Developments In Italy Research Articles

Le Insorgenze controrivoluzionarie nella storiografia italiana: Dibattito scientifico e scontro ideologico (1799–2012), by Massimo Viglione

The 1790s were marked, in Italy and many other parts of Europe, by a series of disturbances which were, in one way or another, a response to the French Revolution. The most striking example in Italy was no doubt the Santa Fede movement, led by Cardinal Ruffo, which helped to overthrow the Neapolitan republic in 1799, but this was by no means an isolated occurrence. Contemporary commentators and historians have offered differing explanations of the origins, character and long-term significance of these disturbances. The book under review, by Massimo Viglione, is both a critical survey of the developing explanation of the Italian disturbances which have traditionally been understood as a response to, and the culmination of, the so-called triennio rivoluzionario of 1796–9, and a contribution to the debates about what drove the insurgents and the larger importance of what they were about. The book comprises three chapters. The first deals with the historiography prior to the recent bicentennial celebrations and discusses the contributions of Vincenzo Cuoco, the first (contemporary) historian of the Neapolitan revolution, Giuseppe Mazzini and others, before turning to Benedetto Croce. According to Viglione, the Risorgimento authors were relatively muted on the subject of the insurgencies, but with Croce (and to some extent Antonio Gramsci) we see the beginning of Viglione’s bugbear and target, what he identifies as the ‘storiografia filogiacobina’. This interpretation sees the (Neapolitan) republicans as the founding fathers of the Risorgimento and of Italian liberalism. According to Viglione, the triumph of this view in the years after the establishment of the Italian republic was closely related—as were so many of the developments in the historiography before and after 1948—to political developments in Italy. The second chapter opens with a discussion of the development of a ‘storiografia filoinsorgenta’, whose contributors include Viglione himself, before turning to the way in which the bicentennial celebrations of the 1990s stimulated new research and publication work but also a restatement of the pro-Jacobin approach which, always according to Viglione, was the official historiographical orthodoxy after 1948. The reassertion of this latter view was, above all, associated with the collection of essays, edited by Anna Maria Rao (identified by Viglione as head of the pro-Jacobins), Folle controrivoluzionarie: Le insorgenze popolari nell’Italia giacobina e napoleonica (2001), a collection which, for Viglione, represented an unreasonably sharp (even, one is tempted to say, in his view vicious) attack of the old school on the new.

Transmission of Financial Stress in Europe: The Pivotal Role of Italy and Spain, but not Greece

This paper proposes a stochastic volatility model to measure sovereign financial distress. It examines how key European sovereign credit default swap (CDS) spreads affect each other; specifically, the paper analyses the volatility structure of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The stability of Germany is a close proxy for the resilience of the euro area as markets use Germany’s sovereign CDS as a hedge for systemic risk. Although most of the CDS changes for Germany during 2009–12 were due to idiosyncratic factors, market developments in Italy and Spain contributed significantly, likely due to their relative importance in the region. Changes in Greece’s sovereign CDS had no significant effect on Germany’s sovereign CDS despite initial widespread concerns about such linkages. Spain and Italy show a notable co-dependence in explaining each other’s volatility while Germany also plays an important role. It is found that extreme bad news led to persistent and nearly permanent effects on the stochastic volatility of European sovereign CDS spreads.

Inflation, stabilisation and economic recovery in Italy after the war: Vera Lutz’s assessment

The present work contains an overview of economic developments in Italy between the end of the war and the stabilisation measures of September 1947 in order to provide a concise factual background to examine Vera Lutz’s analysis of this period. The main elements of Lutz’s analytical framework at the beginning of the 1950s are briefly recalled. A review of her critical assessment of Italy’s immediate postwar experience and of the policies adopted, especially in the monetary and balance-of-payments areas is provided.

