Prodi's coalition split when a minor partner withdrew its support. Despite surviving a vote of no confidence in the lower house, Prodi lost a similar vote in the Senate. Parliament was dissolved in Feb. 2008 and Prodi was asked to remain as caretaker prime minister ahead of a general election in April 2008, in which Silvio Berlusconi was returned to power.

The economy was in a parlous state as the global financial crisis deepened. Berlusconi responded by imposing austerity measures but faced several votes of confidence as the economy continued to falter and revelations emerged about his private life. With the IMF warning that the country needed to reduce its public debt, Berlusconi resigned in Nov. 2011 following an impasse in parliament over a new austerity package. He was replaced by Mario Monti, a technocrat charged with restoring economic stability. Monti introduced an austerity programme before his government collapsed in Dec. 2012.

Parliamentary elections in Feb. 2013 resulted in deadlock until April when Giorgio Napolitano was re-elected president and appointed Enrico Letta of the Democratic Party (PD) as prime minister. Letta was replaced as premier in Feb. 2014 by Matteo Renzi, also of the PD, who headed up a new, broad-based coalition. Renzi resigned in Dec. 2016 after constitutional reforms that he championed were rejected in a referendum. He was succeeded by his PD ally Paolo Gentiloni. However, he likewise resigned after elections in March 2018 led to a hung parliament and the establishment in June of a populist and Eurosceptic coalition government headed by Giuseppe Conte, a little-known academic and jurist.

Italy is bounded in the north by Switzerland and Austria, east by Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea, southeast by the Ionian Sea, south by the Mediterranean Sea, southwest by the Tyrrhenian Sea and Ligurian Sea and west by France.

The area is 301,308 sq. km. Populations at successive censuses (in 1,000) were as follows: The official and by far the most widely spoken language is Italian. In 2011 there were 798,000 native Romanian speakers, 477,000 native Arabic speakers and 380,000 native Albanian speakers. In Jan. 2010, 7Á0% of the population was foreign-born.

In addition to Sicily and Sardinia, there are a number of other Italian islands, the largest being Elba (363 sq. km), and the most distant Lampedusa, which is 205 km from Sicily but only 113 km from Tunisia.

Vital statistics (and rates per 1,000 population) 

The climate varies considerably with latitude. In the south, it is warm temperate, with little rain in the summer months, but the north is cool temperate with rainfall more evenly distributed over the year. Florence, Jan. 47Á7 F (8Á7 C), July 79Á5 F (26Á4 C). Annual rainfall 33 00 (842 mm). Milan, Jan. 38Á7 F (3Á7 C), July 73Á4 F (23Á0 C). Annual rainfall 38 00 (984 mm). Naples, Jan. 50Á2 F (10Á1 C), July 77Á4 F (25Á2 C). Annual rainfall 36 00 (935 mm). Palermo, Jan. 52Á5 F (11Á4 C), July 78Á4 F (25Á8 C). Annual rainfall 35 00 (897 mm). Rome, Jan. 53Á4 F (11Á9 C), July 76Á3 F (24Á6 C). Annual rainfall 31 00 (793 mm). Venice, Jan. 43Á3 F (6Á3 C), July 70Á9 F (21Á6 C). Annual rainfall 32 00 (830 mm).

The Constitution dates from 1948. Italy is 'a democratic republic founded on work'. Parliament consists of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The Chamber is elected for five years by universal and direct suffrage and consists of 630 deputies. The Senate is elected for five years on a regional basis by electors over the age of 25, each Region having at least seven senators. The total number of senators is 321, of which 315 are directly elected. The Valle d'Aosta is represented by one senator only and Molise by two. The President of the Republic can nominate five senators for life from eminent persons in the social, scientific, artistic and literary spheres. The President may become a senator for life. The President is elected in a joint session of Chamber and Senate, to which are added three delegates from each Regional Council (one from the Valle d'Aosta). A two-thirds majority is required for the election, but after a third indecisive scrutiny the absolute majority of votes is sufficient. The President must be 50 years or over; term of office, seven years. The Speaker of the Senate acts as the deputy President. The President can dissolve the chambers of parliament, except during the last six months of the presidential term.

