Italy after the fall of the monarchy ('''1946'''), until the present day. [[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Italia_Repubblica_6861.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:The happy face of democracy.]]

!!'''Prologue'''

At the end of WW2, Italy was in ruins: factories were destroyed, roads, railways
were unusable and millions of people were left without a home; the last years of war saw Italians
from both sides, Fascists and members of the [[LaResistance Italian Resistance]], fighting each other. There was also bitter resentment against the King and the Monarchy, fueled by Vittorio Emanuele III's escape from Rome during the German occupation of Italy; the Communist party gained consensus and another civil war seemed inevitable.

The King - hoping to restore the Royal Family's reputation - abdicated in favour his eldest son, prince Umberto, who was crowned on '''9 May 1946''' as '''Umberto II ''' and remained King of Italy for just over a month - which is why he was called ''il Re di Maggio'' ("the King of May"). During his incredibly short reign, he had to defuse the various sources of tension within the country which could could have led to another unnecessary bloodbath; at that time, some Sicilian factions were pushing for independence (thus threating the unity and the stability of the whole nation), while the Yugoslavians wanted to annex much of North-Eastern Italy. However, he - showing the good sense his father lacked - promptly granted Sicily fiscal and political autonomy, making the indepentists campaigners run out of steam; sent fresh troops to the border and called for a referendum which would hopefully strengthen his position.

!! '''The Referendum'''

On June 2, 1946, the first free referendum since 1921 took place and that was also the first time Italian women were allowed to vote. Electoral results showed a nation almost split in two, with Northern Italians voting ''en masse'' for the Republic while Central and Southern Italians were willing to keep the Monarchy; there were also widespread accusations that the anti-monarchists rigged the result, but Italy eventually became a Republic.

'''Enrico de Nicola''' was elected '''first President''' of Italy, while the new '''Constitution''' was promulgated on 22 December, 1947, and came into force the next year; all the male members of the House of Savoy (including the now-ex King) were banished from Italy and exiled to Portugal (for your information, the ban was eventually lifted in 2002).

!! '''The Peace Treaty of 1947'''

Italy had already signed an Armistice with the Allies in 1943, which would later lay the foundation for the Peace Treaty. In brief - Italy was, by virtue of the Treaty, forced to disband a good part of its Navy; the country was not allowed to deploy the Army (which was reduced in size) outside its borders; minorities had their status recognised; Italy had to pay hefty economic reparations and lost all its overseas possessions and part of its North-Eastern territory, as following:

* '''Libya''' became independent in 1951;
* '''Italian Somalia''' was merged with British Somaliland and was granted independence in 1960;
* '''Ethiopia''' had already been liberated by the British in 1942;
* '''Eritrea''' was federated with Ethiopia;
* The '''Dodecanese''' was ceded to Greece;
* The regions of '''Istria''' and '''Dalmatia''' were ceded to Yugoslavia;
* The city of '''Trieste''' was declared "free territory".

!''' The First Republic: Italy from 1947 to 1992'''

Eventually, the Cold War partly loosened some of the treaty's provisions and Italy greatly benefited from the '''European Recovery Program''' (better known as the Marshall Plan); between 1948 and 1951 over 1.204.000 $ were spent in food aids, factories and other important public works. For the following 30 years, the country would be dominated by the centre-right, Vatican-and-US-backed '''Christian Democracy''' (with the Communist Party being the largest opposition party), which led to Italy's entry into the '''NATO''' in '''1949'''; and from the late 40s to TheFifties, Italy experienced the first signs of economic growth.

In '''1954''', the city of Trieste - after a series of lenghty negotiations involving the United States, Britain and Yugoslavia - was finally '''reunited''' with Italy; '''television''' was introduced and the national broadcasting company, ''RAI'', created.