Differing Routes to Stem Cell Research: Germany and Italy ed. by Renato G. Mazzolini, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (review)

Reviewed by: Differing Routes to Stem Cell Research: Germany and Italy ed. by Renato G. Mazzolini, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger Ilana Löwy Renato G. Mazzolini and Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, eds. Differing Routes to Stem Cell Research: Germany and Italy. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2012. 271 pp. Ill. €22.00 (978-88-15-23878-8). A collection of essays on the regulation of research on human embryonic stem cells (hESC) with the sober title of Differing Routes to Stem Cell Research: Germany and Italy may give the impression that it is addressed mainly to science policy experts. This impression is inaccurate. The book is an interesting contribution to the history of biomedical innovation in the second half of the twentieth century. Debates on embryonic stem cells mobilize strong emotions and can provide important insights on the status of “civic epistemology” (a term coined by political scientist Sheila Jasanoff) in a given society, that is, the way that society deals with complex decisions about new technologies. At the same time, as Hans Joerg Rheinberger explains, the dedifferentiation of somatic cells produced a new and potentially highly fruitful pathway for learning how cellular mechanisms work and opened new possibilities of experimentation on living human material. It remains to be seen, Rheinberger adds, however, if they will also open the way to better prevention and treatment of human disease. Differing Routes to Stem Cell Research starts with two stimulating essays on the history of stem cells research. Adriane Dröcher analyzes the etymology of the term stem cell and its uses in the past 150 years, first in an anatomical and then in a physiological context. Her carefully researched essay shows how the notion of stem cell migrated from general biology to embryology, then to oncology, and finally to hopes of regenerative medicine. Christana Brandt examines the history of the notions of “reversibility” and “reprogramming” of cells, focusing on the period from the 1950s to the 1970s. These notions were already present in investigation of haemopoietic cells. They then became central to studies of in vitro fertilization, in animals and then in humans, to efforts to produce mouse embryo chimeras, and to experimental studies of cancer. One should remember, Brandt adds, that the history of stem cells was never straightforward nor linear. There are important [End Page 294] differences between animal and human stem cells, and between studies of carcinogenesis and of pluripotent stem cells originated from human embryos. Only the latter became the focus of intense ethical debates. Both Italy and Germany put important restrictions on research on hESC. The legislation in other Western countries is more permissive. In his introduction to Differing Routes to Stem Cell Research, Renato Mazzoli proposes that the developments in Italy and Germany share many similarities because in both countries an aspiration to deal with a problematic past produced defensive strategies. Mazzoli may be right on a very general level, but specific case studies partly contradict his claim. Debates on the use of embryonic stem cells in Germany and Italy were, we learn in this book, quite different. Authors of the three essays on the German case provide a detailed analysis of regulation of stem cells in Germany and attempt to explain the forces that shaped German political debate on this topic. They present a globally positive vision of this debate, seen as an example of a successful participation of civil society in discussion on new technologies. They also argue that the limits imposed on the use of hESC in Germany did not seem to hamper German biomedical research. Authors of the three essays dedicated to the Italian case display a less optimistic view. They criticize the quality of the debate on stem cells in Italy, point to important divisions among Italian scientists on this topic (by contrast, German scientists seem to hold a relatively uniform position), and insist on obstacles to free discussion created by the intervention of the Catholic Church. Unlike their German colleagues, Italian contributors to Differing Routes to Stem Cell Research believe that controversy regarding the use of hESC in Italy favored a regression in the public debate on science and technology. For example, one of the posters published by supporters of “non...

A Structural Model for the Housing and Credit Markets in Italy

We estimate a fully-fledged structural system for the housing market in Italy, taking into account the multi-fold link with bank lending to both households and construction firms. The model allows the house supply to vary in the short run and the banking sector to affect the equilibrium in the housing market, through its effect on housing supply and demand. We show that house prices react mostly to standard drivers such as disposable income, expected inflation and demographic pressures. Lending conditions also have a significant impact, especially through their effects on mortgage loans, and consequently on housing demand. Allowing short-run adjustment in house supply implies a weaker response of house prices to a change in the monetary stance or in banks’ deleveraging process. Finally, we find that since the mid-eighties house price developments in Italy have been broadly in line with the fundamentals; during the recent financial crisis, the worsening in credit supply conditions dampened house price dynamics, partly offsetting the positive stimulus provided by the easing of the monetary policy stance.

