Places where the people don't look: 'Cupole' and us pseudo-republican states: 'untouchables', solutions to the problem and true structural reforms

Last updated April 21,2025

Here is the original, from which this is updated.

Table of Contents

“We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure”

Karl Popper

Introduction - Pandora's Box

This article turned out to be quite extended because, while trying to summarize as much as possible, I have gradually integrated useful information to bring together historical and political concepts in a chronological thread, based on the development of historical events and news topics of interest, with the aim of being comprehensive and making them assimilable to the widest possible audience of readers, in order to explain the reasons that have led to the problematic political situation in countries such as ours and others. For those reading on a smartphone, turn it horizontally, and the article will actually appear shorter. 

For those who are short on time, or perhaps want to return to reading this historical overview later, here are links to posts containing urgent solutions to these problems: Call for political action for the complete razionalization of law enforcement in Italy and elsewhere, and Significant revision of the second part of the Constitution. 

Anyway, a possible future summary will be posted here.

In  addition, this article contains specificities of the Italian state, and there are web links that refer to online material intermixed in both Italian and English, but the general aspects exposed here concern many countries, starting with some in the continental europe, followed by others in the rest of the world. Some of the web links are relevant to the concepts expressed, many others are for those who wish to delve deeper into the specifics of the topics covered.

In the title of this article, I did not know how to translate the Italian term "Cupole", the plural of "Cupola", so I left it as is, because given this term translates to "Dome," it is also used figuratively in Italian journalistic jargon to indicate the highest ruling body of the mafia, which would include the leaders designated by the most powerful families of a specific geographical area, and in this article the term is intended to convey the idea relating to certain entities whose interpretation depends on who will have read it: a reader more attracted to mysteries, plots, machinations, intrigues, and concealments shall read this term as akin to the concept of 'power structures', while a reader more inclined to dissacrate phenomena shall read it as akin to 'chains of command'. Of course, in between there are various personality nuances, since this is independent of each person's level of intelligence. For someone like the author, who grew up in a family environment within the defense sector, and for the discreet 'truth seekers', the Cupola is a set of historical hierarchies, at least opaque, extra-territorial, that are generally handed down, inherent in concentrations of power, intermingling and consumption of abuses, difficult to identify even for the most aggressive fact-checkers, such as CICAP, but in any case, among the various hypotheses that author has in mind, even if we remain in the realm of the unproven, I have sufficient reason to conclude that this Cupola and cupole constitute spheres of influence that encroach on what should be the legitimate politics of various states, such as Italy. Then, on a smaller scale, there have always been various 'interest groups', both large and local, and more or less influential. It is the aspect of man as a social subject, who tends to form groups and communities with more or less legitimate purposes (e.g. for survival strategies, crime, work, politics, etc.); think, for example, of associations of various kinds: tribes, sports associations, political parties, societies, companies, 'families' (mafia or ordinary), governments, courts, clubs of various kinds, school classes, Masonic lodges, armies, groups of friends, orchestras and bands, etc., come to mind, also the terms 'lobbies', 'lodges' and 'potentates', which tend to refer pejoratively to large groups that influence economies, markets, politics, information and other areas, one example being those involved in the oil industry. On this point, I would like to digress slightly: I observe that the era in which we live is witnessing technological transformations that are making relationships increasingly digital and virtual, with the side effect of creating areas of emotional voids, loneliness, and an inability to form direct relationships.

Not long ago I decided to disseminate more incisively the information that I have

grouped in this article of mine, which I had previously relegated to a smaller audience but having a high profile of popularity, given certain facts like this one that confirm to me once again, even if I personally wouldn't need it, that we must be a little careful by not excluding potential retaliation from the parties that I will call into question, part of the current "hybrid" type military institutions in many states, about which I will mention later some further episodes among those that have come to light. Subsequently, however, having considered the general situation of the present era, such as the evolution of the means of communication, and in particular that by now various people of my acquaintance and not, and important international organizations have inspected it, it was urgent for me to disseminate this information as widely as possible.

This article is an analytical compilation of rather laborious research, where in addition to my personal knowledge in the military field, but certainly not confidential, all the contents of this examination are in the public domain, available from various editorial and journalistic sources, historical archives, material on the world wide web, and something else, and I make a summary here. So I would like to reassure certain 'expert' readers that the sources I draw on are not leaks, secret information, let alone state secrets.

Observing that we are living in an epoch characterized by conflict, tension, instability, widespread social unrest, and citizen protests, it is clear that conflict is a constant in times like these, and historically, politics and crises go hand in hand. Even back then, in describing the crises, President Abraham Lincoln said: "We live in the midst of alarms, anxiety blurs the future; we expect some new disaster from every newspaper we read". But whenever I learn news from Italy about protests, and mobilizations for social complaints as those of labor unions, I smile as a connoisseur of the military world, but not for the reason you might think. I started from these considerations not to analyze the reasons of social discontent, but as an introduction to the topic of this article, which was born with the hope for all of a better society, simply indicating how there is an absolute urgency to take steps on an indispensable path toward substantial reform of the Police forces, and toward institutional reforms, in the name of states of more sound rule of law and civil liberties of many peoples who were left behind, such as italians. When I had confirmed that people are basically unaware that Italy and other countries unfortunately have the illusion of being part of modern Republics, that in reality such are not (in Italy we have to go back to past ages such as 'Municipal age' to see the first historical attempts of Republics that counteracts the aristocracy, albeit localized), it had become necessary for me to expose here the historical reasons that took place more than 2 centuries ago, where the problems of multiplying the expansion of the number of law enforcement agencies originated, after making an excursus of their consequences by seeing some of the chronicles of our epoch, that should have been the republican Italy's, but as we will see, never really became such). In Naples they say "curnuto e mmazziato" ("cuckolded and beaten"): I knew that most of the people (and is it so also for most of the political class? Or is someone just plain stupid or pretending to be?) were unaware of their illusion, but at some point I realized that so many ordinary people are also deceived, starting from the fact that there is a certain collective perception of a false problem such as that of 'saving' on expenses for the police forces, where someone artfully feeds a false need to even increase them: as we will see, on the contrary, these expenditures are completely irrational and out of any control, by analyzing some history followed by current data, which see Italy in particular among the top places in a ranking that reflects the 'maneuvers' of the Cupola: if all the heads, sub-heads and subordinates, colonels, marshals, lieutenants and brigadiers of various corps, commands, 

departments and sub-departments, barracks and various offices should deploy here, and the more the merrier, we would have a platoon of agents under the door of each house, even worse than in states like China; we will see numerical data under the paragraph 'Quietly, how many there are!', but I suggest reading the unfolding of the article, where I will explain

which things aren't going right, that are those 'en passant' things that go unnoticed by most people.

