To understand whether the referendum will plunge Italy into a crisis, we need to unpack the problem in its three essential components: the reform; the Renzi’s factor; and the country’s economy.
After 1992, the transformation of the Italian left was slow and subtle, but by no means less detrimental to the quality of the country’s democratic system.
Any cyclical upturn in residential construction looks to have come to an end.
Mike Tsikas/AAP
US GDP data points to a US rate rise in December, and Australia’s housing affordability problem won’t be helped by current declining building approvals.
Two Italian scholars who fled fascism in the 1920s urgently warned that American democracy was vulnerable to the same gradual erosion as in Italy. Their message still rings true today.
Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will likely resign if the result of the referendum is a “no” vote.
Tony Gentile /Reuters
Silvio Berlusconi’s rise to power, hand in hand with his monopoly of mainstream media, made the Internet the favourite harbour for nonaligned audiences and dissident voices.
There are already early warning systems for earthquakes, but advances in seismology provide hope that experts will be able to predict when new ones will occur.
Residents walk through rubble in central Italy.
Reuters/Remo Casilli
Professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement and Director of the Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity, University of Birmingham