However - Italy had all the stability of a BananaRepublic, the premiership changed hands more than 40 times in 50 years and endured short-lived governments (average shelf life: around 11 months; shortest: ''21 days''[[hottip:*:That'd be Amintore Fanfani's first government, between 18 January and 10 February 1954 - it lost a vote of confidence]]). The main reason for this was that the important parties ended up playing a game of dividing important posts in government and important state conglomerates between themselves on purely strategic considerations as opposed to, say, competence (a practice called, for the cabinet, ''Manuale Cencelli'' from a popular guest manual of the 50s; state conglomerates were subject to ''lottizzazione'', that is, were split between parties).

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Italy#Presidents_of_the_Council_of_Ministers_of_the_Italian_Republic_.281946.E2.80.93Present.29 The Other Wiki's list of PMs illustrates this game of musical chairs rather well]], and Italian politicians were generally engaging in StrawmanPolitical-level '''corruption''' and '''nepotism''': the constant reshuffles were meant to preserve the BalanceOfPower and accomodate their "clients" and, above all, the United States. The prevalence of nepotism and corruption [[{{Understatement}} did not bring any positive contributions to Italy's reputation]], and within the country itself it fostered a climate of isolation between the political élite and Italian citizens, whose increasing dissatisfaction and revulsion with the system fueled widespread political apathy. One of the arguable side effects of the corrupt establishment was that the '''Italian Communist Party''' (PCI) became the '''most popular''' Communist party in Europe, earning a reputation for being {{Reasonable Authority Figure}}s and competent administrators at the regional level. However, the PCI were never "allowed" to seriously challenge the system and be more than the opposition since the ColdWar was on (the USA famously poured what we could call [[{{Understatement}} "a lot"]] of funds into aiding the dominant Christian Democracy during the 1947 parliamentary elections), leading to a system some analysts have called "imperfect bipoliarism" since it didn't really allow for a proper variation in office between different parties. The resulting lack of accountability served to entrench further the corrupt, self-serving political system that the country became infamous for in the period.

!!'''The "Economic Miracle"'''

On '''25 March 1957''' Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and West Germany signed the '''Treaty of Rome''',
which established the ''European Economic Community'' - the ancestor of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion.

From the late 50s to the mid-60s, Italy enjoyed a period of unprecedented '''economic growth''' and '''prosperity''', despite surreally widespread levels of corruption and state inefficiency - the so-called ''Italian Miracle''. Industrial production skyrocketed; new highways, dams, power plants, schools and hospitals were built; Italian films and pop music became well known. Italian '''brands''', too, became fashionable: Olivetti, FIAT, Piaggio, Ferrari, Lancia, Alfa Romeo... not to mention the several designer clothes and furniture that were exported all over the world. The factories of Northern Italy experienced a dramatic shortage of manpower and millions of workers from Southern Italy emigrated there in search of a better life, unemployment was virtually non-existent and Italy seemed prosperous as never before.

But, would the happy days last long? The answer is NO.

!!'''1968 and the "Years of Lead"'''

In '''1968''' all came to an end. In that year, the student were rioting in every major Italian city and the so-called ''Autunno caldo'' ("Hot Autumn", a series of massive strikes), took place. As if that wasn't enough, a long period of tension and terrorism dubbed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_lead_(Italy) "The Years of Lead"]] broke out after the '''bombing of piazza Fontana''', in Milan ('''1969'''), and culminated with the kidnapping and ''''murder''' of the Italian PM Aldo Moro ('''1978''') at the hands of a communist terrorist organisation known as the ''Brigate Rosse'' ("Red Brigades"). The assassination ended the "historic compromise", though the PCI, led by Enrico Berlinguer, condemned the Red Brigades and adopted a policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorist groups (the "Front of Firmness").

Meanwhile, trade unions became increasingly stronger and the Communist Party's popularity further increased when, under Berlinguer, they broke off from the Soviet Union and criticised its invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan and the crackdown on Solidarity in Poland, accepting Italy's membership of NATO and moving towards a Eurocommunist stance. In '''1975''', tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia were defused by the '''Treaty of Osimo''', which officially recognised the borders between the two countries: the treaty, however, caused an uproar within the Italian public opinion who considered the (Italian) signatories as traitors.

