Wikipedia

Antonio Maccanico

Antonio Maccanico(4 August 1924 – 23 April 2013) was an Italian constitutional specialist and politician who served in various capacities in theItalian Parliamentand federal administrations of Italy. He was the former general secretary of theQuirinal Palacefrom 1978 to 1987, and was several times minister and undersecretary to the Prime Minister underCarlo Azeglio Ciampi.He was also president ofMediobanca.

Antonio Maccanico
Minister for Institutional Reforms
In office
21 June 1999 – 11 June 2001
Prime MinisterMassimo D'Alema
Giuliano Amato
Preceded byGiuliano Amato
Succeeded byUmberto Bossi
Minister of Post and Communications
In office
17 May 1996 – 21 October 1998
Prime MinisterRomano Prodi
Preceded byGiovanni Motzo
Succeeded bySalvatore Cardinale
Minister of Regional Affairs
In office
13 April 1988 – 13 April 1991
Prime MinisterCiriaco De Mita
Giulio Andreotti
Preceded byAristide Gunnella
Succeeded byFrancesco D'Onofrio
Member of theSenate of the Republic
In office
23 April 1992 – 14 April 1994
In office
28 April 2006 – 28 April 2008
Member of theChamber of Deputies
In office
9 May 1996 – 27 April 2006
Personal details
Born(1924-08-04)4 August 1924
Avellino,Italy
Died23 April 2013(2013-04-23)(aged 88)
Rome,Italy
Political party
List
  • PdA1942–1947
    PCI(1947–1956)
    PRI(1956–1994)
    None(1994–1996)
    UD(1996–1999)
    Dem(1999–2002)
    DL(2002–2007)
    PD(2007–2008)
Alma materPisa University

Early life and education

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Maccanico was born on 4 August 1924 inAvellino.[1]He graduated in law at theUniversity of Pisain 1946.[2][3][4]

Career

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Maccanico began his career at theChamber of Deputiesas a referendary in June 1947 during theConstituent Assembly of Italyperiod.[2][3]He worked in different commissions in the lower house of the Italian Parliament, and was a member of theAction Party.He later joined theItalian Communist Party,which he left in 1956 after theSoviet invasion of Hungary.[3]In 1962, Maccanico was appointed Head of the Legislative Office of the Ministry of the Budget by theItalian Republican PartyleaderUgo La Malfa,who had taken office as minister.[4]He returned to the Chamber of Deputies and in 1964 became Director of the Commission Service. He was appointed Deputy General Secretary of the Chamber of Deputies in 1972 and General Secretary on 22 April 1976.[4]As the author of several publications in the field of public finance and institutional and political problems, Maccanico was the representative of Italy in the Brusselsad hoccommittee for the preparation of the European convention for direct elections to theEuropean Parliament,a committee of which he had been president from September–December 1975.[3]

In the 1970s and 1980s, Maccanico served for nine years as the general secretary in the office of the then Italian presidentsSandro PertiniandFrancesco Cossiga.[3]He was the president of Italian investment bank Mediobanca from 1987 to 1988; it was privatized during his term.[5][6]He succeededEnrico Cucciain the aforementioned post.[7]Maccanico was appointedMinister for Regional Affairs and Institutional Problemson 13 April 1988, and was in office until 13 April 1991;[2][4]ultimately, no significant institutional reforms were developed during his tenure.[8]He was elected a member of theSenate of the Republicon 6 April 1992 for theItalian Republican Partyand served in the post until 1994.[7]He was the undersecretary of state of the presidency of the cabinet in theCiampi governmentfrom 29 April 1993 to 9 May 1994.[2]

Following the resignation of Prime MinisterLamberto Diniin January 1996, Maccanico was tasked with forming a government on 1 February 1996.[9][10]Maccanico strongly argued that all parties should agree on the required reforms before the formation of the government.[11]To overcome the television problem,Telecom Italiapresented an ambitious project for cabling Italian cities that would have allowed cable transmission, thus overcoming the reservations expressed by theConstitutional Court of Italyon over-the-air television broadcasts; the government attempt failed due to the almost complete opposition of the opposing parliamentary groups.[4]As he was unable to form a majority, Maccanico renounced the mandate on 14 February, and thus Italian presidentOscar Luigi Scalfarodissolved the Italian Parliament on 16 February.[9]Maccanico was elected deputy on 21 April 1996, being part ofRomano Prodi's list, from the constituency of Campania 2.[2]

On 18 May 1996, Maccanico was appointed minister of post and communications to the cabinet led by Romano Prodi.[12][13]In the cabinet, he was part of theDemocratic Union,to which he had established earlier in 1996.[14][15]He was the father of law no. 249 dated 31 July 1997 that was the basis of Italy's communications authority.[16]It is also called the Maccanico Law.[17]His tenure lasted until 1998.[6]In 1999, alongside Prodi, he was one of the founders ofThe Democrats.[4]In June 1999, he was namedMinister for Institutional Reformsto thefirst D'Alema government,replacingGiuliano Amatoin the post, and Maccanico kept the charge even in the successive governments until 2001.[4][7]

