Abstract

Reaching directory assistance in Italy is often impossible. It is always busy and people frequently give upin frustration. The poor condition of the phone service — a state monopoly — is no exception. All public services are in near collapse. The life of the Italian citizen is plagued by frequent encounters with a byzantine bureaucracy. Obtaining a duplicate driver's license might take years; a building permit often requires substantial bribes to hasten its arrival. Public transportation, the postal system, the public health system, municipal offices and most other services are utterly inadequate. Political corruption is the counterpart of this situation. It is connected with the problem of partitocrazia: the dominance of political parties over the state and their channeling of public resources to their clients.