Studying Italian politics in Italian as a way to better understand the country and the way it lives. This will be the main goal of this course. The course will discuss and examine the changing Italian political system, analyzing its recent history and trying to understand its contemporary developments. Special focus will be given to the peculiarities of the Italian constitutional principles, the changing nature of political parties, the role of non-governmental organizations and organized crime. (3 credits).
Prerequisites:
Advanced Italian
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students are able to
- assess the different values that lay behind the Italian Constitution;
- identify the multiple components of the Italian political system;
- evaluate the relevance of organized crime and corruption in Italian politics;
- understand the decision making process of government;
- recognize the actual dynamics of party politics and machinery;
Method of presentation:
Lectures, simulations and discussions.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: Italian
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation (20%); mid-term exam (multiple choice and/or short essay format, 25%); oral exam and presentation (20%); Final exam (35%)
Details of required work:
Oral Exam Students will pick one of the books listed above in the “required readings” for the oral exam. Based on this reading they will write a 2,000 words dissertation which will be discussed with the teacher during an Italian-style oral exam. The exam will take place in the week of the Italian finals.
Guest Lectures:
1. Guest lecture by Dr. Alberto Bitonti, University of Roma 3, on “Comparing Italian and American Costitutions”.
PLEASE NOTE:
Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the turnitin.com site.”
content:
Week 1:
Introduction to the course
The main features of the Italian political system
Field Study: Roma Tre
Week 2:
The Italian Constitution: general principles
Guest lecture by Dr. Alberto Bitonti, University of Roma 3: “Comparing Italian and American Costitutions”.
(Reading: Text of the Constitution; Guarnieri 28-65)
Week 3:
The First Republic
The Christian Democrats
Field Study: House or Senate
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Week 4:
The Italian Communist Party
Film Viewing: “Il Divo”
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Week 5:
The Socialists and the building of Berlusconi’s empire
Field Study: Ministero dell’Interno
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Week 6:
Midterm exam
Week 7:
Mafia and Politics
The rise of organized Crime
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Field Study: Farnesina
Week 8:
Mafia and the Italian transition (1992-1994)
Field study: Presidenza del Consiglio
(Guarnieri 59-98)
Week 9:
The uncommon birth of the Second Republic: new Parties and new leaders
Forza Italia and the People of Liberty: From the private party to the current Berlusconi’s party
(Ignazi 11-31, 60-81 and readings provided by the teacher)
Week 10:
The League and Berlusconi’s victory: the rise, the decline and the comeback of the Northern League
The Democratic Party: the end of the Communist party, the Olive Tree and the creation of the Democratic Party
(Ignazi 82-102, 103-124)
Week 11:
Berlusconi’s triumph in 2008 elections and the problems with Gianfranco Fini
Field study: Quirinale
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Week 12:
The crisis of Berlusconism: the birth of Futuro e Libertà; the sexual scandal and current affairs
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Required readings:
Carlo Guarnieri, Il sistema politico italiano, Bologna: Mulino, 2007 pp. 128
Piero Ignazi, I partiti politici in Italia, Il Mulino, 2008
The Italian Constitution
Other readings related to contemporary issues in Italian Politics that will be available in the PO 222 shelf in the IES library
Students will pick one of the following titles as reading for the oral exam:
- Ilvo Diamanti, Mappe dell’Italia politica. Bianco, Rosso, Verde, Azzurro e… Tricolore, Il Mulino, 2009
- Giovanni Falcone e Marcelle Padovani, Cose di Cosa Nostra, BUR, 2004
- Pietro Grasso e Alberto La Volpe, Per non morire di Mafia, Sperling & Kupfer, 2009
- Marco Tarchi, L’Italia populista. Dal qualunquismo ai girotondi,, Il Mulino, 2003
- Renato Manheimer e Paolo Natale (curatori), Senza più sinistra. L’Italia di Bossi e Berlusconi, Il Sole 24 Ore Libri, 2008
REQUIRED FILMS:
“Il Divo”, 2008, director: Paolo Sorrentino
“La Mattanza”, 2003, director: Carlo Lucarelli e Giuliana Catamo
“I cento passi”, 2000, director: Marco Tullio Giordana
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Claudia Mariotti received her Ph.D in Political Science in the University of Roma 3. She has a strong academic background in Political Science, and some years of teaching experience in classes of Political Science, Party politics and Italian Political System in different universities in Rome, Italy (Luiss Guido Carli, Università degli Studi di Roma Tre); she teaches also Methodology of Political Research and Political Sociology at University of Urbino.
She is also Research Fellow at the Department of Public Istitution, Economy and Society of the faculty of Political science in the University of Roma Tre.
She conduct research about Italian political parties and she published several articles in international scientific journals and a book in 2010 about the values of parliamentary class of Forza Italia (publisher by Rubbettino).