There is a Constitutional Court that consists of 15 appointed judges, five each by the President, Parliament (in joint session) and the highest law and administrative courts. The Court can decide on the constitutionality of laws and decrees, define the powers of the State and Regions, judge conflicts between the State and Regions and between the Regions, and try the President and Ministers.

The revival of the Fascist Party is forbidden. Direct male descendants of King Victor Emmanuel are excluded from all public offices and have no right to vote or to be elected; their estates are forfeit to the State. For 56 years they were also banned from Italian territory until the constitution was changed in 2002 to allow them to return from exile.

Italy's electoral law passed in 1948 (and in effect from 1946) allowed for a proportional representation system. It later underwent significant reforms after the passing of the so-called Matarellum law in 1993, following approval by referendum. Under these reforms, around three-quarters of Chamber and Senate seats were elected by a first-past-the-post system, the remainder by proportional representation. No party could present more than one candidate in each constituency. There were further extensive reforms in 2005 under the terms of the Porcellum law. This introduced a modified proportional representation system on the basis of party and coalition lists (as opposed to individual candidates). However, in 2013 the constitutional court declared aspects of the Porcellum law unconstitutional. A new law-the Italicum law-was passed in 2015, signalling another overhaul. Dealing with elections to the Chamber of Deputies, it provides for a proportional representation system comprising two rounds of voting based on party lists. It includes a majority-assuring mechanism, whereby the largest party receives a 'majority bonus'. The country is divided into 100 constituencies, each electing between three and nine deputies. Parties designate a list of candidates, each of whom may stand in between one and ten constituencies. In the first round, voters choose a single party's 'head of list' candidate plus up to two more named candidates from the same party. Any party passing a 3% threshold is duly assigned seats. Should any party receive over 40% of the vote, they are automatically attributed a minimum of 340 seats, granting a parliamentary majority without recourse to a second round. However, where no party reaches 40%, a second round is held two weeks later in which electors choose between the two leading parties. The winning party is granted 340 seats, with the remainder distributed on a proportional basis. Sergio Mattarella was elected president by an assembly of lawmakers and regional representatives on 31 Jan. 2015, winning 665 votes to Ferdinando Imposimato's 127 with 46 for Vittorio Feltri and 17 for Stefano Rodotà in the fourth round of voting after three earlier rounds had failed to produce a clear result.

Ceccarini, Luigi and Newell, James L. (eds.), The Italian General Election of 2018: Italy in Uncharted Territory. 2019

Italy has 73 representatives. At the May 2019 elections turnout was 54Á5% (57Á2% in 2014). The League won 28 seats with 34Á3% of the votes cast (political affiliation in European Parliament: Identity and Democracy); the Democratic Party, 19 seats with 22Á7% (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats); the Five Star Movement, 14 with 17Á1% (non-attached); Forza Italia, 6 with 8Á8% (European People's Party); Brothers of Italy, 5 with 6Á5% (European Conservatives and Reformists); South Tyrolean People's Party, 1 with 0Á5% (European People's Party). 

Mattarella was born on 23 July 1941 in Palermo, Sicily. His father was a politician who co-founded the Christian Democrats (DC). His brother, Piersanti, was a prominent member of the party and president of Sicily's regional government before being assassinated in 1980 by the Mafia.

In 1964 Mattarella graduated in law from La Sapienza University in Rome. Having taught at the University of Palermo's law faculty and joined the Palermo Bar Association in 1967, he entered frontline politics following his brother's murder. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1983 as a member of the DC, retaining his seat until 2008.

After a period as minister for parliamentary affairs, he served as minister of education from 1989-90, whereupon he was elected party vice-secretary before resigning to become editor of the party newspaper, Il Popolo. When the DC was dissolved in 1994, on the back of a wide-ranging corruption scandal, Mattarella helped found a successor party, the Italian People's Party (PPI). When the PPI fostered closer ties with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, Mattarella resigned in protest from his post on Il Popolo, although he retained his party membership.