Furthermore, the article is relevant for a large audience, including policymakers (in particular governments that it urges to spur to 

material action), scholarlies and activists, and I would like to involve the last, the humble, the marginalized, the have-nots, the simple people (simplicity does not necessarily imply lack of intelligence), the poor, the forgotten, and the young, in general to men of good will, but also shaking the elites and trying to dialogue with the 'nobilities', because it is important for the many unaware people to understand to whom our politics is historically still really subjugated, and the real, absolute social-political significance of urgent, unpostponable political actions to overhaul law enforcement, and regarding reforms on the second part of the Italian Constitution that I'm going to propose here, significance of which almost no common citizen of these peoples is aware.

And since in many countries of the world a growing movement is underway to reform the police forces, where the main rationale behind this has generally been the streamlining of the States' internal security systems and the promise of greater efficiency and elimination of duplication or worse in police activities, and where in others this evolutionary progress has already occurred, this article aims to make an important contribution to the debate on their future. Given the history and culture of the peoples of continental Europe such as ours, the reformist change I am proposing here would lead to a stronger and more effective policy in the interests of the community (you will understand why I am still using the conditional tense), moving us towards a more serious Republic, and this is invaluable, furthermore,  we are throwing away at least €13.3 billion of public money in 2023 alone, an enormous amount. This is the saving achieved by implementing the most likely solution among those urgently invoked here, which readers will learn about, to solve the problem of law enforcement. Other unfortunate countries like ours have a similar path to follow, but Italy, as we shall see, holds the negative record, and you will realize where all this money from our taxes ends up (Lots of them! As usual, taxpayers are on the side of the abyss!), also out of respect for the many companies and freelancers in the Italian productive fabric who represent the source of a large part of tax revenues (as a matter of interest: 90% of Italian companies have a maximum of 9 employees): this will make law enforcement much more streamlined and efficient, on a par with more developed countries, and release an enormous amount of money for purposes that are more useful to society (I have dedicated a specific paragraph to this).

Here I will point the audience to a watershed between the history of a counterrevolutionary and reactionary Europe, which seems distant to us but we will see that unfortunately it is not at all, and the future that we still lack, and that other countries have already gone through, as we shall see.

Persuasive barriers

Although this article focuses on politically extremely critical aspects, leaving out 'cheering' for this or the other party or institution, and elsewhere any other arguments regarding the models of economic and social systems in the world, I could find some persuasive obstacles by making psychological, sociological and anthropological considerations, with the assumption that it is not easy for the 'populace' to grasp the content of this post, given that people's attention is normally occupied by everyday problems and nowadays distracted by more or less truthful and ably fed 'conspiracies', an example of conspiracy fiction is explained 

here, among many others that reveal the relative upstream strategies, (specifying that I am always open to any hypothesis, but with an eye to the sources; I found some books that deal with this social issue "Mitologia del complottismo-Il Behemoth delle storie" (in italian literature) and "The new heretics-understanding conspiracy theories", as well as enlightening articles like this one in italian, which also mentions some psycho-social aspects of conspiracy theories, as aspects related to the past Covid-19 pandemic are explored here); in the same way, people are also distracted by widespread misinformation (here I report a research that makes us understand how challenging it is to maintain the long-term effectiveness of methods to counter disinformation, (but lately A.I. is coming to our aid), and more or less involuntarily and even a little rightly, continuously alarming news: I repeat, regardless of the degree of truthfulness, our fast era is characterized by mass distractions (a book in Italian). Some persuasive obstacles could also concern many people of a certain age, which can keep anchored to old mental patterns, so resulting resistant or not adaptable to winds of change (positively, of course), which is an additional problem for the purpose of this article, given that ours is a country with ever older people (small digression: neuro-sciences, studying the brain can provide insights into aging and its prevention), while on the other hand fanaticism is independent of age, as can be seen for example from the recent cycle of resurgence of some fanatically radical right-wing currents in Europe; or those who do not have an appropriate mental vision to grasp the aspects of the matter, or people, I hope few, not in tune with my spirit of renewal, in these cases I generally believe that these are not the kind of people capable of changing things. 

In addition, there are those who are subjected to the so-called 'fascination of the uniform' (tending to be among the female audience, though not only); okay, but I am addressing those among them who are not careful to discern between 'Clothes and the man': for example making an extreme case, not that it is applicable to the subjects I will examine here, but even the German SS uniforms might have appealed to a lot of people...

All these aspects, whether intentionally or not, cloud the clarity needed for many people to understand the core of this issue and to comprehend the ubiquitous scope of what we are facing, where powerful but practically barely visible behind-the-scenes factors make the difference between a state governed by the rule of law, a 'fake' one, and one that is not, which is what I am interested in making clear. But I will do my best, accompanying all the more or less witty readers of this writing, providing them with a series of elements that the common person currently lacks: for those who follow me, we will be able to put the pieces of this puzzle together, and in this way, those who will have read this article will be able to formulate hypotheses about the Cupola, but have no illusions: it will remain elusive and opaque, as has historically been its 'job'. I will preface this by saying that for the people who suffered the consequences of that epoch, I am aware that it brought with it serious consequences for aspiring modern republics;

and since then the situation has not only not changed for many peoples, but rather as we will see in Italy it has worsened; not only that, but given that the topic under discussion concerns the functions of public order and security, by reading documents and following documentaries on crime, I found that regardless of the entity/quantity of law enforcement agencies, crime has remained more or less the same and has increased its earnings, so we should rather focus on other things, including the social role of prevention through various means such as education (A cue I got from an episode of the TV program 'TGR Leonardo' on apr/17/2025: morality<-->empathy [ability to put oneself in someone else's shoes]<-->emotions<-->reasoning<-->developmental age), the importance of the delicate role and management of information to the public, and keeping up with crime regarding technology, I would add that I also associate these issues with my opinion regarding the competences of the leaders of the political class and when talking about crime, topics on which I will express myself better later.

Let's take a look inside Pandora's Box:
Abuse of power, 'Cupole' and (mis-)information

Compared to the beginning of this millennium alone, we have seen the multimedia galaxy change in a technological and social evolution, but the substance so far does not seem to be improving, because it is difficult to navigate the proliferation of variously organized information and counter-information, particularly on the web, and now more than ever, the multiplication of media wars and propaganda between factions of power operated by 'cupole' and 'counter-cupole', in this article, I am referring to the cupole of law enforcement agencies and political currents in many states, seeking the consent of citizens. Let alone in places like Italy,

which ranks poorly in terms of freedom of communication, 49th out of 180 countries, according to the 2025 Annual Report by Reporters Without Borders (worse than in 2024),

and in countries where the situation is worse, there is little to laugh about: let's hope that initiatives such as this one by the European Union will help to improve the independence and plurality of the media sector. In contrast, I add

here a vast analysis of data on the disinformation phenomenon still in Italy on some social networks, during a pre-election period in 2019.

Someone used to say "The truth defends itself," but we mere mortals must "defend ourselves" against communication strategies.

In fact, historically, the organization of the ways in which information is disseminated and conveyed can be artfully designed for various purposes, not only for purposes that are actually useful to the community (think of the attention given to wars), but also for distracting purposes, in order to divert attention to other facts to cover up misdeeds or news that is inconvenient for someone (in order to conceal them or keep them in the background and make them fade into oblivion), or even to divide people's opinions and create factions, pointing to false enemies to blame for every possible problem, thus preventing the identification of those truly responsible for 

scams, embezzlement, manipulation, disasters, violence, etc. that may be suffered: here, the saying "Divide and conquer" illustrates this concept well; the result of becoming accustomed to certain 'truths' is amplified when specific information is repeatedly disseminated by the mainstream media.

