A relative latecomer to the blog scene, I have only recently discovered Italian comedian cum political activist Beppe Grillo, who denounces political wrongdoing in his native Italy via the blogosphere.
Grillo is Italy’s Michael Moore. That is, if Moore had the tenth most popular blog in the world. Shut out of much of the state- or Berlusconi-owned media for his rants against them, the Internet remains one of the few media channels open to Grillo.
This recent New Yorker article tells Grillo’s story. He seems to deserve the hagiographic treatment he receives.
What stops such a popular figure arising in corrupt Kenya or Indonesia, where relatively free and vigorous presses are common (even though Internet access is not)? Perhaps the threat and use of force, which has chased more than one crusader out of East Africa. But I have yet to see a strong argument (or evidence) for the continued re-election of criminals and thugs to parliaments from Italy to Venezuela to Kenya. Class and tribal explanations are regularly trotted out with little criticism, but these seem to me to be less than half the story, if that.
3 Responses
Miriam Golden, Eric Chang, and Seth Hill have a working paper on the re-election of corrupt legislators in Italy. From the abstract:
We find that judicial investigation did not discourage deputies from standing for reelection but reduced the probability of achieving reelection. Further analysis shows that judicial inquiry damages the electoral fortunes of legislators in only the last (Eleventh) legislature of our sample, while otherwise Italian voters fail to hold politicians accountable.
So Italians continue to vote for politicians that have been outed as corrupt, except in the (unusual) 11th legislature.
Available online here
Chris,
as an Italian I feel I should clarify a couple of points.
First, Mr Grillo is doing an anti-political more than anti-corruption campaign. He is NOT proposing solutions, he is just expressing his disappointment toward the political class, no matter if right- or left-wing. He is also suggesting to Italian citizens to abstain from voting this time (in April). Suggestion that I find extremely vicious!
The second thing, to follow up on what Random African says, is that Grillo is part of the problem, not the solution. In Italy political institutions are not functional. Candidates are the same, years after years. They are fairly old and trapped in the party hierarchies. There is no real institutional change and the result is that the voters have to choose the “least worse” candidate when they go to the ballots. Competition in both markets and politics is contrained by law. And why would the so-called cast decide to vote against itself? Both business and politics prefer to save their rents instead of the country.
The bottom line is that in Italy, as most probably in many other developing countries, the problem is not the lack of information, but the lack of competition. The only thing Grillo could do is enter politics himself in order to create an alternative to the status quo… but with which ideas? In which structure of checks and balances? We are in any case all curious to see if he ultimately will do it or not. But my hope is that he will stop underminig the already shaky trust that my fellow citizens have in the power of compatition and good governance.
But I have yet to see a strong argument (or evidence) for the continued re-election of criminals and thugs to parliaments from Italy to Venezuela to Kenya.
1. the Pork (who cares if he’s corrupt if we get some too?)
2. when corruption is widespread, voters may feel like there’s a lack of alternatives and simply judge candidates on other factors. And the electoral systems don’t help. Single-Constituencies with no primaries limit your choice of candidates and closed-list proportionality in Italy does too.