In 1998 he became deputy prime minister in the government of Massimo D'Alema. He was minister of defence from 1999-2001, during which time conscription was abolished. He kept the defence portfolio for a further year after D'Alema was succeeded by Giuliano Amato. In 2007 he was one of the founders of the PD and in 2011 parliament ratified his appointment as a constitutional judge.

In 2015 Mattarella was nominated for the presidency by then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and endorsed by the PD. He was elected on 31 Jan. with 665 of 1,009 parliamentary and regional representative votes after four rounds of voting, overtaking the early front-runner, Ferdinando Imposimato. Mattarella is the first Sicilian to hold the largely ceremonial role. He has stated that nations must be united 'to defeat whoever wants to drag us into a new age of terror'.

In Dec. 2016, having lost a referendum on proposed controversial constitutional reforms, Renzi resigned as prime minister and Mattarella appointed Paolo Gentiloni, previously the foreign minister, as his successor.

Legislative elections in March 2018 resulted in a hung parliament, although Eurosceptic and anti-establishment parties won more than half of the overall vote. Gentiloni consequently resigned and, after weeks of party wrangling, Mattarella swore in Giuseppe Conte, a non-political lawyer, as prime minister at the head of a fragile coalition government comprising the populist left-wing Five Star Movement and the nationalist League. A political crisis then erupted in Aug-Sept. 2019 as the leader of the League withdrew his party's support for the coalition and sought an early election. Conte submitted his resignation as premier to Mattarella, who started negotiations with parliamentary groups on the formation of another government. At the end of Aug. an agreement was reached on a new coalition between the Five Star Movement and the centre-left Democratic Party, with Conte as prime minister again, and on 5 Sept. Mattarella swore the new cabinet into office.

Introduction Giuseppe Conte took office as prime minister in June 2018 following an inconclusive general election and three-months of political deadlock. A law professor from southern Italy, he had no prior political experience before his selection as a compromise candidate by the two largest parties.

Conte was born in Volturara Appula, near Foggia, on 8 Aug. 1964. He graduated in law from the Sapienza University of Rome in 1988 and during the 1990s worked as a lecturer in law at the Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta, a private Catholic University in Rome. He also worked at the University of Sassari, Sardinia, and established a law practice in Rome.

In 2013 Conte was elected as a member of the Bureau of Administrative Justice by the Chamber of Deputies, part of the lower house of the Parliament. A legal consultant to Rome's chamber of commerce, Conte also lectured in public administration law at LUISS University in Rome and Florence University.

In early 2018 Conte was approached by the leader of the antiestablishment Five Star Movement, Luigi di Maio, as a potential ministerial candidate in the event of victory in the March general election. After the inconclusive polling and three months of political wrangling, Conte emerged as a compromise prime ministerial candidate for the Five Star Movement and the election's other nominal victor, the hard-right League led by Matteo Salvini. Conte was eventually asked by President Sergio Mattarella to succeed Paolo Gentiloni as premier and form a new government. He was sworn in on 1 June 2018.

Conte's cabinet comprised an uneasy alliance of Five Star Movement and League members, alongside independent economists and financial experts. He pledged to streamline Italy's bureaucratic administration, but the coalition's programme of increased public spending while reducing taxes was ambitious given Italy's towering public debt and the troubled banking sector. In Dec. 2018 the government had to scale back budget spending plans after objections from the European Union, while economic figures indicated that Italy had slipped into recession by the end of the year. The fragile government survived two no-confidence votes in parliament in June and July 2019 but in Aug. Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League and deputy prime minister, revoked his party's support in an attempt to force an early election that he thought would bolster the League's parliamentary representation. Conte submitted his resignation as premier but President Mattarella initiated inter-party negotations on forming a new administration. At the end of the month a coalition agreement was reached between the Five Star Movement and the centre-left Democratic Party, excluding the League, with Conte retaining the premiership. The new government was sworn in on 5 Sept. and subsequently approved by both houses of parliament.