Another factor is the choice and use of certain words (there is a journalistic jargon), for example, for some time now I have been hearing talk in some quarters of the 'rearmament' of Europe. Now, I don't want to be misunderstood: in my opinion, there should be no war (here are some of my thoughts), but in the current context, this is a rhetorical expression, where it would be better to say 'strengthening European defense' (Europe is increasingly weak in the evolution of the global order), while, and here comes the 'mass distraction', the real

rearmament took place quietly among the law enforcement agencies, particularly in certain specific bodies. We will also see the frightening economic costs for society and the solutions.

Let's also add to all this that nowadays the mass media can make use of 'experts', tools, and technologies that can be used for malicious purposes, such as the so-called Trolls, who can also be assisted by 'BOTs', namely 'Ro-Bot' programs made for the purpose, among other things (initially they were used to send e-mails automatically, and certain computer viruses act by spreading as such), of automating the writing and spreading of comments and posts on digital channels, popular websites and so on. Then with the recent advent of artificial intelligence, of which we all know the various chatBOTs that have revolutionized the era of knowledge and among the sources from which I drew to write this article, the 'troll-BOTs' now they reach even more sophisticated levels. By now with the advent of the A.I. we even test the waters where fiction can be mistaken for reality and vice versa, and anyone has access to tools that, in addition to serving our creativity, allow us to exponentially multiply our multimedia expression capabilities. Here are a few articles on some 'use cases':

Google Veo3, Dubbed "Next Level Of Filmmaking", Stuns Internet;

The Line Between Video, Simulation, And Games Is Starting To Blur: Google Veo3 Researcher;

The latest impressive deepfake videos from Veo3 (Google). How were they made?;

TikTok flooded with racist dark humor videos: "They are created with Google's Veo3 artificial intelligence.";

Marco Squintu | Videos created with artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly realistic! Can you still tell them apart from reality?;

Then, for those who want to delve deeper into the topic of mass communication, there is specific material relating to the subject, like this

in italian. For example, when it comes to television media, I completely avoid news programs on mainstream channels such as the RAI's first two, part of the third, and the Mediaset channels, where I clearly see biases and communicative imprints based on factors such as the order of priority given to news items, with "uncomfortable" news excluded and other news "pushed," among other factors. This leads me to think of networks and sub-networks affiliated with the 'Cupola'.

That said, given the abnormal and completely irrational presence of various national public law enforcement agencies in Italy (main theme of this article), for 'par condicio' among these various 'roosters crowing' on the subject of chronicles of abuse of power, I have to bring it back here to follow (and who would have believed that one day I would have to report citations because of a 'par condicio' of this kind!) a sample, for brevity, of the chronicles among those reported to justice (among who knows how many others of which many will perhaps never be known) some of which  the subject of careful TV program insights, others little known: here, regarding the Carabinieri, in addition to the episode mentioned earlier: (1) (2), here about the Guardia di Finanza: (1) (2) (3) (4) (and a book on the 'doxierage'), here about the Polizia penitenziaria: (1) (2) (for cases still under trial, in the meantime you can form your own opinion), and as far as the State Police are concerned, I resume the issue of protest demonstrations, and among those that have had overt tragic consequences, I call to mind the chronicle of the clashes that accompanied the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 with the subsequent police reprisals (some references here: a touching story and Judicial trials and decisions on the G8 in Genoa and In Bolzaneto it was torture-Strasbourg condemns Italy), leaving aside here any political judgments on what happened, in the spirit of this examination.

Going on about the italian chronicles, a suspicious 'progenitor' in modern times was the Montesi case (here a symptomatic passage), while for example the investigations and the trial for the death of the bandit Salvatore Giuliano 

and the story of Melone-Marzano (also here a press article at the time; from this story, replacing the real figure of the Police Commissioner with that of a Mayor for censorship reasons, was inspired the film 'Il Vigile' in 1960) are other unclear stories; 

returning to the chronicles involving the Carabinieri, I cannot help but report an edifying interview with Ilaria Cucchi, whose brother was beaten to death in an italian Carabinieri barracks.

Finally, in addition to the now vast literature on the facts and misdeeds behind many 'mysteries' in Italian history and even recent chronicles (I will mention some sources later), I cite this book which concerns historical connections between the mafia, intelligence services, the Carabinieri, the Supreme Court of Cassation and politicians, one of those cases in which the highest levels of current powers are touched, a broad denunciation by some brave magistrate that the 'interested parties' are trying to silence. These are all stories that help the reader understand the underlying conspiratorial forces that are still at play nowadays.

I will point out other bibliographical examples later that further aid this understanding, here in the meantime I cite this illustrative one.

However, when it comes to abuse of power,

I am well aware that aspects such as the behavior of police officers of any kind when dealing with people they stop or arrest also exist in countries younger than ours, we all remember the sad Floyd case and other similar cases, here are some other examples, nor would I take lightly warnings like this article from a few years ago, which raise questions of legitimacy and

privacy in the management of public security; regarding this aspect I link here a speech by an italian jurist and university professor who teaches in California and Turin (if the previous link does not work try this one; in any case, to open them you are asked to authenticate by selecting a recognized gmail email address).

Clearly, this does not mean that those who are detained should be welcomed with a red carpet and kid gloves: that would be going from one extreme to the other.

Potentially, here I could offer an opportunity for any presumably stakeholder, and not necessarily elderly, who could brandish the usual arguments pointing the finger at alleged smear campaigns against the police, and who is favored by a more or less subtle and relentless 'mainstream' media machine, then I would say that here they would be completely out of place: rather than simply being ignorant, they pretend to be so (there are even those who occasionally use expressions like "we have the best police forces" etc., and in these cases one understands that they pretend to be so: the reality is very different, if there was any need for denial, just to give you some ideas, in the paragraph 'Crime and Public Security'). It would be enough for me to say that there are so many cases of abuse of power like those mentioned, with too many law enforcement institutions in Italy, that speak for themselves, In addition, there is the problem of military conditioning of politics, because as we all know, the military universe in itself has wide margins of autonomy, so beyond all individual cases of abuse, military and civilian, it is a structural problem for civil justice: it is like the treatment  of health problems, sometimes the symptoms can be alleviated (e.g. painkillers), but if the cause of the problem is not eradicated, the problem remains. So we would never get out of it IF NOT by taking the road that goes in the right direction, that of the solutions that I propose here: general restructuring of law enforcement and reforms of some parts of the Constitution, here I mention the Italian one, but it could be the case with others, France comes to mind as well as other parts of the world. Mine is a 'campaign', as I was saying, to make the police work better by avoiding duplications/triplications/etc., just like in the more advanced countries, from this point of view, than ours.

