Italy: The Soloists

"The Italian way of life," Luigi Barzini argued in The Italians, "makes laws and institutions function defectively. The unsolved problems pile up and inevitably produce catastrophes at regular intervals." Last week, with a mountainous heap of unsolved problems plaguing the nation, Italy's national government was running one step ahead of catastrophe. After seven unsettling weeks of government by caretaker, Christian Democrat Mariano Rumor finally put together a coalition Cabinet that was acceptable to the same grouping of center and left-wing parties that has ruled Italy, after a fashion, for the past...

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