Head of the armed forces is the Defence Chief of Staff. Conscription was abolished at the end of 2004 with the military becoming all-professional from 2005. In Aug. 1998 the government voted to allow women into the armed forces.

In 2013 defence expenditure totalled US$25,229m. (US$410 per capita), representing 1Á2% of GDP (compared to the NATO target of 2%).

Strength (2011) 107,500. Equipment includes 120 Leopard, 300 Centauro and 200 Ariete tanks. There are 38,300 Army reserves.

The paramilitary Carabinieri (police force with military status) number 106,700.

The principal ships of the Navy are the aircraft carriers Giuseppe Garibaldi and Cavour, commissioned in 1985 and 2008 respectively. The combatant forces also include six diesel submarines, four destroyers and 12 frigates. The Naval Air Arm, 2,200 strong, operates 16 combat aircraft and 50 helicopters.

Main naval bases are at La Spezia, Brindisi, Taranto and Augusta. The personnel of the Navy numbered 33,000 in 2011. There were 3,800 naval reservists.

The Air Force has four Commands: air squadron; training; logistics; operations.

Air Force strength in 2011 was about 43,000. There were 247 combat aircraft in operation in 2011 including Typhoons and Tornados.

Agriculture accounted for 2% of GDP, industry 24% and services 74% in 2012.

Italy's 'shadow' (black market) economy is estimated to constitute approximately 17% of the country's official GDP.

Italy gave US$5Á9bn. in international aid in 2017, equivalent to 0Á30% of GNI (compared to the UN target of 0Á7%).

The Italian economy is among the eurozone's largest but has suffered from weak growth since the late 1990s. Its main sectors are tourism, fashion, engineering, chemical and automotive manufacturing and food production. A diversified industrial sector exists mainly in the north, driven by small-and medium-sized enterprises (many of which are family-owned) producing high-quality consumer goods. Italy has the eighth largest export economy in the world and its main trading partners in 2018 were Germany (which accounted for 12Á6% of exports), France (10Á4%) and the USA (9Á0%). Foreign direct investment (FDI) averaged 0Á7% of GDP between 2009 and 2015, ranking Italy 10th among global investors, but was nevertheless well behind other leading European countries.

From 2010 to 2018 the economy recorded average annual growth of 0Á3% as investment concerns, high unemployment and low consumption weakened productivity. The economy was smaller in 2015 than in 2000, with GDP per capita declining over that period by 16Á3%. As of 2019, real incomes were the same as in 2000. In the decade leading up to the global financial crisis in 2008, Italy lost significant market share in world trade as a result of its specialization in slow-growing sectors of world demand, comparatively weak FDI and low investment in research and development. The economy contracted by 5Á5% in 2009 as the country entered its worst recession since the Second World War. Italy struggled to emerge from the downturn and a second contraction that began in mid-2011 lasted through to 2014 when GDP increased by 0Á2%. Subsequently, 2017 saw the strongest increase since 2010 at 0Á9%, buoyed by a spike in business investment as companies took advantage of generous tax incentives. However, this figure was still below the eurozone's average of 2Á5%.

There is a stark divide between the richer, industrialized north that boasts some of the highest incomes in Europe and the less developed, welfaredependent, agricultural south (known as the Mezzogiorno). This gap was magnified by the global financial crisis and exacerbated by the growth of the shadow economy (particularly in the agricultural and construction sectors), which has been estimated to be worth around 20% of GDP annually and compounds the country's official estimates of low tax compliance. Whilst plans to improve regional integration have been announced, public investment in 2018 was below 2% of GDP, its lowest level in 25 years.