An important note: I expect the vast majority of law enforcement officers to be good people, but reflect on the fact that in the current complex Italian system, some powers are more powerful than others.

About Democracy

Close-up connoisseur of the military world, but animated by respect for the knowledge of the truth especially if hidden from the masses without valid reasons, not considering myself affected by fanaticisms of any kind, I firmly support the states of law and the sovereignty, in my opinion realistically feasible only indirectly (e.g., 'representative'), of peoples, and I condemn anything that even potentially leads to any form of classism, starting with 'suspected' public institutions, approaching the vision of Republic of Giuseppe Mazzini, the anti-monarchist dreamer of that 'Youth Italy' and 'Youth Europe' which anticipated broader views, regardless of how one may feel about his political orientation, since I have learned that, as we shall see, self-classifications are relative.

With some likely differences from him: I support the idea of substantial administrative decentralization (Article 5 of the Italian Constitution goes in that direction) in its various republican expressions, inescapably including the law enforcement agencies themselves, 

perhaps in a less fragmentary way than in larger countries such as the United States; many modern nations, in the rest of the world and in Europe, are now federations of states, up to and including those City-States (I am not from Milan but I agree, and Berlin is missing from the list in the referenced article) that have proven to be a successful model in the world; another difference concerns the fact that in my view political action should tend to be informed by secular assumptions.

Before we delve into the explanation of the problems, I have a challenge for readers, aimed in particular at scholars and experts in social and behavioral sciences and anthropological-cultural subjects, who may have an adequate preparation to better evaluate the following consideration:

“It's characteristic of democracy that majority rule is understood as being effective not only in politics but also in thinking. In thinking, of course, the majority is always wrong.”

cit. Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth (with Bill Moyers).

Among the concepts that human beings have developed throughout history is that of democracy, for which there are no unambiguous and uncontroversial definitions, as there are none for the concept of the state, but more empirically and commonly accepted definitions, for a remarkable idea of theoretical democracy I still quote American President Abraham Lincoln with one of his famous phrases "Government of the people, by the people, for the people" (he would later be assassinated). But if we take Campbell's assumption, a 'perfect' democracy as envisioned by Lincoln in practice may not be feasible, since even not wishing to exacerbate it, would be characterized by the contrast between the fallacy of collective thinking (one reason may be because it is influenced by the individualistic human spirit?) and the regulatory mechanisms of a politics defining itself as democratic, and it would follow that democracy might sometimes or often prove to be an impediment to government action (here a more detailed discussion with assistant A.I., at the level of popularization in English). On the other hand, another aspect of democracy is the fact that it does not necessarily imply that everyone is capable of engaging in politics, and specific forms such as representative democracy would be in line with this. I wonder: if everyone were capable of engaging in politics, perhaps there would be no need for politics?

Another hypothesis of mine to explain Campbell's assertion is that the greater the lack of information or misinformation, and we have seen that in Italy in this respect we are not well off, and the more the 'wisdom of the crowd' is fallacious, this would be one more reason from which I would infer that in order to counter this phenomenon, when constituting the top leadership of a ruling class, we have to pay attention to their quality and their human and moral profile. In Italy, these top positions would include the Prime Minister, ministers, perhaps undersecretaries, and parliamentary group leaders, furthermore, I propose that this political leadership class be consisted of subject matter scholars in the modern humanities, social sciences, and psychological sciences. These include, for example, behavioral (neuro)sciences, also considering aspects of behavior such as ethics, then psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, political and economic anthropology, comparative psychology, sociobiology, environmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, and other related subjects. Now, my proposal could be associated to some extent with the concept of technocracy, but it is necessary to clarify the meaning of the prefix 'techno-'. In fact, there is a substantial difference between a technocrat who is an engineer or doctor and an anthropologist or literary expert. In simple terms, not all technocrats are the same: the term should be interpreted differently depending on the specific context of skills and expertise. And if the leaders knew at least a little history, it would be even better.

Among these subjects of expertise I have not included others, which are not inherent to the study of the person as an individual and in the collective, such as political science or philosophy, because I think, even if the humanistic sensitivity is distributed among people with different backgrounds, that the subjects in the previous list tend to be approached by personalities who are more sensitive to our being humanity, which is what poli-tics essentially cannot do without.

And then, after all, a sociologist can also be a political scientist or philosopher. In this view, I assume that the support staff employed by the aforementioned political leaders may have any competence or abilities, or may have none in particular, or may have personal qualities of interest. Finally, it goes without saying that politicians should not be influenced by hidden potentates of any kind: all this information must be accessible, as it would happen in other countries.

Another thought on another quote, this one from Irving Kristol, whose view is that [one result of] democracy is not to guarantee equality of conditions, but equality of opportunities: could it perhaps promote this? I don't know, in my opinion, not even this, it wouldn't have the strength, so I believe that, returning to Campbell's argument, a prudent political ruling class is perhaps 'forced' to seek solutions that balance the 'levels' of democracy of a people in proportion to their level of awareness, or conversely, to their level of ignorance.

Let's think about countries like Italy, where there is no shortage of 'crafty' people, soccer dependents, pimps (in line with the illegality that is now widespread throughout the world; we will look at some data on crime in Italy in a separate section) and with problems of functional illiteracy: it is not exactly an example of the aforementioned “popular wisdom”. And many brilliant young people are right to emigrate, draining this country of its talents.

So if we assume that one aspect of good politics involves the organizational structure of a society, democracy conceals within itself the risks of social entropy (disorder) in which someone has supposed an oppressive majoritarian form of government controlled by the common people through the intimidation of authorities, an argument that stimulated my curiosity.

And some have theorized that there would be historical periods characterized by this 'chaos', followed by periods of (self?) social reorganization, resulting in different systems of government that would repeat cyclically

throughout history. In any case, if you think about it, nothing is forever, for better or for worse (thankfully) including the fact that we must always be vigilant.

However, if equality of opportunity could be 'guaranteed', there would be much less work to do for virtuous governments whose primary goal would be to pursue sustainable living conditions for any of their citizens who, for various reasons, are unable to overcome their undignified living conditions and have good will, or are disabled or have other causes ascertained to be force majeure. This is an understanding that should be part of a political dialogue that does not ignore the concept of natural law, of which here too there is an effective historical and conceptual summary on this subject.

For the sake of completeness, I have included some rankings regarding the level of democracy in different countries in the section entitled 'Rules of law'.

Anyway, this article is all about the most basic and complete form of a modern republic. this article focuses on the more basic and most complete expression of a modern republican State.

Awareness

So, from the previous discussion on abuses of power, I get ideas to make understand a certain history in a certain Europe in a certain epoch, which significantly pushed back an historical-social path that was bringing people closer together towards a direction outlined by the modern evolution of the concepts of a State and governments, with the various aspects that this should imply for society. The heart of the matter dates back to a Europe where historical events over 2 centuries old are the origin of the perpetuation to date of certain elites of 'untouchables' even by legitimate governments.

