Word: tangentopoli
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...Look,” it all seems to say, “once we were powerful; once it was great to be Italian.” Now, residents of the eternal city hardly seem to know what it means to be citizens of their country. The Tangentopoli corruption scandal of the ‘90s branded Italian politics as full of inept bureaucrats and smarmy opportunists. The current sex controversy adds to the country’s image as a paradoxical place: It is both the epicenter of the Catholic world and yet its citizens seem to display a chauvinistic...
...Italy whose people have named their plagued government Tangentopoli, or "Pay-Off City," many are implicated in the corporation, and everyone is suspect. Not unlike the Sicilian tradition of the family so potent in the mafiosi, an implicit code of honor in Italy puts those who have broken the trust of the people permanently out of trust. The recent deaths may only express a more distasteful realization of this tradition...
...distance ourselves from the particular event of a political suicide, we must strive to learn something from this history. In Eco's conception, exclusive responsibility cannot be foisted onto to a Gardini or a Cagliari. When it is possible to see through to a more malignant crisis, as the Tangentopoli in Italy, the whole national psyche must be shook into a greater self-awareness...
...second question would end the handout of government campaign funds -- a total of $52 million -- to parties that win at least 5% of the vote in national elections. Reformers concede that the measure will have no effect on illegal campaign contributions, which are at the heart of Tangentopoli, but it is a small attempt to placate voters outraged over the estimated $50 billion to $100 billion paid in bribes and kickbacks to politicians...
Genuine political reconstruction may be long in the making. Tangentopoli has left scarcely any prominent political figure untouched. The latest to be implicated: Giulio Andreotti, a pillar of Italian politics for half a century and seven times Prime Minister, who is under investigation for corruption and for having ties to the Mafia. He has denied both accusations. The possibility of a Mafia connection at the pinnacle of power opened the door on far more sinister misbehavior than bribe taking. Suddenly, high-level murders, including those of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro following his kidnapping by the Red Brigades...