The origins of corruption in Italy.

The origins of corruption in Italy.
 Taxes, discrimination between rich and poor and the hunt for the withdrawal of resources from the less well-off mass produced the alternation in power in the history of Italian politics of the right and left without it ever reached the optimum. I mean that corruption has always been there right from'' 800, and certainly we can not say that it has a political color. In the past political history have made many mistakes, too coarse if you like, but at the time the Right and the Left historic believed in the project and you can even make a list of positive reforms for the country that have been completed by the two political parties with a capital letter. The Ministries of Historical Right (1847 Massimo D'Azeglio) from the first government Cavour (1852) to the Government of Marco Minghetti 1876 ensued important results, the first of the unification of Italy, completed in 1861 and completed in 1870 with the breach of Porta Pia and the capture of Rome. In education the Casati law is a product of the Right: reformed in a comprehensive way the whole educational system, by joint orders and degrees and to teaching subjects, confirming the will of the State to take charge of right and duty to intervene in the school curriculum alongside and in place of the Catholic Church, which for centuries had a monopoly of education.
The thirst to do more and to excel compared to other European countries brought the Right to overlook the basic needs of the poor. The climax was reached when the driver was the weak link Minghetti, when the tax was introduced on the ground. So you pulled the rope too demanding sacrifices to the poor who were unable to support.
This discontent was an expression of the strong voice of opposition on the left. To balance the books the Right also imposed a heavy fiscalism, in order to finance public works that the country needed to compete with other European powers. On March 16, 1876, the Chairman of the Board, Marco Minghetti, announced a balanced budget. The national wealth increased in two tranches between 1860 and 1880.
In the first phase through increased direct taxes, which concerned the incomes of agricultural origin, in the second phase than with indirect taxes, affecting mostly the lower classes. In 1868 was introduced the tax on flour (to be precise, the milling of cereals) thereby triggering protests with attacks on mills, destruction of the counters, invasions of municipalities. At the end of this peasant revolt were counted many arrested, injured and dead.
Not to mention, del'introduzione of compulsory military service. When it came to power the old Left, however, who confided in a radical change was disappointed. Parliament deposed the Right and the King Vittorio Emanuele II entrusted the government to Depretis was chairman of the board from 1876 to 1887, with two short breaks.
The change that the advent of the Left to power was to be expected within the policy of the Italian State in fact did not happen.
Depretis introduced a new parliamentary practice known as "transformation" in which the government participated from time to time also members of other political parties, in short, the primordial copy of the broad understandings modern. Thus fell the rigid barriers that had hitherto opposed the Historical Right and the Left, and it was to create a political system open to participation by all members of the Italian ruling class, even the petty and middle bourgeoisie.
But the phenomenon of corruption had already taken root and Depretis, not extremist as it Furino Agostino Bertani and Cavallotti, introduced the practice of favoritism and granting local authorities in several individual recipients who were so convinced (sometimes with corruption) to join the majority. Through this practice is brought to completion the coalition between the bourgeoisie of northern Italy and the agrarian bourgeoisie of the South.
Substantially with the shift from Right to Left that there was no substantial change that people were expecting.
A photo finish similar to the present day which sees the people tired because there is no deep desire for radical change that would eliminate the malevolent and fat that word is "corruption" and that continues to be in the limelight since the birth of Italian political history today. A story that we want to follow in order to analyze the flaws, the positive interventions and systematic ricascate leading figures such as cricket in vogue and squares full of shrieks and screams of exhausted people to keep pest in power.
Returning to Depretis, with whose figure we close this first historical reflection, criticism was also the new electoral law of 1882 that led to two million voters. Not against the have-nots and the illiterate. Therefore, a reform that retained the marginalization of southern masses that continued to be excluded from political rights. The second law of relief was the Coppino Law of 1877 which made it compulsory and free education for two more years than the previous Casati law which provided for only two. This law, however, remained ineffective, especially in the poorest regions. In 1879 the government abolished the hated tax on the ground that it had been, as we know, a source of discontent and revolt in the southern populations; but, not having changed the system of taxation of the state, the abolition of this tax does not eased the living conditions of the poor.
During the political management of Depretis economic policy of the state reached a turning point; in fact began the intervention in defense of national industries through the application of customs and tariffs on foreign goods and with state subsidies to some domestic industries. The Left took historic steps in the administrative field, where it was provided to a decentralization of power and social, with the introduction of the first measures to protect workers. They were also initiated a number of investigations to examine the living conditions of the rural population: the best known is certainly the Jacini investigation, which revealed widespread malnutrition (pellagra), high infant mortality (diphtheria), extreme poverty and poor sanitation . Widespread was the phenomenon of emigration.
We will see later, however, the errors of "protectionism".