Let's start from the assumption that any form of government that should be a Republic (democratic or otherwise), even more so with the increasingly established distinction between Republic and "monarchy or noble oligarchy", is in antithesis with these, therefore we see that the factual expressions of Republics in Europe and in the rest of the world are a continuous process of evolution and involution, of conquests and setbacks, the specter of repressive drifts and related governments hovers more or less above them, and they are always fragile and susceptible to faltering (making an analogy, they are somewhat like those who walk on a treadmill where you have to always 'walk', if you slow down or stop, you are thrown backwards, even considering that the rolling carpet, which flows in your opposite direction, can go more or less fast) so much so that the peoples of each place are who more, who least subjugated. 

To invite the reader to a reasoning, a clue of the enormous social delay of Italy in general, in the long journey towards the civil liberties of a modern 'rule of law', is the unfortunately not so distant date of the banning only in 1981 of the criminal 'honor killing', which, think about it, reduced the sentences a lot, when it even justified certain facts, and also for 'reparative' infanticide (there are still countries, like Pakistan, with these absurd conceptions), while for example in the United States slavery was banned 'only' in 1862, which for historical periods is a recent past.

I repeat, judgments on specific facts are not the subject of this article, given that we are going to see more in depth the historical substrate that conditions the politics of states like Italy. 

So, beyond assessing the social impact of protests, my aim is to raise awareness (it may seem trivial, but it is worth remembering that awareness is when you learn something you did not know before or that was "under the radar" ) among as large a part of the population as possible, of historical aspects (and misdeeds) that are essentially "technical," and therefore seen from the outside as apparently marginal, and which are therefore not widely known, such as this one, but which are of primary importance for the purpose of this article, and those who currently embody its legacy would certainly have not even interest in publicizing, because they represent powerful interests of those who still historically ‘maneuver behind the scenes’.

The genesis of this article took its cue from the fact that, starting also from my own knowledge, I observed that in the countries in this respect most developed, there is only a police force with national or federal coverage. It also happens that in these countries, their armies, navies, and air forces are responsible for defending their territory, but exceptionally they also retain extraordinary tasks of assisting with the public safety of the civilian population, then maturing over time this awareness, I began to do more in-depth research on the topic that is one of the main themes of this analysis, and over time I further delved into the comparative history of the military and civilian organizations involved, in Europe and beyond, starting from the time of the French Revolution. This also included a distinction between the military organs of defense that are reasonably necessary for the nation and, where they exist, those of the military police that have civil jurisdiction, or 'hybrid'.

At school, I generally didn't like history, but in my ignorance at the time, certain periods fascinated me more than others. Then, (many) years later, my search for the real reasons behind certain 'facets' of today's society motivated me to make historical insights of interest related to the topics of this article, which also made me understand why most of the human things that exist and happen today are motivated by causes and developments that took place in the past, which may be more or less distant, and which therefore influence the present. School education, at least pre-college education, cannot delve into many events to the extent of recreating broader contexts so as to be able to form more informed judgments with respect to so many events, either because it would be too challenging at school age, or because of the possibility of new discoveries and information even of a historical nature, and even more so in the news; so they are often passionate scholars who rework or reinterpret facts more critically, deepening their knowledge by immersing themselves in that or that other historical investigation toward a true broadening of perspectives on what is being told. For example, did you know that the course, and thus the outcome, of the French Revolution was largely determined by the conflict between a revolution and a counter-revolution? And if it had gone better, maybe we would have avoided the coming of Napoleon!, and after more than 200 years we would not have found ourselves, alas, also NOT French, still in the current situation that I am analyzing here. And I want to make the audience understand how the topic of this article pervasively affects the whole society.

Military and civilians, and real plots

I begin by assuring the reader that history and the chronicles teach us that, unfortunately, in much of the world, there is the clash between military powers and where more or less present political forces aspiring to a civilization of politics, where each pulls on its own side; and wherever authoritarian or repressive regimes are present, there are always military police forces as their supporting armed arm, as was the case for the monarchs of the restoration of the Conservative Order, about which I will shortly give historical notes in this regard. Meanwhile, a list of the police forces in the world can be found here.

Regarding authoritarian/repressive powers, it is enough to see that in history some military coup has always been repeated somewhere in the world (e.g. in Spain, Chile, Argentina, lately in Bolivia, Myanmar, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Mali), and not least with various attempts in the "republican" Italy (it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Colpi_di_Stato_in_Italia , an indicative one was the 'SIGMA Plan', with very much strange 'suicide stories' 

(see also here): this is an example of a real conspiracy; not to mention other countries always poised with variously repressive governments, some more some less, such as Iran, Syria, Turkey, the region of Sahel in Africa, then Venezuela, Colombia; and not to mention places like China (do you remember their vigilance during the COVID-19 pandemic?). And here, the smartest people should already begin to understand more deeply the vast extent of the implications of the phenomenon.

Eloquent are articles like this, in Italian, here a similar one in English, unfortunately sadly current.

Let me preface this by saying that in more advanced countries than ours, the rule is that in cases of contingent necessity, the arms of Defense (Army, Navy and Air Force would be fully sufficient) operate as possible auxiliary actors for peace, which I always hope for, and would have the 'free' availability and the powerful means for possibly being employed where it would be useful in cooperation with and in support of the elected organs of public security, the Police forces (in undesirable times of war the penal code of war would be in force and the Defense organs would also assume functions of public security); I am thinking, for example, of Operation 'Safe Streets' (where here I would equip the Army corps that take turns for this tasks with weapons like those supplied to the civil police, not excluding Tasers); and speaking of synergies, an interesting document concerning the collaboration in Italy between Local police and the State police (which in other countries is a Federal police), can be downloaded as 'Rules on local police - Camera.it'.

Here then a much broader and more effective discussion is called for, where I bring you specific information, of which the masses have no knowledge for various reasons, I am therefore to summarize them. I hope nobody is disappointed by saying that fascism has nothing to do here, while it is right that each of us must be vigilant on certain phenomena, but without running the risk of collective distraction from other socially very negative phenomena (on fascism fortunately there is a very extensive literature on the subject, here and here 2 full-bodied literary compendiums).

Here I am dealing with events farther back in time, which led to the current situation where the actors are Republics versus those forces at play that I mentioned in talking about abuses of power, with the latter to this day still well connected with the command posts of many societies, it's an unresolved question where in Italy as elsewhere there is still everything to do. Even in relatively recent human history, there have been many episodes of regression in the at least apparent evolutionary path towards less repressed societies and with more civil rights (I am not talking about socio-economic aspects), And now, given that the issue at hand is the excess of institutions and law enforcement agencies, we must first provide some historical background on the Italian case, which has an absolutely negative record with four police forces, including the Penitentiary Police, because in recent times it has 'enlarged', having seen its duties extended almost to the same extent as the other three: I will give details on this later, leaving aside their historical origins. For the sake of brevity, I will therefore summarize the emergence of the current hybrid law enforcement agencies, i.e., military bodies with civil jurisdiction, and the State Police. Their history, little known to most, begins more than 2 centuries ago: I am talking about what turns out to be a world more or less parallel depending on the nation, that of the Gendarmerie.

it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gendarmeria

Most similar entry in english:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_gendarmeries

Police militarization

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militarization_of_police

The story of Gendarmerie, condensed as much as possible while still retaining the key events

The history of roughly all present-day gendarmeries in the states where they are still present stems in France from the 'Gendarmerie nationale' (I have indicated the French-language Wikipedia entry because it is more comprehensive, including a link to a more detailed entry), a military corps that was a direct descendant of the old militia called the 'Maréchaussée,' which was in charge of police and justice in armies since the Middle Ages, and then, passing through the so-called historical period known as the 'Ancièn Regime,' gradually became a police force responsible for the entire population over almost the entire French territory.

