Contemporary Italy: Economy, Society and Politics - Essay Example

Running Head: Contemporary Italy Contemporary Italy of Contemporary Italy Summary The article “Contemporary Italy: economy, society and politics since 1945” has been written by Don Sassoon, which concentrates on discussing the contemporary Italy in different aspects. This paper seeks to present a brief and concise summary of the article. Sassoon asserts that the “youth question” and the “women question” are equally controversial (Sassoon, 122, 1997). The majority of the people, who reside in the third world countries, are young individuals.

In Italy, there has been rise in population and therefore, the country does not have new job opportunities to offer. From statistics, it is evident that majority of the Italians either continue their education or sit at home (Sasson, 122, 1997). Throughout the sixties, the education flourished, which assisted in increasing and promoting education. It also improved the quality of education in Italy. Very soon, the universities became elite organizations, which concentrated on teaching and educating the elite.

With the introduction of Italian republic, it became essential to promote and expand the education sector at all levels in order to deal with the gap, which was found “between Italy and its international competitors” (Sassoon, 123, 1997). However, the rate of unemployment increased as the number of graduates increased. Youth unemployment is considered to be high in Italy for several reasons. Italian students are financially dependent on their families. At the same time, some students take temporary jobs and it takes them more than four years to complete their degree.

Universities are overcrowded, inadequate student resources, cancellation of lectures, etc are some of the problems, which Italian students face. According to Sassoon, American culture has heavily influenced the youth culture of Italy. In the sixties, the American youth culture was dominant in Italy more than any other European nation because of politicization. This indicates that students were politicized. Therefore, the sixties witnessed the politicization of intellectuals. Their thoughts completely turned against authoritarianism and other forms of despotism.

Therefore, universities and even the Church had to face modernity, which the new breed of intellectuals had adopted. The entire movement associated with students, soon became decentralized. “The student activities of the 1968” influenced both PCI and DC (Sasson, 128, 1997). Initially, PCI was hostile and there was wide gap between the students and the party. PCI strategy was on the grounds that all power belonged to political parties. DC showed a different approached as compared to PCI. Although it was hostile, yet it tried to understand the reasons and events, which led to the student movement.

Graduates refused to become part of menial labor and hence it led to high rates of unemployment. The seventies witnessed the deterioration of the youth as they became engaged in drugs, criminality and associations with mafia. BibliographySassoon, Don. 2nd ed. (1997)Contemporary Italy : economy, society and politics since 1945.London ; New York : Longman.Ch. 7. "Women, families, feminism, youth", pp. 122-130.