Final Project

This week we are going to talk about our final project. I think that working in group could be a very funny experience but we have to find a topic on which everybody agree. I suppose we’re not obliged to choose among the cultural aspects on which we focused in class. We can drew our attention to a wider range of aspects.

Among the topics we discussed in class and with the Americans, the one I appreciated most is ‘immigration’. As Alessia said we can compare American and Italian immigration policies. Our two cultures had and have a completely different approach towards immigrants. It would be interesting to focus our attention on immigration laws, on how strict are the controls on immigration etc. I think things are changing rapidly in those years thanks to globalisation and new countries joining the European Union. So as a consequence of those facts are controls on immigration more flexible? Or we have to deal with the fear of terrorism and crimes? How do people react to this situation?

Elections

In a few months both Italy and America will have elections. Italy has a different electoral system compared to the American one. Or at least it should be different. In America they have presidential elections; in Italy we are supposed to elect our Parliament and not directly our Prime Minister. However, the last two or tree Italian elections seems to go against Italian Costitution. Consider our coming elections. We know precisely who is going to be our future Prime Minister. They have decided for us. Berlusconi or Veltroni? That is the question! We are so good at doing such sort of things and make them appear normal and ordinary things.

Il progetto di riforma costituzionale del 2005 e il referendum del 25/26 giugno 2006:

Il Parlamento italiano aveva approvato una rilevante modifica delle disposizioni dell'attuale Costituzione (una cinquantina di articoli furono modificati da tale legge). Qualora tale riforma fosse entrata in vigore, si sarebbe prospettata la nascita di una Repubblica federale con un esecutivo nettamente più forte. Tra le principali disposizioni di tale (fallita) riforma costituzionale si possono citare in modo non esaustivo le seguenti:
Sostituzione del Presidente del Consiglio dei ministri, adottando la versione del sistema parlamentare detta premierato, con un Primo ministro che verrebbe designato direttamente dagli elettori.

What seems to emerge in our questionnaires is that both Americans and Italians are discouraged by politicians. What Italian and American politicians seem to have in common is corruption. But if Americans have such an idea of politics why do they have such an enormous campaign machine? It looks like a show and people seem to be really involved in caucuses and primaries. I'm really interested in knowing the opinion of my American peer.