You chose: scandals

  • Op-Eds

    Battling Corruption and its Costs

    Judith Harris(February 27, 2015)
    Forty-one years ago Indro Montanelli, that late lamented grand guru of Italian journalism, opined sardonically that what Italy needed was a “Ministry of Scandals” to regulate the “atavic” Italian sin of corruption. With the past six years of a severely weakened economy, corruption has grown, but also brought the problem into the open as rarely before.
  • Op-Eds

    Food for Thought: Not All Popes Resign for the Same Reasons

    Ottorino Cappelli(February 12, 2013)
    In an interview with Professor Stanislao Pugliese we review an illustrious precedent to Pope Ratzinger’s resignantion—that of Celestine V, who resigned in 1294. Scorned as a “coward” by Dante Alighieri who actually accused him to have paved the way to the appointment of the infamously corrupt Boniface VIII, Celestine was rehabilitated by the renowned Italian writer Ignazio Silone in a famous novel published in 1968. To offer our readers some food for thought and help put today’s events in the Vatican in a broader perspective, Silone’s biographer prof. Pugliese tells us the story of Celestine V as reinterpreted by a great Italian writer whose motto was “Conscience is above obedience.”
  • Facts & Stories

    PD Primaries: A Vote for Democracy

    Judith Harris(November 26, 2012)
    Over 3.1 million turned out to vote, with many waiting hours in line. Some of the 9,232 improvised polling stations, all staffed by volunteers, remained open into the late evening to allow as many as possible to vote. It was, in the end, a vote for democracy itself, and not only PD party leaders and activists rejoiced at this.
  • Facts & Stories

    Mr. Berlusconi: Ganging up, but who cares?

    Judith Harris(January 23, 2011)
    Despite the crescendo of scandal worthy of an 18th century Turkish sultan, Mr. Berlusconi remains the most charismatic and popular politician in Italy. ... True democracy, he believes, comes unmediated, and straight from the people. It is revealed by public opinion polls, piazza demonstrations and, if need be, via a new election, the last recourse. Meanwhile Berlusconi's political staff are looking to the U.S. Tea Party for fresh ideas about recruiting, organization and themes.