This report was part of a panel session
The network society as seen by two European underdogs (Italy and Spain)
at the CFP2000 (Computers, Freedom and Privacy)
convention in Toronto on April 6, 2000

Italy: a brief note on the background

Italy’s legal and political system doesn’t have a sound tradition of understanding technology, science and innovation. This is a country that started recovery from “practically zero” at the end of World War Two. It was still basically an agricultural economy, its (limited) industrial resources were destroyed. As late as 1960 there was still a high rate of illiteracy. Technological development was far behind most of Western Europe.

Of course there were, and there are, leading personalities in the world of science and technology. And there are Italian companies, large and small, with strong technological advancement in their specific fields. But in the world of politics and law, and in a large part of the academic establishment, there never was an osmosis between the development of science and technology and the perception of government, legislation and society. Old-fashioned ideas, dating back to Italy’s pre-industrial culture, still influence the thinking of people in government and parliament – as well as schools, the intellectual élite and a large part of the citizenship.

This environment has favored the lobbying pressures by major economic forces that have been able to influence legislation (and, to some extent, public opinion) in favor of their private interests, at the expense of civil rights and freedom of expression.

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