Public debt stood at 131Á1% of GDP in 2018, the third highest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with a government deficit of 2Á4% in the same year. The 2019 budget set VAT to increase from 22% to 25Á2% in 2020, introduced a 'citizen's income' of €780 per month for the poor, and temporarily lowered the retirement age to 62 years for persons who have contributed to a pension scheme over 38 years. The country has one of the most restrictive labour markets in Europe, leading to structural unemployment. The jobless rate stood at 10Á4% in 2018. Youth unemployment remains among the highest in Europe, reaching 42Á7% in 2014 (the highest level since the late 1970s) before falling to 32Á2% in 2018. Meanwhile, emigration in 2018 reached a fifty-year high of 160,000.

The banking sector suffered instability in the wake of a 2016 referendum on constitutional reform, with high levels of non-performing loans (NPLs). Since then, bank asset quality has improved with government support, but problems remain. NPLs declined from 16Á5% in 2015 to 10Á0% of all loans issued in 2018 but remained above the European Union average of 3Á6%. The economy was again disrupted in early 2020 due to the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 virus. Italy quickly became the most severely affected European country, prompting the government to impose severe restrictions on population movement and activities in an effort to contain the epidemic.

Meanwhile, with low birth rates and a rising proportion of people over 65, Italy faces one of the greatest challenges from population ageing of any country in the OECD. The ageing society, low productivity, high unemployment, weak competitiveness and a growing regional divide, are all expected to constrain Italy's medium-term growth prospects. Quota-driven immigration is a further brake on economic activity. The implementation of planned structural reform is necessary to support business expansion and attract foreign investment, which is historically low owing to complex bureaucracy and inconsistent enforcement of regulations, and to secure a durable, longterm recovery.

In the World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report, Italy was ranked 58th in the world for the ease of doing business.

On 1 Jan. 1999 the euro (EUR) became the legal currency in Italy at the irrevocable conversion rate of 1,936Á27 lire to 1 euro. The euro, which consists of 100 cents, has been in circulation since 1 Jan. 2002. On the introduction of the euro there was a 'dual circulation' period before the lira ceased to be legal tender on 28 Feb. Italy's budget deficit in 2017 was 2Á4% of GDP (2016, 2Á5%; 2015, 2Á6%). The required target set by the EU is a budget deficit of no more than 3%.

VAT was increased from 21% to 22% in Oct. 2013. There are reduced of 10%, 5% and 4%.

The public debt totalled €1,988,363m. at 31 Dec. 2012. According to the National Institute of Statistics, the real GDP growth rate was 0Á9% in 2018. However, Italy experienced a recession with the economy shrinking in both the third and fourth quarters of the year. Total GDP was US$2,073Á9bn. in 2018.

The bank of issue is the Bank of Italy (founded 1893). It is owned by publicsector banks. Its Governor (Ignazio Visco) is nominated by the government for a six-year term, renewable once. In 1991 it received increased responsibility for the supervision of banking and stock exchange affairs, and in 1993 greater independence from the government.

The number of banks has gradually been declining in recent years, from 1,176 in 1990 to 807 (32,818 branches) in 2007. Of these, 439 were mutual banks and 39 were co-operative banks. Italy's largest bank in terms of assets is UniCredit (until May 2008 known as UniCredito Italiano). In June 2005 UniCredito Italiano finalized an agreement to acquire Germany's Hypo-Vereinsbank in Europe's biggest cross-border banking takeover. In 2006 it had Italian assets of €282bn. (€752bn. including assets from its German and Eastern European operations). In Aug. 2006 Italy's second and third largest banks, Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI, agreed to merge. The merger was approved in Dec. 2006, creating the largest Italian bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, with assets of €541bn.

The 'Amato' law of July 1990 gave public sector banks the right to become joint stock companies and permitted the placing of up to 49% of their equity with private shareholders. In 1999 the last state-controlled bank was sold off.

On 31 Legislation reforming stock markets came into effect in Dec. 1990 . In 1996 local stock exchanges, relics of pre-unification Italy, were closed, and stock exchange activities concentrated in Milan.

