Uncertainty about the future of the government and strong anti-political sentiment dominated Italian politics in 2007. Following a government crisis in February, rooted in the question of Italy's role in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Romano Prodi was able to re-establish his coalition, but in the spring it suffered a clear setback in local elections amidst a climate of growing unpopularity. Initial chapters in this volume analyse these events as well as some important initiatives aimed, in different ways, at containing public disaffection towards the political class: the establishment of the Democratic Party, the electoral referendum campaign, and Silvio Berlusconi's announcement of the birth of a new, center-right political party. As demonstrated in following chapters, the government did still manage to achieve a degree of success during the year in combating tax evasion and reducing the budget deficit as a result of increased tax revenue and more effective control of public expenditure. A number of redistributive goals were achieved in this way, as the volume's examination of government social policy makes clear. Final chapters complete the picture of the state of Italian society in a year characterized by a fragile government facing a number challenging issues subject to veto: the liberalization program and the uncompleted introduction of fiscal federalism, the ever-challenging management of the national health system, the role of the Bank of Italy, the relationship with the Catholic Church and the legislation on de facto couples, crime and security.

Mark Donovan teaches Politics in the School of European Studies, Cardiff University where he has specialized in the study of Italian politics. His most recent publication is a co-edited special issue of Modern Italy (November 2008) on "The Centre in Italian Politics."

Paolo Onofri teaches Economics at the University of Bologna. His most recent publications with Il Mulino include: I mercati finanziari internazionali. Nino Andreatta e la politica economica (2006).

The Economics of an Ageing Population studies the effects of demographic transition on the economies of industrialised countries. The authors demonstrate that an ageing population does not necessarily lead to a reduction in growth, providing that the working population are more productive and save a greater percentage of their income. They look in detail at the examples of Italy and Japan, two countries which have the fastest ageing populations in Europe and the world respectively.The book begins by studying the past decade of stagflation in Japan. The authors argue that a reduction in innovation, shorter working hours and saturation of demand are to blame for the slow-down in growth, rather than demographic transition. They move on to investigate pension reforms in different countries and their macroeconomic effects on the redistribution of consumption between workers and retirees. They provide tools to compare different pension types (public pay-as-you-go versus privately funded) and argue that alternative pension systems should be evaluated according to their ability to increase potential output growth. Finally, the authors present an empirical model to simulate the impact on the world economy of interactions between countries in different phases of demographic transition. A rapidly ageing population is a problem which, before too long, will face most industrialised countries in the world. This book provides some of the answers to the difficult decisions governments and citizens will have to make. It will be required reading for academics and researchers with an interest in macroeconomics, demographics and public finance, and professional economists working in insurance houses, commercial banks and financial institutions.