Personal Data and the Public Health Paradigm

In their article, Fairchild and Johns show how the gradual increase in limits to research is being followed by a contrasting tendency.1 Some recent developments in Italy, which also impact the international community, confirm this tendency with regard to the protection of personal data. The Italian Data Protection Authority recently adopted the General Authorisation to Process Personal Data for Scientific Research Purposes,2 marking a considerably more relaxed approach. Authorization shall be granted in particular “to universities, other research bodies or institutions and scientific societies” as well as to researchers and members of these institutions. In addition, this Authorisation shall be granted if: the processing of data that are suitable for disclosing health for scientific research purposes in the medical, bio-medical or epidemiological sectors is necessary to conduct studies that do not entail any significant personalized impact on data subjects and rely on data that were collected beforehand for health care purposes and/or to implement prior research projects and/or on data that were extracted from biological samples removed beforehand for health care purposes and/or to implement prior research projects; and the research is performed on the basis of a project that received a reasoned favorable opinion from the geographically competent ethics committee.2 The Deliberation authorizes “the processing of personal data suitable for disclosing data subjects’ health, also without their informed consent” for retrospective observational studies, with a series of “limitations and conditions.” It specifically “applies to the processing of data subjects' data to be included in the scope of a research where contacting such data subjects to provide them with information on the processing of their data proves impossible” on “ethical” or “organisational grounds.”2 Ethical grounds “have to do with the fact that the data subject is unaware of the respective health condition. This applies to any research if providing information to data subjects on processing of their data entails the disclosure of information on the specific study being carried out, which information might cause tangible or mental harm.”3 Organizational grounds “have to do with the fact that the failure to include the data relating to the estimated number of data subjects that cannot be contacted in order to be informed … would impact significantly on the study by altering the relevant findings.”3 The Authorization does not apply to genetic data for which special authorization is required.3

The Effects of Fiscal Shocks with Debt-Stabilizing Budgetary Policies in Italy

We study the effects of fiscal policy on macroeconomic developments in Italy over the period 1982-2010 with a Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model. We include public debt and impose the government budget constraint in the estimation. In contrast with previous research we also include foreign demand, significantly improving estimation accuracy. We find that movements in debt induce stabilizing reactions in fiscal policy. In this context, expenditure and revenue shocks have significant effects on economic activity; these are stronger, as well as more precisely estimated and robust, for expenditure. Expenditure multipliers are higher when we exclude from our sample the initial years and, in particular, when we focus on the post-Maastricht period.

Changing the Regulation for Regulating the Change: Innovation ‐ Driven Regulatory Developments in Italy: Smart Grids, Smart Metering and E‐Mobility

For a long time considered as technologically mature, electric systems are now facing a period of rapid changes. The advent of smart grids, smart meters and electromobility is creating new challenges not only in terms of technological innovation but also in terms of economic and technical regulation. This paper focuses on the latter and, taking Italy as a case study, analyses how energy regulation can change to embrace and to stimulate innovation in power systems and electricity markets.Accordingly, we describe the most relevant and recent regulatory decisions on technical innovation, keeping the focus on the regulatory process. Indeed, the Italian case is interesting for a number of reasons, that go beyond its well-known leadership position in the area of smart metering and the related mandatory introduction of Time of Use pricing for a large share of consumers. Italy is facing a dramatic increase in RES (Renewable Energy Sources) penetration: several regulatory developments were introduced to favour the integration of intermitted generation and the transformation of distribution grids in active networks, capable of accommodating DG (Dispersed Generation) units. The paper details the regulator’s commitment to provide the right economic incentives for distribution network operators to invest in demonstration projects for smart grids (and, in perspective, for a wide roll-out of active grids, on the basis of an output-based incentive scheme). Significant steps forward have also been made to ensure an efficient development of Electrical Vehicle recharging infrastructures.We found that several lessons of experience can be drawn from this case study and we believe them useful for other national regulatory authorities. By looking at the regulatory process, more than at the specific solutions and mechanisms adopted (often related to country-specific factors), the main messages are the following. Power system will be profoundly impacted by technological innovation and regulators should invest in building a robust and up-to-date technical knowledge over which to ground their proposals; Key indicators are necessary to cope with RES integration: this paper presents two of them (Reverse Power-flow Time, RPT, and Psmart) that can be used elsewhere; In an initial phase, regulators can get valuable information from demonstration projects, that are an intermediate step between laboratory tests (and prototypes) and full deployment of innovative solutions; Moving to output-based regulation is the efficient choice for full deployment of innovative solutions; The role of regulation is crucial in ensuring that value for the customers is extracted from innovative investments (such as in smart metering) Innovation creates new challenges: regulators have to identify the new border between regulated companies and the competitive market (for instance in the case of electromobility Integration of the different innovations (smart grids, smart metering, electromobility and storage) is probably the hardest challenge for regulators in the next future.To make this case study more easy to read, all technical details are given separately in six different Annexes, each devoted to a specific topic more briefly mentioned in the main body of the paper.

