Italian Politics and Government
Course Info:
- Department: Liberal Arts
- Area: Political Science and Economics
- Credit Hours: 3, Contact Hours: 45
- Course Number (SRISA): POLI 3101
- Course Number (Maryville University): TBA
- Prerequisite: None
Course Description:
Italy was unified in 1861 after a long lasting and very troubled process that is called Risorgimento. The word is very explicative: it means Resurrection. The meaning functions like a mirror of the times; before the Unification Italy was fragmented into many states, each of them was ruled by a foreign power with the predominance of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. The Unification brought about many issues, the first and most urgent of which was the making of the Italian political system. In other words, the political structure of the many states that had formed Italy before the Unification had to be joined together into one.
WWII functioned as the historical reset for the Country: 20 years of Fascist dictatorship had cancelled the democratic soul of Italy. Everything had to be reconstructed, starting with the national conscience. Our political system is the fruit of these complex historical facts: a very troubled unification and the post-war reconstruction.
This course will examine all the themes of Italian politics through the study of original documents, readings and the voices of the protagonists themselves.