In 1720, the Maréchaussée was symbolically placed under the administrative authority of the Gendarmerie de France, a heavy cavalry corps assimilated into the king's military house, which was disbanded on April 1, 1788, and the Maréchaussée retained its powers of extraordinary justice (called "provost") until the French Revolution. In that period, in 1791, a National Constituent Assembly, organized by the deputies of the Estates General because of the refusal of the deputies of the nobility and the clergy to sit with those of the third estate, and which drafted the first French Constitution, did not want to keep the name Maréchaussée, too closely linked to the 'Ancien Régime', so giving it the name 'Gendarmerie Nationale'.

Then in 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in a coup d'état, then built his empire with the napoleonic wars (which resulted in about 1.5 million civilian casualties and more than three million fallen combatants), and concurrently with wanting to reform the previous public institutions and the Law in the territories of his empire, he introduced the concept of Gendarmerie in several other European nations he conquered, while a few countries, fortunately for them, were not influenced by this, such as the English people, who indeed participated in his final defeat with the Battle of Waterloo. After his defeat, in a reactionary moment in history known as the 'Restoration' of Conservative Order culminating in the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the previous ancient absolute monarchies returned to power, and those kings, who again sang their own praises, adopted said Gendarmerie.

So in Italy the gendarmerie are the fruit of the notorious savoy dinasty, when during the aforementioned Restoration [precisely], in July 1814, on the model of the French gendarmerie Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy established in Turin the 'Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali' from which derives the present Arma dei Carabinieri, since 2000 even became an Italian Armed Force; savoy later 'exported' them to the rest of Italy along with the 'Corpo delle Guardie doganali'

(whose origins can be traced back to just before the advent of Napoleon), with the conquest and unification of the kingdom of Italy in 1861. This other military corps then in 1881 would become the  'Guardia di Finanza'.

So the gendarmerie in italy are the Carabinieri, and though with a different and parallel history, 

we can logically equate the Guardia di Finanza as such as well, starting from the evidence that this is another military police with civilian jurisdiction, with typically Italian peculiarities of status, characteristics and powers, a body detached from the others with its own commands and vertices, a case with no equivalent in the rest of the world, where instead the relevant functions are carried out by border departments and others specializing in financial crimes within the police body of each state. And as usual, in Italy so far there has never been much effort in controlling the general waste of public money, including of course the related media machines (remember fiction and reality of media in 'Let's take a look inside Pandora's Box: Abuse of power, 'Cupole' and (mis-)information'? Well...). 

If you want a good overview of the general propensity for 'historic' waste of public money in Italian politics (a mirror of who knows how many people), in addition to what you are reading here I suggest this book which, although somewhat dated, gives a good idea, as well as various circulating content such as videos and TV broadcasts.

...And historical recurrences

Many years after the fall of Napoleon 1º, Napoleon 3º (the one with whom Camillus Benso 'exchanged' the territories of Nice and Savoy), wanted to reaffirm the Bonapartes' imperial-colonialist ambitions, on the strength of the French colonial conquests dating back to the Age of European Expansion around the world, and it took Prussia (a monarchy with King Wilhelm 1st at the time) of prime minister, and later architect and first chancellor of the German empire Otto von Bismark, to make him capitulate in 1870. Unfortunately, there still exist, excluding the already acquired Corsica, Nice and Savoy, French possessions (departments), and collectivities around the world (same goes for the other former colonial empires), with relative more or less 'colonial' military presence, even in the context of a 'civilizing' vision nowadays questionable (it depends at least on the specific cases); on the other hand, unfortunately, neither have we succeeded with for example the English, Spanish and Portuguese to contain them in their colonial expansion path to half the world...

And the adoption of gendarmerie still remains

nowadays an integral part of the military establishment in most French-speaking states and territories, even though the era of french military presence in Africa is coming to an end. For example, in the mid-20th century, some former French mandates and colonial possessions (such as Lebanon, Syria, Ivory Coast, and the Republic of Congo) adopted a gendarmerie after independence. Not to mention its evolution in the Francophone territories of the Maghreb as well as Turkey, which has also adopted the French police model (following more indirect influence) and whose gendarmerie is the largest in the region, perhaps even globally, as well as in several Latin American countries.

A similar concept exists in Eastern Europe in the form of internal troops, found in many countries of the former Soviet Union and its former allies. And a somewhat related phenomenon has been the formation of paramilitary units that fall under the authority of civilian police agencies. However, since these are not strictly military forces, they are not considered gendarmeries.

Thus, we saw that having regained their power after Napoleon's defeat, in a return from emperors to absolute monarchies changes little, these kings were afraid of threats to their status quo, favoring the tendency to maintain or establish Napoleon-inspired gendarmeries, with the function of guards to defend them from feared popular revolutionary threats: it seems as if according to them their armies were not enough for them.

In their now rich history, then the Gendarmerie of each state has been shaped by its specific historical context and current administrative structure, often taking on names different from the original one. For example, I find very amusing the name Guardia Civil  (it must have been an artificially intended thing) for the spanish gendarmerie. There are cases like those of Algeria’s and Turkey’s military‐dominated regimes, where the gendarmeries have been fully integrated into and controlled by the country’s military establishment, although recent reform efforts in Turkey have aimed at loosening the military’s grip, while regarding Algeria, the fact that in the recent past it had countered the most tumultuous internal turmoil, with almost a decade of civil war, helps to account for the comparatively large size of the Algerian Gendarmerie for the purpose of protest suppression; whereas in Morocco the gendarmerie has also been used as a tool of regime maintenance, but, by contrast, as an instrument of the king rather than the military. On another hand, Tunisia, up to 2011 under Ben Ali (who was an Army's general), that can be described as a repressive police state where the Interior Ministry formed the backbone of the regime and the armed forces were kept away from political power. As a consequence, the Tunisian National Guard (Gendarmerie) has been entirely detached from the armed forces and answerable exclusively to the Interior Ministry.

These cases suggest that the greater the influence of the military or in general of authoritarian regimes within the political system a whole, the more militarized the gendarmerie will be, and in turn that in non‐or only partly rule-of-law states, the gendarmeries, as well as internal security forces more generally, tend to be more militarized than in rule-of-law regimes: this is confirmed by the presence of Gendarmerie coexisting with other law enforcement agencies in many authoritarian regimes and almost all the remaining absolute monarchies, where the role of threats to internal security as a driver in the progressive expansion of gendarmerie forces is an insight that carries over to other countries outside Europe.