Towards degarrisonisation in Jamaica: A place for civil society

For nearly 50 years, powerful politically connected criminal actors called ‘dons’ (or area leaders) have occupied – Mafia style – some of Jamaica's deprived urban communities, and enacted new, outlaw forms of community leadership. In these communities, notoriously labelled ‘garrisons’, dons have ‘manufactured consent’ for their illicit rule, using coercive tactics and by positioning themselves as legitimate civic leaders. In the process, these rogue actors have not only gained acceptance among significant numbers of the subaltern class but also (tacit) political recognition in the wider society. Genuine civil society has been eclipsed in Jamaica's urban garrisons due to the persistence of this rogue leadership. Still, a more hopeful outlook for Jamaica may be possible. Drawing upon previous research outlining the widespread struggle against the Mafia led by members of Italian civil society, and the ensuing decline in its omnipotence in that country, the paper considers the implications of the positive developments in Italy for the noticeable movement towards degarrisonisation in Jamaica, and contemplates what role a resurrected Jamaican civil society might play in this process.

The Topology of the Interbank Market: Developments in Italy Since 1990

When a bank defaults or stops trading in the interbank market, both a liquidity shortage in the market itself and mounting trading losses should be anticipated. To gain more insight into the way a liquidity crisis spreads, we apply network topology techniques to monthly data on deposits exchanged by Italian banks, from 1990 to 2008. Our research yields three main results: first, only a few banks are today pivotal in the redistribution of liquidity across the system, while banks close to, but outside this core circle, weigh less than they used to; secondly, the halt in operations in a second set of banks may cut off some of their counterparts from the rest of the network, with increasingly less negligible effects; finally, only 2-3 banks out of the 10 we identify as most interconnected within the network are currently also among the top 10 banks by volume of traded deposits.

Migranti e consumi: il versante dell'offerta. Strategie di imprenditoria straniera nel settore del commercio alimentare al dettaglio

- The phenomenon of consumption among foreigners is becoming increasingly relevant within the Italian context, bringing growing attention from the social sciences. While most studies have focused their attention almost exclusively on the demand side, the study presented here rather tries to deal with the phenomenon from the supply perspective. Here migrants have taken a leading role in the development of an increasingly articulated market addressed to an audience of co-ethnics, and then gradually to a local clientele. The analysis focuses in particular on some economic activities in the retail food business of entrepreneurs of Moroccan origins. Through the empirical study of these activities, the article tries to outline some of the main entrepreneurial strategies of integration, adaptation and innovation of migrant economic activities within the Italian context. On the basis of the cases analysed, some concluding remarks on the phenomenon of foreign entrepreneurship and its possible future developments in Italy are drawn.Keywords Consumption; migrant entrepreneurship; retail trade; ethnic food.