Studying Italian politics in Italian as a way to better understand the country and the way it lives. This will be the main goal of this course. The course will discuss and examine the changing Italian political system, analyzing its recent history and trying to understand its contemporary developments. Special focus will be given to the peculiarities of the Italian constitutional principles, the changing nature of political parties, the role of non-governmental organizations and organized crime. (3 credits).
Advanced Italian
By the end of the course, students are able to
- assess the different values that lay behind the Italian Constitution;
- identify the multiple components of the Italian political system;
- evaluate the relevance of organized crime and corruption in Italian politics;
- understand the decision making process of government;
- recognize the actual dynamics of party politics and machinery;
Lectures, simulations and discussions.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: Italian
Class participation (20%); mid-term exam (multiple choice and/or short essay format, 25%); oral exam and presentation (20%); Final exam (35%)
Details of required work:
Oral Exam Students will pick one of the books listed above in the “required readings” for the oral exam. Based on this reading they will write a 2,000 words dissertation which will be discussed with the teacher during an Italian-style oral exam. The exam will take place in the week of the Italian finals.
Guest Lectures:
1. Guest lecture by Dr. Alberto Bitonti, University of Roma 3, on “Comparing Italian and American Costitutions”.
PLEASE NOTE:
Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the turnitin.com site.”
Week 1:
Introduction to the course
The main features of the Italian political system
Field Study: Roma Tre
Week 2:
The Italian Constitution: general principles
Guest lecture by Dr. Alberto Bitonti, University of Roma 3: “Comparing Italian and American Costitutions”.
(Reading: Text of the Constitution; Guarnieri 28-65)
Week 3:
The First Republic
The Christian Democrats
Field Study: House or Senate
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Week 4:
The Italian Communist Party
Film Viewing: “Il Divo”
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Week 5:
The Socialists and the building of Berlusconi’s empire
Field Study: Ministero dell’Interno
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Week 6:
Midterm exam
Week 7:
Mafia and Politics
The rise of organized Crime
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Field Study: Farnesina
Week 8:
Mafia and the Italian transition (1992-1994)
Field study: Presidenza del Consiglio
(Guarnieri 59-98)
Week 9:
The uncommon birth of the Second Republic: new Parties and new leaders
Forza Italia and the People of Liberty: From the private party to the current Berlusconi’s party
(Ignazi 11-31, 60-81 and readings provided by the teacher)
Week 10:
The League and Berlusconi’s victory: the rise, the decline and the comeback of the Northern League
The Democratic Party: the end of the Communist party, the Olive Tree and the creation of the Democratic Party
(Ignazi 82-102, 103-124)
Week 11:
Berlusconi’s triumph in 2008 elections and the problems with Gianfranco Fini
Field study: Quirinale
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Week 12:
The crisis of Berlusconism: the birth of Futuro e Libertà; the sexual scandal and current affairs
(Readings provided by the teacher)
Carlo Guarnieri, Il sistema politico italiano, Bologna: Mulino, 2007 pp. 128
Piero Ignazi, I partiti politici in Italia, Il Mulino, 2008
The Italian Constitution
Other readings related to contemporary issues in Italian Politics that will be available in the PO 222 shelf in the IES library
Students will pick one of the following titles as reading for the oral exam:
- Ilvo Diamanti, Mappe dell’Italia politica. Bianco, Rosso, Verde, Azzurro e… Tricolore, Il Mulino, 2009
- Giovanni Falcone e Marcelle Padovani, Cose di Cosa Nostra, BUR, 2004
- Pietro Grasso e Alberto La Volpe, Per non morire di Mafia, Sperling & Kupfer, 2009
- Marco Tarchi, L’Italia populista. Dal qualunquismo ai girotondi,, Il Mulino, 2003
- Renato Manheimer e Paolo Natale (curatori), Senza più sinistra. L’Italia di Bossi e Berlusconi, Il Sole 24 Ore Libri, 2008
REQUIRED FILMS:
“Il Divo”, 2008, director: Paolo Sorrentino
“La Mattanza”, 2003, director: Carlo Lucarelli e Giuliana Catamo
“I cento passi”, 2000, director: Marco Tullio Giordana
Claudia Mariotti received her Ph.D in Political Science in the University of Roma 3. She has a strong academic background in Political Science, and some years of teaching experience in classes of Political Science, Party politics and Italian Political System in different universities in Rome, Italy (Luiss Guido Carli, Università degli Studi di Roma Tre); she teaches also Methodology of Political Research and Political Sociology at University of Urbino.
She is also Research Fellow at the Department of Public Istitution, Economy and Society of the faculty of Political science in the University of Roma Tre.
She conduct research about Italian political parties and she published several articles in international scientific journals and a book in 2010 about the values of parliamentary class of Forza Italia (publisher by Rubbettino).