Federalism with more taxes

For about twenty years now, the word federalism has been a mirage that has accompanied Italian affairs.

A panacea through which it was thought it would be possible to fix real shortfalls in our society in order to become more modern, more competitive and achieve economic development.

After pursuing this mirage for almost two decades, the clear result is a debris-filled panorama made up of legislative confusion, proliferation of cost centers, corruption, and a byzantine bureaucratic apparatus.

"L'inutile federalismo" [Useless federalism] is the story of this disaster, the illusion of a federalism that would have required a different set of historical conditions. One statistic tells it all: since 1995 local taxes have risen 138 percent, a veritable explosion, but one which has not kept national taxes rising by 6.8 percent at the same time.

Gennaro Sangiuliano is Vice-director of the RAI's TG1, he teaches at La Sapienza and LUISS universities in Rome