Sir, – The general political commentary on the Italian constitutional reform referendum, culminating in an analysis of the rejection of change by the Italian people, has unduly exaggerated and mischaracterised this result.
While it is undoubtedly the case that populist parties such as the Five Star Protest Movement and the Lega Nord gathered significant support in advocating a rejection of the reforms, this is not, as it has been described, the next dramatic step in the inexorable rise of populist or extremist politics along the lines of recent developments in the United States and the United Kingdom.
It should be noted that these reforms were also opposed by Forza Italia, the party of the veritable poster boy for the establishment that is Silvio Berlusconi, a man who has ardently defended his position as one firmly in the political centre.
Furthermore, rather than seeking a dramatic change with the past, as in Britain or the US, the voters of Italy have chosen to maintain their present constitutional architecture.
In doing so, they have rejected reforms that were significant in the way that they sought to make an absolute majority for a single party a certainty. They have preserved the current system, and perhaps the entrenched interests of legislators engaging in clientelist politics in their constituencies.
If the revolution is indeed on its way, it certainly has not happened yet in Italy.
– Yours, etc,
CHRISTOPHER McMAHON
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.