Italy

I

Transportation

The country’s chief seaports include Genoa, Trieste, Taranto, and Venice. Italy is served by 16,751 km (10,409 mi) of operated railroad track, much of which is electrified. The government operates most of the rail lines. The country has about 479,688 km (about 298,064 mi) of roads, including some 7,000 km (some 4,300 mi) of limited-access highways (autostrada). One of the longest automobile tunnels in the world, the Mont Blanc Tunnel, links Italy and France. The two countries also are linked via the Mount Frejus vehicular tunnel. Alitalia, the state airline, provides both domestic and international service. The country’s busiest airport is near Rome; the largest international airport is Malpensa Airport near Milan.

J

Communications

After the abolition in 1976 of the Italian government’s monopoly on broadcasting, the number of stations in the country increased. However, by the early 2000s the government broadcaster RAI and Mediaset, the company created by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, owned most of the country’s television stations. While the number of daily newspapers remains small relative to Italy’s population, total circulation was 6 million in 1996, or 104 copies for every 1,000 residents. Local and regional publications, including those produced by political parties and by the Roman Catholic church, have been an important part of Italy’s communications network. Influential dailies include Corriere della Sera and Il Giorno, in Milan; La Repubblica, in Rome; and La Stampa, in Turin. In 1997 Italy had 880 radios and 499 televisions for every 1,000 people.

K

Labor

Italy’s labor force in 2005 was 24 million; some 40 percent were women. Millions of workers belong to one of three major trade union federations: the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, or CGIL, formerly associated with the Communist Party and now with the Democratic Party of the Left; the centrist Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, or CISL; and the Unione Italiana del Lavoro, or UIL, associated with the socialists. Labor union contracts set wages and salaries in every major field.

L

The Mafia

A loosely affiliated network of criminal groups that first developed in Sicily during the late Middle Ages, the Mafia has historically been one of the most powerful economic and social forces in Italy. By the late 19th century, the Mafia, known for its familial structure, ruthless violence, and strong code of silence (omertà), controlled the Sicilian countryside, infiltrating or manipulating local authorities, extorting money, and terrorizing citizens. During the 20th century, except for a period of repression by Benito Mussolini from the 1920s until the end of World War II in 1945, the Mafia continued to expand its influence over both legal and illegal operations in Italy, especially in the south. The Mafia’s influence was exported to other countries by emigrants, and by the 1970s the Mafia controlled a large part of the world’s heroin trade. Renewed government prosecution of Mafia figures and activities beginning in the mid-1980s, and a series of political scandals linking many Italian politicians with the Mafia, gave rise to hopes that Mafia influence in Italy would eventually decline.

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V

Government of Italy

Italy has been a democratic republic since June 2, 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by popular referendum. It has a parliamentary system of government with many political parties, none of which commands a majority of popular votes. Italian society remains strongly divided politically, and Italian governments have often been weak and ineffective. Although Italy’s tumultuous politics have produced more than 50 different governments since the advent of the democratic system, order is maintained through a well-established bureaucracy that supports the elected offices.

Italy is governed by a constitution that came into effect on January 1, 1948. By the terms of the constitution, the reestablishment of the Fascist Party (see Fascism) is prohibited; direct male heirs of the house of Savoy (see Savoy, House of) are ineligible to vote or hold any public office; and recognition is no longer accorded to titles of nobility, although titles in existence prior to October 28, 1922, may be used as part of the bearer’s name.