Shepherding Italian democracy

There has been a great deal of flurry in recent days over the resignation of Italy's unelected technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti, the consequent snap elections scheduled for February that have spooked markets, and Italy's “return to a fully democratic government”.

However, it is quite premature to be predicting the restoration of democratic norms in the country - and indeed in much of the eurozone - and it is high time that progressives began to care as much about the extra-democra...