Between '''1974''' and '''1978''' two important '''referendums''' were held - one on divorce and another on abortion - and despite the pressure from the Catholic Church, Italian voters chose to retain these two rights.

All in all, the Cold War-era '''strategy of tension''' with its assorted intrigues (Operation Gladio and the Propaganda Due lodge) and links to the "years of lead", the government's failure to alleviate the North-South divide (most of the money sank thanks to corruption, and incompetent planning led to factories being plonked down in less than optimal places), a string of governments so incompetent or irresponsible with economics that Italy ran a gigantic budget deficit all throughout the Cold War accumulating an enormous amount of public debt and the power of the Mafia in Southern Italy, just for starters, made the First Republic looking like a very resilient CrapsaccharineWorld, where Italians enjoyed a high standard of living despite all the aforementioned pervasive problems. The collapsing value of the [[RidiculousExchangeRates lira]] as far back as 1957 led the government to pass various laws mandating the indexation of wages to inflation, which was extended in 1975 to create the "moving staircase" system whereby workers received an additional flat fee to automatically compensate them for three months' of price increases and quarterly wage revisions, making wages rise faster than prices. Combined with Italy's extremely generous welfare provisions, this meant that Italian workers were among the best paid, most protected, and best treated in Europe; the costliness of this system and state inefficiency later forced Italy to adopt harsh austerity measures to cope with the resulting rise in public debt.

!'''Have you washed your hands? Italy from 1992 to 2013: the Second Republic'''

After the Cold War ended (and thus the United States' interest in keeping left-wingers out of power vanished), the nepotism- and corruption-laden political system, dubbed "Tangentopoli" (Italian for "Bribeville") was exposed by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_pulite ''Clean Hands'']] investigations of '''1992'''. These involved a big part of the Senate and House and caused the [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp collapse of the old dominant parties ]](except the Communists; they changed their name to the Democratic Party of the Left for other reasons - chiefly the fact that "Communism" [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp had become passé)]], the emergence of new parties in their stead, the adoption of a mixed member proportional representation electoral system, and generally had such a large impact that the period afterwards is called the "Second Republic".

TheMafia was also very active during this period, routinely threating the safety of the country. When magistrates began a maxi-investigation that led to over 400 convictions in 1987, the (Sicilian) Mafia was certainly not happy about it; between 1992 and 1993 a series of bombings shook the country and the [[HeroicSacrifice murder of two Sicilian magistrates, Giacomo Falcone and Paolo Borsellino]], prompted the Italian authorities to actively fight the Mafia, often with very good results.

In '''1994''', the TV magnate '''Silvio Berlusconi''' (richest man in Italy and proud owner of three national TV channels as well as the AC Milan football club) became PM for the first time. His government, predictably, only lasted nine months and was succeeded by the technocratic '''Lamberto Dini''' (for fifteen months) and then by left-winger '''Romano Prodi''' in 1996, who adopted fiscal policies that successfully allowed [[DealWithTheDevil Italy join the Euro]] in 1999. He wasn't actually in office when this happened though, as he was [[TheStarscream starscreamed]] by his [[WeAREStrugglingTogether five-party coalition government]] when the Communist Refoundation Party withdrew support, and was replaced by '''[=Massimo D'Alema=]''' in 1998, who became the first former Communist to be the Prime Minister of a NATO country and was, [[HereWeGoAgain in turn]], thrown out in 2000 in favour of former Prime Minister '''Giuliano Amato''', a LongRunner who had previously been Prime Minister in 1992-1993 during the Clean Hands investigations (Moral of the story? There's a direct correlation in Italian politics between the number of parties involved in a coalition and the length of a Prime Minister's term).