In 2011, 11Á5% of energy consumption came from renewables (wind power, solar power, hydro-electric power, tidal power, geothermal energy and biomass), compared to the European Union average of 13Á0%. A target of 17% has been set by the EU for 2020.

Italy's carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption of energy in 2011 were the equivalent of 6Á7 tonnes per capita.

In 2011 installed capacity was 118,443 MW and the total power generated was 301Á8bn. kWh (75Á5% thermal and 15Á8% hydro-electric). Consumption per capita was 5,733 kWh in 2011. Italy has four nuclear reactors in permanent shutdown, the last having closed in 1990. Plans to build a series of new reactors were proposed in 2008, but were subsequently abandoned following a referendum in 2011 in which 94% of votes cast were against the construction of new nuclear plants.

Oil production, 2012, 5Á4m. tonnes. Proven oil reserves in 2012 were 1Á4bn. bbls. In 2012 natural gas production was 7Á8bn. cu. metres with proven reserves of 100bn. cu. metres.

Output in 2013 included: sand and gravel, 102Á4m. tonnes; crushed and broken stone, 63Á8m. tonnes; limestone for lime and cement, 24Á7m. tonnes; silica sand, 13Á9m. tonnes; feldspar (estimate), 4Á7m. tonnes; pozzolan (estimate), 4Á0m.; salt, 2Á9m. tonnes. Italy is the world's second largest producer of feldspar, after Turkey.

In 2012, 833,400 persons were employed in agriculture, of whom 242,100 were female. The agricultural area totalled 13,630,000 ha. in 2013. Italy had 6,827,000 ha. of arable land in 2013 and 2,260,000 ha. of permanent crops. There were 1,621,000 agricultural holdings in 2010, down from 2,154,000 in 2000. In 2012 organic crops were grown in an area covering 1Á17m. ha., representing 8Á6% of all agricultural land.

Food and live animals accounted for 5Á7% of exports and 7Á1% of imports in 2010.

Output of principal crops (in 1,000 tonnes) in 2013: grapes, 8,010; maize, 7,900; wheat, 7,312; tomatoes, 5,321; olives, 2,941; apples, 2,217; sugar beets, 2,159; oranges, 1,701; rice, 1,433; peaches and nectarines, 1,402; potatoes, 1,272; barley, 876. Wine production in 2010 totalled 48,525,000 hectolitres (18Á4% of the world total) making Italy the world's largest wine producer. Wine consumption has declined considerably in recent times, from more than 110 litres per person in 1966 to 50Á1 litres per person in 2008. Livestock, 2013: pigs, 8,561,683; sheep, 7,181,828; cattle, 5,846,672; goats, 975,858; buffaloes, 402,659; horses, 393,915 ; chickens (estimate), 136m. Livestock products, 2013 (in 1,000 tonnes): cow's milk, 10,398; sheep's milk, 384; buffalo's milk, 195; pork and pork products, 1,652; poultry meat, 1,215; beef and veal, 842; cheese (estimate), 1,243; butter, 98; eggs, 710.

In 2015 forests covered 9Á30m. ha. or 32% of the total land area. Timber production was 7Á74m. cu. metres in 2011.

In 2012 the fishing fleet comprised 12,783 vessels of 165,619 GT. The catch in 2015 was 196,988 tonnes, of which more than 98% were from marine waters. Imports of fishery commodities were valued at US$6,211m. in 2012 and exports at US$775m.

The leading companies by market capitalization in Italy in May 2018 were: Eni, an integrated oil and gas company (US$70Á7bn.); Intesa Sanpaolo, a banking group (US$63Á1bn.); and Enel, an electricity and gas company (US$61Á6bn.).

In 2007 industry accounted for 28% of GDP, with manufacturing contributing 18%.