Civis, civitas, civilitas

By focusing on the Italian translations of civilization, the author explores ways in which conceptual change has reflected historical developments in Italy. Unlike the widespread literal translation of civilization from English or French to other languages, civilizzazione has been a marginal term in Italian. On the other hand, terms such as civiltà, more akin to the Latin civitas, are more frequently employed. e article maps out the complex semantics of civitas and how its trajectory in the philosophy of history was uniquely translated into Italian. Whereas in other European nations civilization and the notion of historical progress it conveyed became a central concept, in Italy, due to the elaboration of an identity heavily influenced by Christian heritage, the more static concept of civiltà proved to be more significant.

Recent Italian Efforts to Respond to Terrorism at the Legislative Level

Faced with the threat of global terrorism, can we actually say there is in Italy a weakness in the existing law? The answer to such a question depends on the impact of the adopted legislation on the effectiveness in combating terrorism. From a general overview of recent legislative and executive measures, there seems to emerge a general belief that in order to facilitate the most in-depth and extensive knowledge of terrorist phenomena, the balance between prevention of terrorist acts and judicial safeguards needs to be altered in favour of the former. Emphasizing the function of risk prevention aimed at bolstering state security implies, as a consequence, the risk of weakening judicial control and safeguards. This article is intended to offer an overview of recent developments in Italy in the field of anti-terrorism law and practice, attempting to assess the compliance of the adopted counterterrorist measures with criteria deemed to be consistent with the principles of a state subject to the rule of law and with the fundamental rights of the individual.

The Low Countries' connection: landscape and the struggle over representation around 1600

In Anglophone geography, the concept of landscape is often defined in visual terms as the expression of a spatial rationality. Historically, the strongly visual qualities of landscape tend to be related to early capitalist developments in Italy and the Low Countries. Yet, recent scholarly interventions have asserted that landscape in early modern Europe also animated so-called ‘platial’ (or place-oriented) practices and ideologies of political representation, justice, and custom. This paper seeks to bring these diverging platial and spatial approaches together through an examination of political and visual representation of landscape in the northern Low Countries around 1600. It is argued that the tensions between platial notions of landscape and spatial rationality were unceasingly pertinent to the protracted struggles over political representation in the Low Countries during the revolt against Spain. Visual representations of landscape provided ways to take in, reflect upon, and codify those struggles. The Dutch landscape remained entangled in a double dialectic in which spatial and platial modes of political and visual representation mutually shaped each other.

Lordship and Learning: Studies in Memory of Trevor Aston

This volume is a deserved tribute to a distinguished and most energetic scholar whose contributions to historical study far exceeded those made by his writings, which, though few, were original and pregnant. Two of his unpublished papers are included here. One is what will prove the standard survey of the equipment of medieval muniment rooms. The other is a major study of Anglo-Saxon dependent tenure (approximately corresponding to Anglo-Norman mesne tenure) as it is recorded in Domesday for southern and much of midland England. It is a pity that it was not published long ago, though one may question Aston's contention that the Conquest saw an almost complete change from shire- and hundred-based military service to a fief-based system. This paper makes an important contribution to the study of the Anglo-Saxon gentry, as do the papers here from Professor Coss and Dr Faith. Aston gave a great deal to the study of university history, as Keeper of the Archives of Oxford and, above all, as general editor of the multi-volume history of the university. This contribution is recognised by an extremely interesting essay by Dr Catto on the late medieval academic halls of Oxford. He shows how they had an organisation and ethos which made them a major and an innovative educational force such as to echo developments in Italy and to contribute importantly to the development of collegiate education. Professor Charles-Edwards, in a methodical examination of the relationships between nation and language in early Britain and Ireland, poses important questions on the relations between power and language, suggesting, for example, that the remarkable uniformity of Old Irish reflects the power of the Uí Néill. Dr Brand makes an arresting contribution to the study of the origins of the provincial legal profession as illuminated in the shady squabbles of Norfolk, c.1300. These two contributors are among those who were Aston's pupils. Their fine work exemplifies how much others have owed to him; not least in his long and strongly conscientious service as editor of Past and Present.

ELAG 2002: report of a library systems seminar on the Semantic Web

The 26th annual seminar of the European Library Automation Group (ELAG) was held in Rome in April 2002. This report provides an overview of the papers presented, including those describing relevant developments in Italy (such as the Italian Digital Library), those covering the theme of the seminar (semantic Web and libraries), as well as papers on functional requirements for bibliographic records and others. Workshops are a key feature of the ELAG seminars and a brief mention is made of these.