In 2001, Maccanico was elected to the Chamber of Deputies. He also oversaw the merger of The Democrats to formThe Daisy.[7]In 2006, Maccanico was elected for the fourth time to the Italian Parliament withThe Daisyin Campania.[7]During the legislature, he was the drafter of the Lodo Maccanico, the rule that provided for the non-prosecution and suspension of ongoing trials for the five highest offices of the state (the president of the Italian Republic and the presidents of the Chamber, the Senate, the Constitutional Court, and the Council of Ministers). Following a maxi-amendment from thecentre-right coalitionmajority, first signed byRenato Schifani,Maccanico disavowed the text of the law, which then became known as the Lodo Schifani.[4]

In 2007, Maccanico described Italy's transformation from a proportional republic to a majoritarian one. While he said that this was not perfect, he praised the stability and alternative governments (Christian Democracyhad been the ruling party during theFirst Italian Republic,while theSecond Italian Republicsaw a rotation betweencentre-left coalitionand centre-right coalition governments) it brought. He called theItalian electoral law of 2005,which returned to a more proportional system, a "monstrous electoral law".[18]In 2008, he did not run for re-election as a deputy.[4]

Death and legacy

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Maccanico died in a clinic in Rome on 23 April 2013;[3][4]he was 88.[1][7]In 2014, the diaries of Maccanico edited by the historian Paolo Soddu were published under the titleCon Pertini al Quirinale. Diari 1978–1985.[19]

References

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  1. ^ab"Morto a 88 anni l'ex ministro Antonio Maccanico".TGcom24(in Italian). 23 April 2013.Retrieved1 April2024.
  2. ^abcde"Antonio Maccanico".MediaMente.2001. Archived fromthe originalon 22 September 2004.Retrieved1 April2024.
  3. ^abcdef"È morto l'ex ministro Antonio Maccanico".Corriere della Sera(in Italian). 23 April 2013.ISSN1120-4982.Retrieved1 April2024.
  4. ^abcdefghij"E' morto Antonio Maccanico. La biografia completa".Formiche.net(in Italian). 23 April 2013.Retrieved1 April2024.
  5. ^Celestine Bohlen (2 February 1996)."Italy Turns to Top Bureaucrat to Try to Remake the Country".The New York Times.p. 2.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved1 April2024.
  6. ^ab"Italian politician and banker Antonio Maccanico dead at 88".Gazzetta del Sud.Rome. 23 April 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 4 March 2016.Retrieved1 April2024.
  7. ^abcdef"Morto Antonio Maccanico: fu ministro e presidente di Mediobanca".Corriere del Mezzogiorno.23 April 2013.Retrieved1 April2024.
  8. ^Andrew Gumbel (2 February 1996)."Backroom fixer given task of reforming Italy".The Independent.Rome.ISSN1741-9743.Archivedfrom the original on 7 May 2022.Retrieved1 April2024.
  9. ^abClaudia Radaelli (2002)."The Italian State and the Euro: Institutions, Discourse, and Policy Regimes".In Kenneth H. F. Dyson (ed.).European States and the Euro: Europeanization, Variation, and Convergence.Oxford:Oxford UniversityPress. p. 217.ISBN978-0-19-925026-4– via Google Books.
  10. ^Carol Diane St Louis (2011).Negotiating Change: Approaches to and the Distributional Implications of Social Welfare and Economic Reform(PhD thesis).Stanford University.p.150.STANFORD:RW793BX2256.
  11. ^Richard L. Wentworth (20 February 1996)."Its Politics in Neutral, Italy Gears for Vote".The Christian Science Monitor.Rome.Retrieved1 April2024.
  12. ^Richard L. Wentworth (20 May 1996)."One Nation Indivisible Under Prodi? Italy's New Chief Tries to Avoid Split".The Christian Science Monitor.Retrieved1 April2024.
  13. ^Patrick McCarthy (1997).The Crisis of the Italian State: From the Origins of the Cold War to the Fall of Berlusconi and Beyond.Palgrave Macmillan.p.228.ISBN978-0-312-16359-4.
  14. ^Piero Ignazzi (1998). "Italy".European Journal of Political Research.34(3–4): 447–451.doi:10.1111/1475-6765.00054-i5.
  15. ^Alan Friedman (27 February 1996)."Berlusconi Looks Like the Loser in Dini's Jump into Politics".The New York Times.Paris.Retrieved1 April2024.
  16. ^Cinzia Padovani (2009)."Pluralism of Information in the Television Sector in Italy: History and Contemporary Conditions".In Andrea Czepek; Melanie Hellwig Hellwig; Eva Nowak (eds.).Press Freedom and Pluralism in Europe.Bristol; Chicago: Intellect Books. p. 296.ISBN978-1-84150-243-4.
  17. ^Giuliano Adriano (2012).1960-2010: Game Over for Italy's Most Criminal Governments.Bloomington, Indiana: Author House. p.49.ISBN978-1-4772-1822-8.
  18. ^"Quando Maccanico diceva: 'Quo vadis senza riforma elettorale?'".Formiche.net(in Italian). 23 April 2014.Retrieved1 April2024.
  19. ^Fabio Bulfone (May 2016). "Book review. Con Pertini al Quirinale. Diari 1978–1985, by Antonio Maccanico, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014, 600 pp., €36.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-88-15-25099-5".Modern Italy.21(2): 220–222.doi:10.1017/mit.2016.15.S2CID148185445.
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