To draw an analogy between the post-Conservative order's gendarmeries and the situation in the current era, the remaining gendarmes of today mean as if in the United Kingdom the king's guards were the 'alter ego' of Scotland Yard (the English police), in Italy moreover with the aggravation of 2 different real 'alter egos'. 

Having said this then, we infer the conception and initial adoption of gendarmeries as a privileged and protected anti-popular tool (¹).

For that matter, however, already generally the entire military is privileged almost everywhere, having to deal with defense of territories and crisis management (always hoping that they are not forced to intervene, but unfortunately there is always some war somewhere), and even in more advanced countries, depending on where, they can assist in policing roles in civil society, especially in emergency situations.

And we come to the present day.

And we come to today's situation of gendarmeries: in the European Union, there are 9 states that maintain gendarmeries, namely Bulgaria, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain, in addition to the more recently establishment of that phantom 'European Gendarmerie Force' or 'EuroGendFor'.

A brief history of Polizia di Stato

The Polizia di Stato traces its origins to the Corpo delle Guardie di Pubblica Sicurezza (Public Security Guards Corps), established by King Carlo Alberto of Sardinia on July 11, 1852. This founding date remains the official anniversary of the State Police, marking over 170 years of continuous institutional evolution.

The original force was designed to serve Turin and Genoa with specific mandates outlined in the 1854 regulations: "maintain order, tranquility and public security; watch over the idle, vagabonds and beggars, women of ill repute, gamblers and recidivists; search for criminals; intervene in fires and similar events".

The force expanded nationwide with Italian unification and underwent significant transformations through monarchy, fascism, and post-monarchy history. Key milestones include the adoption of scientific policing in the early 20th century, the politicization and expansion of police powers under fascism and the OVRA, and the post-war reconstruction that set the stage for the landmark 1981 reform. This reform demilitarized and unified the police, introducing civilian status, gender equality, and union representation, and repositioned the Polizia di Stato as a service-oriented institution dedicated to protecting citizens’ rights and public order. Moreover, this reform established the foundation for contemporary policing philosophy emphasizing constitutional principle rights respect, professional training enhancement, and operational efficiency balanced with individual liberty protection. This transformation goes toward a democratic policing model serving citizens rather than political regimes, toward a fundamental shift from authoritarian to service-oriented law enforcement.

The Polizia di Stato's evolution from Carlo Alberto's royal guards to a modern civilian force mirrors broader political enhancements in Italy, demonstrating how institutional reform can adapt traditional structures to more contemporary,  somewhat more rightful values, while maintaining operational effectiveness and a broader public trust.

Changes that have already taken place elsewhere

As some observers have pointed out, one of the main achievements of the so-called liberal‐democratic order has been the gradual removal of military forces from the states' domestic sphere and a restriction of their focus to external threats, while responsibility for law and order within the boundaries has come to be assumed by specialized police forces. In most parts of Europe this development was only completed, to various degrees, in the course of the twentieth century, prior to which armed forces were regularly deployed within the borders of the states to quell internal unrest and deal with other serious domestic challenges.

Therefore, in states defined as liberal‐democratic the use of the armed forces for internal security purposes is nowadays commonly seen as an exceptional, rather than an ordinary, measure, and one that is only justified under relatively specific and unusual circumstances. As the use of the armed forces for internal security purposes is often seen as threatening civil liberties and democratic principles, the domestic deployment of military forces is regulated by relatively strict criteria in most democratic regimes. The demilitarization of gendarmeries can thus be seen as a logical continuation of the general process of demilitarization of internal security, which started with the (gradual) removal of regular military forces from the states' domestic realm. Just as the sphere of domestic security has been demilitarized by reducing the internal role of the regular military in favour of police and gendarmerie‐type forces, so the demilitarization of the gendarmeries, with their absorption into the civilian police corps, represents a natural movement in this direction.

Thus, in more developed countries, especially in the European Union, there is a trend of assimilation of gendarmerie forces with [civilian] police forces, almost all the needs that required the presence of gendarmerie departments having disappeared in those countries. Beginning in 2000, for example, the Austrian gendarmerie was abolished, which was rightly merged together with the border police, which was a comparable body to the Italian Guardia di Finanza, into the Austrian federal police, and the gendarmerie of Belgium was abolished and absorbed into the the federal police, as was the gendarmerie of Luxembourg.

So in these countries there is now only one federal or national police force, as is desirable in any rule of law, following what is a more forward-looking European vision.

From the comparison with other countries, and in light of the historical-political-military events and chronicles of abuse of power in Italy and other countries that we have seen, all the more so the observation that it is unfortunately current in various parts of the world, we can then establish that in states such as ours the condition of having multiple national police forces and in large numbers of personnel, means and infrastructure is historically the telltale, or if you will, the 'signature' of the incompatibility of these states from, if we consider all its implications, a full status of Republics/States of Law.

And I leave aside here, to mention later, certain aspects 'smelling' of nostalgia in what in Italy, and elsewhere, is the Presidency of the Republic: in this regard ponder the fact that, did you know that formally the first president of the Italian republic was 'First Consul of France' Napoleon Bonaparte (at the time it concerned territories in northern Italy)? Whose legacy then 'incorporated' into the restored savoy dynasty, and which then our supposedly republican Constitution, with the establishment of the figure of the President of the Republic, did not dent that much; more details follow in the section on proposed constitutional reforms.

To give a few examples, in countries such as the Scandinavian countries, England, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, a good chunk of African countries, perhaps even the countries of the former Yugoslavia, were not influenced by Napoleon, with Canada as a hybrid case: English-speaking inhabitants (preponderant portion) know their Federal Police as the 'Royal Canadian Mounted Police,' known to French-speakers (in the minority) or bilinguals as the 'Gendarmerie Royale du Canada': also known in Italy as 'le giubbe rosse' because of their uniform for official occasions, it is a paramilitary civilian-organized federal police force.

NOTE: U.S. and U.K. 'shine' in in military spending, but on the other hand, countries outside the list above, which have more police forces, spend money both on defense and unnecessarily on these; smart huh?

Civilization, where it is still missing

Thus, with knowledge it can be said that in order to evolve and improve as a freer and more conscious civil society anywhere in the world, such a reform must materialize into a political action that is unavoidable, priority, and urgency, considering also the fact that over the years these institutions, in Italy and elsewhere, have grown stronger and stronger: their unification takes on an importance and urgency similar to a historical reform, and should be an essential theme of a policy with a long-term vision. In Italy, in particular, this political action could have been considered from the beginning of the "Republic" form of government, more a pseudonym than realistic, voted in 1946, which coincided with the expulsion of the savoyards and until recently their descendants. This problem is known to some more open-minded military personnel (and they are few) and some insiders. And, it is important to note that the European Union has already indicated the need for a reform of law enforcement in some countries, including Italy: The European Police Code of Ethics, for example, which was adopted by the Council of Europe in 2001, states that police forces “shall be under the responsibility of civilian authorities” (Article 13);

furthermore, there is at least one significant, pan‐European organization that has advocated the civilian status of police forces, namely the European Confederation of Police (EuroCOP), an umbrella organization of 35 national police unions from across Europe. Article 2 of the EuroCOP Statute defines a police service as a “civil, democratically controlled public body”. In line with this provision, EuroCOP has called for the demilitarization of European police forces with military status. Indeed, the demilitarization of the Spanish Guardia Civil, which is the only gendarmerie force represented within the organization, has been a particular focus of EuroCOP’s activities. In fact, within the Spanish Guardia Civil a significant faction, possibly even a majority, has advocated complete demilitarization and even merger with the civilian police, but at the time the "socialist" party, whose election campaign seemed to promise the merger of the gendarmerie into the civil police, led to a null and void.