Do Corporate Law Judges Matter? Some Evidence From Milan

If corporate law matters to corporate governance and finance, then in order to assess its quality in any given country, one must look at corporate law off the books, i.e., the characteristics of corporate law as applied by judges and other relevant public officials. This paper, after speculating about the interaction between corporate law on the books and corporate law off the books and accounting for recent corporate governance developments in Italy, provides an assessment of Italian corporate law based on analysis of a sample of 106 decisions by the Milan Tribunal, Italy's most specialized court in corporate law. The judges' quality is evaluated by looking at: (1) how deferential they are to corporate insiders; (2) how keen they are to understand, and possibly take into account, the real rights and wrongs underlying the case before them; (3) how antiformalistic their legal reasoning is; (4) how concerned they are about the effects of their decisions on the generality of corporate actors. The analysis casts a negative light on Milanese (and by extension, Italian) corporate law judges. It highlights egregious cases of deference to corporate insiders, especially with regard to parent-subsidiary relationships. Furthermore, only recently, and in any event still sporadically, have at least a few court's opinions been so drafted as to let the reader understand what the real dispute was and which party had really acted opportunistically. In any case, it appears to be rare for the court to take the substantive reasons for the dispute into any account. Cases are described, in which the court has adduced very formalistic arguments. And finally, there is no sign that the judges care about what signals they send to corporate actors: they appear to be quite unconcerned about whether their decisions provide the right incentives for directors and shareholders.

Theatre and War, 1933–1945: Performance in Extremis. Edited by Michael Balfour. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2001; pp.189. $49.95 hardcover, $22.50 paperback; Theatre under the Nazis. Edited by John London. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000; pp. 356, 30 black-and-white illustrations. $74.95 hardcover.

Michael Balfour's Theatre and War, 1933–1945: Performance in Extremis offers eleven essays, all previously published and in several cases abridged for this volume. They cover four aspects: theatre in service of Fascism, theatre of resistance, theatre behind barbed wire, and theatre at the front. With the exception of two contributions, the essays represent recent scholarship and cover developments in Italy, Germany, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The level of analysis varies from essay to essay, ranging from in-depth academic research to personal recollections of survivors and eyewitness accounts. The volume addresses theatrical formats ranging from simple, cabaretlike performances to large-scale public spectacles, including both state-organized events supportive of Fascist ideology and the theatre of resistance.

Interlending and document supply developments in Italy

Today in Italy, interlibrary loan and document delivery are important elements in the strategic plans of most libraries. Their growing importance is a reflection of the increasing number of Italian OPACs and the development of the National Library System (SBN). More Italian libraries offer efficient ILL services through the use of electronic mail, easy payment methods, clearly stated ILL policies on their Web pages and request forms linked to OPAC records. Many problems still remain, however. These stem from a lack of a national, centralised ILL system and from the heterogeneity of the various local and regional library networks.

The New South in the New Europe: the Case of Sviluppo Italia

On 1 January 1999, Italy was amongst the group of initial countries forming the euro zone; on 9 January, just a few days later, the Comitato Interministeriale per la Programmazione Economica (CIPE) gave final approval to a motion to set up a new agency to promote regional economic development, primarily in the South, called Sviluppo Italia (‘Development Italy’). While there is a tendency to look to European economic and monetary integration as the source of most economic, political and social developments in Italy in the 1990s, the two January developments were not totally unrelated. It may seem strange that the creation of yet another agency would qualify as an important highlight in an eventful year in Italian politics. However, the creation of Sviluppo Italia is an illustrative case study for a number of important political and economic trends of the last few years that came to the surface in 1999. These include economic development in the South in an integrated Europe, regional and industrial policy in an era of an increasingly neoliberal macroeconomic policy regime, and the question of how to address major social demands while state authority and capacity are being ‘hollowed out’ in an increasingly global economy.