Industrial products (in tonnes): cement (2008) 

The labour force in 2013 was 25,474,000 (24,007,000 in 2003) . 63Á9% of the population aged 15-64 was economically active in 2013. Of those in employment in 2013, 69Á4% worked in services, 27Á2% in industry and 3Á4% in agriculture. In that year 41Á8% of the labour force was female. 47Á1% of the labour force had a secondary education as the highest level and 18Á8% had a tertiary education. Unemployment stood at 10Á0% in 2019 (down from 10Á6% in 2018). Long-term unemployment is particularly high, with 48Á5% of the labour force in 2010 having been out of work for more than a year. In 2014 the pensionable retirement age was 62 years and 3 months for women employed in the private sector and 66 years and 3 months for men and for women in the public sector. The pensionable retirement age is gradually increasing and in 2018 was 66 years and 7 months for both men and women. This was set to increase to 67 for both sexes from 1 Jan. 2019. However, the new government that took office in June 2018 is aiming to reverse proposed increases in the retirement age.

Italy had 8,000 people living in slavery according to the Walk Free Foundation's 2013 Global Slavery Index.

The following 

In May 1999 Olivetti bought a controlling stake in the telephone operator Telecom Italia, and in July 2001 Pirelli, backed by the Benetton clothing empire, in turn paid €7bn. (US$6Á1bn.) to take over control of Telecom Italia. In 2014 mobile phone subscriptions numbered 94,200,000, equivalent to 1,542Á5 per 1,000 persons. TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) is the largest operator, with a 34% share of the market, just ahead of Vodafone Italia, which has a 33% share. There were 20,570,000 main (fixed) telephone lines in 2014. 62Á0% of the population were internet users in 2014. There were 235Á3 fixed broadband subscriptions per 1,000 inhabitants in 2014. In March 2012 there were 20Á9m. Facebook users.

Out of 178 countries analysed in the 2017 Fragile States Index-a list published jointly by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine-Italy was ranked the 37th least vulnerable to conflict or collapse. The index is based on 12 indicators of state vulnerability across social, political and economic categories.

Italy has one court of cassation, in Rome, and is divided for the administration of justice into 29 appeal court districts, subdivided into 164 tribunal circondari (districts). There are also 93 first degree assize courts and 29 assize courts of appeal. For civil business, besides the magistracy above mentioned, Giudici di pace have jurisdiction in petty plaints. 2,818,834 crimes were reported in 2012. In Aug. 2013 there were 64,835 persons in prison (including persons imprisoned by San Marino). In 1947 the re-established democracy rewrote the Legislative Order; the constitution of the Italian Republic abolished the death penalty sanctioned in 1930 by Codice Penale, commonly known as Codice Rocco. Although the death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes in 1947, it was not until 1994 that it was abolished for all crimes.

Italy was ranked 25th of 102 countries for criminal justice and 36th for civil justice in the 2015 World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, which provides data on how the rule of law is experienced by the general public across eight categories.

Five years of primary and five years of secondary education are compulsory from the age of six. In 2005-06 there were 24,845 pre-school institutions with 1,662,139 children and 140,687 teachers (state and non-state schools); 18,218 primary schools with 2,790,254 pupils and 293,091 teachers (state and non-state schools); 7,886 compulsory secondary schools (scuole secondarie primo grado) with 1,764,230 pupils and 211,093 teachers (state and non-state schools); and 6,565 higher secondary schools with 2,691,713 pupils and 305,383 teachers (state and non-state schools).

Higher secondary education is subdivided into classical (ginnasio and classical liceo), scientific (scientific liceo), language lyceum, professional institutes and technical education: agricultural, industrial, commercial, technical, nautical institutes, institutes for surveyors, institutes for girls (five-year course) and teacher-training institutes (five-year course).

In 2005-06 there were 98 universities (79 state and 19 non-state), of which two are universities of Italian studies for foreigners, three specialized universities (commerce; education; Roman Catholic), three polytechnical university institutes; seven specialized university institutes (architecture; bio-medicine; modern languages; naval studies; oriental studies; social studies; teacher training). In 2005-06 there were 1,823,886 university students and 61,097 academic staff. Europe's first university was founded in 1088 in Bologna.

