La democrazia [English translation]

After years of consideration about the multiple possibilities a State has to organize itself, I've come to the conclusion that democracy is the most... democratic system there is.

All right, there are: democracies, dictatorships... that's it. Just two of them. I thought there were more.

There has been a dictatorship in Italy; people who saw it know what it is, the others must make do with seeing only democracy.

As far as I remember, I've always been democratic, not by choice, by birth.

Like someone who, as soon as he's born, is Roman Catholic Apostolic.1

Catholic... well, all right; Apostolic... I don't know what it means; but Roman too...!2

Anyway, let's say, how could you not be democratic today?

In the dictionary, it's written that "democracy" is a word coming from Greek, and it means "power to the people".

This expression is poetic and suggestive.

But in which sense, "power to the people"? How do you achieve that? This is not written in the dictionary.

However, we know that from 1945, after the famous 20 years3, the Italian people finally acquired the right to vote.

This way, representative democracy was born; and, after a few brilliant modifications, it is such that you delegate to a party, which chooses a coalition, which chooses a candidate, whom you don't know, and whom you delegate to represent you for five years4

And if you encounter him, he says rightly: "You don't know who I am".5

This is power to the people.

But it's not just that. There are forms that let people participate even more.6

The referendum, for example, is a practice of direct democracy7, not a very practical one, through which everyone can express their own opinion about anything.

Only, if my grandma has to decide about the "Barberino-Roncobilaccio crossing variation", she has a few problems.8

Also because she's from Venice.9

Luckily, she just has to say 'yes' if she means 'no', and 'no' if she means 'yes'.10

At any rate, she has a 50% chance to get it right.

But the referendum has more of a folkloristic, symbolic value.

Because after discussing the political meaning of the results for a long time, everything stays the same as before, and who cares.

Another fundamental characteristic of democracy, is that it rests upon the game of majorities and minorities.

If 51 comes out of the ballot box, you win, if 49 comes out, you lose.

Yeah, it all depends on numbers.

Like in the game of "lotto"11, with the difference that, with lotto, people sometimes win; with democracy, they never do.

What if 50-50 comes out?

Right, this is a characteristic of our democracy.12

It all started in 1948.13 If we look accurately at the figures, between the right wing (DC, liberals, monarchists, missins,14 and so on and so forth) and the left wing (communists, socialists, social democrats, and so on and so forth) we can see a perfect draw.

Then, from there after, it has always been like that, for years.

«Come on, what has it to do [with today's situation], now? Now it's all different». Well, it's obvious, a kind of an earthquake happened, political formations have different names and different leaders.15

Oh well, now there's no longer 50% to the right and 50% to the left. There's 50% to center-right and 50% to center-left.16

Or, the 50-dot-so-little that it's enough that someone catches a diarrhea for the government to fall down.

There's nothing we can do, it really looks like Italians don't like being governed, they don't trust them.

They are afraid that if "those ones there" win, a left-wing dictatorship will come out; if "those other ones" win, a right-wing dictatorship will come out.

What about the center-wing dictatorship? They are perfectly fine with it.

Best wishes, best wishes, best wishes.

1. Italy most widespread religion is the Catholic. It defines itself as "Roman" (Rome is its center, where the Pope resides), "Catholic" (lit. "universal", to state that it is the real Church, after the schism of Eastern Christian churches and after the schism of Protestantism), "Apostolic" (from the apostles, who are "messengers" who spread the creed of their Church).

The Catholic Church's Credo (a kind of prayer) goes like "Credo nella Chiesa, una, santa, cattolica e apostolica" {I believe in the Church, one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic}.2. Giorgio Gaber was born in Milan, northern Italy, while Rome is in central Italy. There is some rivalry/grudge (sometimes "racial" hatred) between different Italian regions, especially northern regions against central/southern regions.

He's joking, of course; though he is serious in being anti-clerical.3. Ventennio {period of 20 years} is the roughly 20 years of Fascist dictatorship in Italy (from 1922 to World War II, 1939-1945).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism4. Italian governements last for five years, though in the history of unified Italy (dating back to 1861) only 1 government (up to year 2015) has ever been able to complete its mandate without collapsing because of political crises or scandals.5. Italian politicians (and other VIPs) are used to have lots of privileges; a typical phrase of theirs, when they are caught red-handed and should be punished, is "you don't know who I am", meaning they are powerful and they are threatening you to make you pay for it if you insist on prosecuting them.6. Partecipativo {participative} = in which people can participate and can make decisions of their own.7. Democrazia diretta {direct democracy} = democracy in which people can directly express their preference, without having to delegate to someone (by electing him) who will then make the decisions.8. Variante {variant} = a modification to the track of a road.

Valico {crossing} = a road crossing over a mountain, or the crossing itself, or the place where the crossing is.

Barberino and Roncobilaccio are towns in central-northern Italy which are sometimes cited in the traffic news, due to traffic jams. The road joining them crosses the Apennines.9. Venice is in north-eastern Italy, more than 200km (125mi) from Roncobilaccio.10. In Italy, a referendum can only be abrogative (to cancel an existing law), not propositive (to pass a new law), so the referendum question is always in the form "Do you want to abrogate law X?": you have to mark 'yes' to say "abrogate = I do *not* want to keep this law", and 'no' to say "don't abrogate = I *do* want to keep this law".11. Lotto is a gambling game managed by the State. Five numbers are drawn from an urna {raffle box; it's same word as "ballot box"}, and if you have guessed right at least some of them, you win.12. After WWII and up until the mid-1990s political crisis, Italy has always been ruled by DC (Democrazia Cristiana; Christian Democracy, a Catholic conservative party), whose cardinal value was compromise: to rule trying not to annoy anyone (any other economical/religious/etc. power), so it was always in the middle of the political range, never taking a firm position on important matters; Italy has sort of "floated on", letting itself be carried by the events rather than trying to change them for the best.

At least, this is what he means with this ironic comment of his.13. 1948 is the year when the Italian Constitution enterd into force.14. Missino = member of the MSI (Movimento Sociale Italiano) {Italian Social Movement}, a neo-fascist party.15. In the early 1990s, a huge scandal surfaced, involving loads of corruption in all of the political parties. Many politicians ended up in jail, while others escaped abroad. This ended the hegemony of DC and, to some extent, to communist parties, and new parties were born (Lega Nord and Forza Italia on the right, and lots of tiny, ever-quarreling parties, as always, on the left).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_pulite16. After this scandal, and the fall of the Soviet Union, political parties no longer call themselves "left" and "right" (these positions are seen as "too extreme"); their positions have converged a lot, leaving ideology aside in favor of pure political power.

• Artist:Giorgio Gaber