Berlusconi was reelected in 2001 along with another party (the separatist '''Northern League''') and became the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister by making it through a five-year term without being backstabbed by his coalition, but was defeated fairly narrowly in the 2006 elections and replaced, again, by Romano Prodi. Prodi proceeded to ignore the abovementioned moral and form an ''eight''-party coalition government, which predictably imploded quickly. In 2008, Berlusconi became Prime Minister again despite numerous controversies and gaffes, which leads one to wonder why (and how the hell) it happened; In 2011 he referred to Italy as "this shitty country" and people were not happy (even moreso than usual). He [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing resigned on November 14, 2011]] in favour of independent '''Mario Monti''', who chaired a transitional government tasked with implementing urgently-needed reforms to stave off a debt crisis. Then, he announced that he would run in the new elections after Monti's government '''collapsed''' due to a vote of no confidence on '''December 21, 2012'''. Despite the short-lived governments and Monti's footnote to history, the Second Republic was characterised by an alternance at power of the two main parties (Berlusconi's "Forza Italia" - which was later renamed the "People of Liberty" - and the various left-wing coalitions, which were merged in 2008 into the (Italian) "Democratic Party"), making it automatically an improvement over the First Republic.

!!'''A Third Republic?'''

The elections of 2013 ended with a clusterfuck, as the centre-left coalition won a majority of seats in the Chamber of Deputies but nobody won an outright majority in the Senate, making the formation of a government nearly impossible; the '''Five Star Movement''' asserted itself while the two traditional parties ('''PD''' and '''PDL''') lost thousands of votes; the Northern League nearly collapsed after a series of scandals involving [[NoodleImplements its founder, his son and a fake PhD]].

The current Prime Minister is '''Enrico Letta''', who's been appointed on '''April 27, 2013'''. The current President is '''Giorgio Napolitano''', who was elected for a seven-year term in 2006 and had initially planned to retire once it was finished, but after the clusterfuck election meant that the Parliament failed to vote in a new President, Napolitano offered himself as a candidate again and was reelected overwhelmingly.

Modern Italy can seem quite odd; a land of contrasts. Besides the obvious North-South division, there is also the lack of competitiveness (high wages, an aging workforce, high unemployment) coupled with the fame and high value of their brands (Gucci, Ferrari, Prada, etc). Much of this has to do with patterns of uneven development (the North-South divide again), a lack of resources needed for industrialization (outside of hydroelectricity in Central and Northern Italy) and lack of firm direction from the central government.
As a result of this, Italy's economy is, in many ways, an economy of regions. In some sectors, Italy is at or near the forefront, such as tourism, wine (Piedmont, Lazio and the Chianti region), motor industry (Turin, Milan), steel industry (Taranto), shipbuilding (Genoa, Chioggia and Monfalcone), design (Milan), film industry (Rome hosts the ''Cinecittà'' studios), services such as banking (Rome and Milan again) and textiles, particularly luxury textiles (Lombardy, which includes Milan... again). In other fields, the combined effect of high labor costs, government corruption, archaic regulations, constantly striking unions, lack of central government investment, and (controversially) an overvalued Euro, Italy is not particularly dynamic.
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!!Modern Italy in fiction

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''
* ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' (the modern-day strips)

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''Film/TheItalianJob1969''
* ''TheItalianJob2003''
* Woody Allen's ''ToRomeWithLove''
* ''Under The Tuscan Sun''
* ''[[OceansEleven Ocean's Twelve]]''
* Ron Howard's ''AngelsAndDemons''
* ''RomanHoliday''
* ''BicycleThieves''
* ''LaDolceVita''
* ''Film/EightAndAHalf''
* ''Film/MissionImpossible III''
* ''EatPrayLove''
* ''IVitelloni''
* ''Film/{{Jumper}}''
* ''HudsonHawk''
* ''Twenty Million Miles to Earth''
* ''The Core''
* ''EuroTrip''
* ''TheGodfather Part III''
* ''CasinoRoyale''
* ''QuantumOfSolace''
* ''ForYourEyesOnly''
* ''FromRussiaWithLove''
* ''TheSpyWhoLovedMe''
* ''TheBourneIdentity''
* ''TheBourneSupremacy''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV ]]

* ''Series/{{Zen}}''
* ''Series/{{Boris}}''
* ''Inspector Montalbano''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Elizabeth Gilbert's ''EatPrayLove''
* ''Literature/DonCamillo''
* ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons''

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