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Summary

Tangentopoli: case study

An extensive bribery scheme uncovered in Italy by the Mani pulite investigation into political corruption in the 1980s and 1990s.

Tangentopoli translates as “Bribesville” or “Kickback City” and refers to a corruption scandal that shook and then reshaped Italian politics in the 1990s (Onorato n.d). The term has since become shorthand for a system of clientelism in which informal taxes (or bribes) were routinely paid to politicians by private business to obtain public contracts and favourable policies. The politicians then funnelled a portion of the bribes to fund their political activities.

The original judicial investigation, known as Mani pulite or “clean hands”, was initiated in 1992 by Judge Antonio Di Pietro in Milan, and rapidly spread to other areas of the country. The investigation was pivotal in exposing corrupt networks throughout Italy connecting politicians, public servants, private companies and organized crime/the Mafia. The fallout from the scandal was significant. It is estimated that 5,000 individuals were under suspicion. In addition, over half of members of parliament were indicted; 400 city and town councils were dissolved; and the value of payments for government contracts was estimated at about $4 billion a year. In the northern part of Italy, political parties ran the system, but in the south organized crime was also involved (Koff & Koff 2000: 2).

As the investigation unfolded and the extensive nature of the criminality became apparent, it increasingly de-legitimized the political institutions themselves. A significant finding was that the corruption was not related to one-off rule violations or bad apples, but rather had become systemic: institutionally tolerated and part of how the system worked. Coinciding with an economic downturn and revelations of mafia involvement in national politics arising from separate investigations into organized crime, the Tangentopoli scandal led to a large public outcry and a substantial rupture of the Italian political system. Many political leaders, including former prime ministers Bettino Craxi and Giulio Andreotti, were discredited or forced to resign and the major parties either dissolved or radically restructured; this is sometimes described as the end of the First Republic.