Estimated adult literacy rate, 2009, 98Á9% (male 99Á2%; female 98Á6%).

In 2008 public expenditure on education came to 4Á6% of GDP and 9Á4% of total government spending.

In 2013 there were 199,474 hospital beds (331Á2 per 100,000 population). There were 165,384 curative care beds in 2013, 24,506 rehabilitative care beds and 9,584 long-term care beds. There were 246,834 physicians, 28,566 dentists and 59,580 pharmacists in 2008; and 379,213 nursing and midwifery personnel in 2009. In 2009 Italy spent 9Á5% of its GDP on health.

Welfare Social expenditure is made up of transfers which the central public departments, local departments and social security departments make to families. Payment is principally for pensions, family allowances and health services. Expenditure on subsidies, public assistance to various classes of people and people injured by political events or national disasters are also included.

In 2014 the minimum retirement age was 66 years and 3 months for men and for women in the public sector and 62 years and 3 months for women employed in the private sector. Since then it has risen gradually to 66 years and 7 months in 2018. In order to receive this 'old-age pension', social security contributions must have been made for at least 20 years (five years if the claimant is aged 70 or older). The age restriction does not apply in the case of men who started making contributions before 1 Jan. 1996 with 42 years and 10 months of pension contributions, and women with 41 years and 10 months. Pensions accounted for 15Á4% of GDP in 2009.

Public pensions are indexed to prices; 23,257,480 pensions were paid in 2005, with payments totalling €214,881Á3m. (including 16,875,341 private sector, with payments totalling €152,483Á5m.). The average annual pension in 2005 was €9,239. Social contributions in 2005 totalled €184,642m.

The treaty between the Holy See and Italy of 11 Feb. 1929, confirmed by article 7 of the Constitution of the republic, lays down that the Catholic Apostolic Roman Religion is the only religion of the State. Other creeds are

they do not profess principles, or follow rites, contrary to public order or moral behaviour. The appointment of archbishops and of bishops is made by the Holy See

of the person to be appointed in order to obtain an assurance that the latter will not raise objections of a political nature

World Heritage Sites There are 55 UNESCO sites in Italy (the most of any country): the Rock Drawings in Valcamonica near Brescia

Santa Maria delle Grazie with 'The Last Supper' by

Vicenza, the City of Palladio and the Villas of the Veneto

Early Christian Monuments and Mosaics of Ravenna

Historic Centre of the City of Pienza (1996); the 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli and the San Leucio Complex

Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park

Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia

the City of Verona

part of the agricultural hinterland of Siena; the Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia

Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica

featuring the Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli

AD, comprising seven groups of important buildings throughout the country

Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato

Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalú and Monreale

The Venetian Works of Defence between the 16th and 17th Centuries: Stato da Terra-Western Stato da Mar (2017) are shared with Croatia and Montenegro. Press In 2011 there were 97 paid-for dailies with a combined circulation of 4Á3m. copies and ten free dailies with a combined circulation of 1Á7m. copies. Several of the papers are owned or supported by political parties. The church and various economic groups exert strong right of centre influence on editorial opinion. Most newspapers are regional but Corriere della Sera (which has the highest circulation of any Italian newspaper), La Repubblica, Il Sole 24 Ore, La Gazzetta and La Stampa are the most important of those papers that are nationally circulated

Of the United Kingdom in Italy (Via XX Settembre 80/a, 00187 Rome) Ambassador: Jill Morris

Of Italy in the USA (3000 Whitehaven St

Of the USA in Italy (Via Vittorio Veneto 119/a, 00187 Rome) Ambassador: Lewis M

Of Italy to the United Nations Ambassador: Maria Angela Zappia

Of Italy to the European Union Permanent Representative: Maurizio Massari

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Italian Revolution: the Ignominious End of Politics, Italian Style

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National Statistical Office: Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT), 16 Via Cesare Balbo, 00184 Rome. President: Gian Carlo Blangiardo