Day 67 - Rounding Off That Italian History Lesson…

Today I’m going to finish up my very quick look at Italian history. The unification of Italy’s different city-states into one single nation is known as the Risorgimento. Most agree that this process ended around 1871 with the Franco-Prussian wars. Giuseppe Garibaldi is revered in Italy today for his part in the unification of Italy, but the Northern Italian monarchy of the House of Savoy gained control of unified Italy.

The 1920s found fascism growing in Italy under Benito Mussolini. Italy sided with Germany in World War II, which eventually resulted in its invasion by the Allies and Italy’s surrender in 1945. Mussolini was killed in 1945 by communist Italian partisans.

In 1946, after World War II, Italy voted to become a republic. What followed was a confusing mixture of politics- corruption, unrest, numerous political parties… etc., etc. Today, Italy is a parliamentary, democratic republic with a multi-party system. Italy’s executive power is held by the Council of Ministers, with the Prime Minister as its head. (The current prime minister is Matteo Renzi.). The two houses of parliament primarily hold the legislative power, although the Council of Ministers can introduce bills and holds the majority in parliament. The judiciary is independent and headed by the High Council of the Judiciary. There is a President (currently Giorgio Napolitano) whose position is separate from all the other branches. He is elected by the lawmakers, appoints the executive, and is the president of the judiciary. He is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Italy's Current President

So there you have it… a very, very brief finale to the Italian history and government lesson. I, for one, have learned a lot of things I never knew about Italy... much more than I could have covered in a short blog post. If you're interested in learning more, I encourage you to read more from the following pages: http://www.italylogue.com/history,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Italy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Italy. 

Xoxo,

Diana