Since the birth of the 'Corpo delle Guardie di Pubblica Sicurezza', wanted by king Carlo Alberto in 1852, which then became over time the present State Police, adding to the existing Carabinieri and the 'Corpo delle Guardie Doganali' (now the Guardia di Finanza), we are now still waiting for governments that finally have the courage and determination to merge all these bodies, as a goal that cannot be postponed, overcoming every obstacle that would surely be put in their way, given that moreover 'someone' has already 'run for cover' with the establishment 'under the radar' of that phantom 'European Gendarmerie Force', set up among the gendarmeries of 7 states including Italy, whose headquarters is right in Vicenza:

The European Gendarmerie Force: a solution in search of problems? (here a downloadable version of this article in PDF file format), and I have seen some web pages of articles about it and which I point out, deleted or unreachable, but it is certain that by now for many people this 'strange' institution is no longer unknown, it is coming to light, and more than a few including myself have long been asking many questions about its peculiarities typical of a sovereignty that eludes politics (while sovereignty should belongs to the people, who exercise it through their elected representatives): so, sniffing out possible 'blackouts' of 'hot' articles pertaining to the main theme of this post, I had manually already archived several, including this other one in which someone wondered what and to whom the birth of EuroGendFor answers to. This story makes it clear to the reader that the Cupola are entities of international scope.

In short, only in the aftermath will these states be able to call themselves more accomplished Republics, where they can begin to sit at the political tables with more freedom and independence, and the peoples who have the opportunity will always have to watch out for possible 'behind-the-scenes maneuvers' in the political and non-political scene.

Transformation into practice-1

Given that countries with multiple policing authorities at the national level, such as ours, need a single structure responsible for this task, without further delay, from what we have seen in recent history of abuses of power, I would even add, but to a lesser extent, by local police forces (regarding which, however, I have witnessed and learned of various unjustified attacks against them, and neither extreme is acceptable), in theory there would be no particular preference as to which of the existing law enforcement agencies to retain, but among the available integration solutions, I look to the examples we have just seen of the transformation that has already taken place in other more developed countries, which I will describe in greater detail with regard to Italy in this post, which concerns the merger of existing Gendarmerie into State or Federal Police forces (each country involved, referring to its own equivalent bodies and institutions concerned), because, among the main reasons, the former were created as private guards for those famous kings (their definition given in 'Back to the past, the case of the Gendarmerie: the perfect synthesis' is highly explanatory), and then historically tend to expand uncontrollably, as in the sample of nations shown in this table.

The reform will lead to a substantial streamlining of law enforcement, going in the direction of their modernization in the popular sense, and would imply a subsequent reorganization of the entire sector of public security in the civilian sphere and in the direction of its 

administrative decentralization, a reorganization to be implemented through super partes offices in charge or to be established: and it's game-forcing to reabsorb the Guardia di Finanza and another police force, choosing the one that has historically created the most hiccups and most influenced our policy, namely the Carabinieri, as I said at the beginning so as to safeguard it from possible future meddling, in much the same way as the evolution of law enforcement agencies in more advanced countries.

At the same time as the merger of national police bodies (perhaps with future inclusion in a forthcoming European Federal Police), in Italy it is easy to see a natural destination for the structures of the militias we choose to abolish, to principals of Local Police, and following the example of where they are already present, of Regional Police, which also in Italy have already had for some time judicial police functions and title to make arrests (references: Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 57 and following, and Framework law no. 65/1986: "Establishment of the Municipal Police"; while as regards the faculty of arrest of a citizen, albeit with limitations: Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 380 and following, and the aforementioned framework law, from whose directives individual or associated municipalities adopt their regulations of the municipal police service, which, in particular, must contain additional provisions as prescribed by the said). And naturally in the appropriate territorial contexts its powers can be further extended: in most advanced countries, what we call local police forces in various capacities, there are police forces with full powers in their territorial areas: in countries like Italy, obviously, the relevant selection, training, education and/or professional update programs will have to be structured in order to be able to carry out more important functions after the mergers hoped for here.

For a global vision of interest in their tasks and functions in the world, I recommend this summary on local polices in the world.

For example, let us first think about the benefits of having local police garrisons with more enhanced powers than the current ones, in rural areas and the like, instead of barracks that in those contexts currently belong mainly to Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza: the local police, in addition to referring to prefects as public security authorities, has dependency relationships with municipal administrations, and I would add regional ones (already present in italian areas that have special Regional Government status), being public organisms that by definition must already be outposts of social proximity in their territories. 

"In Italy, the situation may be dramatic, but it's never serious" said Ennio Flaiano, outlining the characteristics of a people, but there are some who, for a change, historically place our country among those where there is the greatest proliferation and overlap of useless or at least 'inflated' public offices and tasks: I couldn't believe it when I read that there are 52 different types of police in Italy: one for every week of the year :-D. The funniest? The sewer police: I started laughing so hard so I wouldn't cry, Joe Muggins always pays! Did the Italian people deserve all this? I don't know, but in the meantime, I'll start by pointing the finger at the mediocrity that characterizes, using one of the interchangeable terms I mention in the introduction, the chains of command that feed this perverse mechanism. They should be ashamed of themselves for how they play with public money! And we must get rid of all these burdens, net of the post-reform bodies.

To cite one example, regional police forces may be assigned, among other things, traffic policing duties on major roads, tasks that are currently performed by the corresponding division of the State Police.

Now, it is clear that during reforms, each of the existing police forces would 'pull in its own direction', especially in countries like ours. So let's look at some considerations specific to the reform solution outlined above.

So, until not long ago, the most commonly advanced argument made in favor of Gendarmeries is that their hybrid nature and the way they combine police and military characteristics make them suitable for addressing many challenges. Thus, for example, supporters of the Gendarmerie pointed to the fact that it has heavier equipment and a more centralized structure than the civilian police forces as a reason for claiming that it was better suited to tasks such as border control, counterterrorism, and public order functions in international peacekeeping operations. While these arguments may have been valid in the past, with the need for a single police force remaining a fixed point, we will now debunk them in light of the changed situation in the modern era, starting with crisis situations.

First of all, I would like to preface that the socio-economic aspects of the nations or communities that I will use as examples in various parts of the world, are not part of the scope of this writing. Therefore, I refer you to other venues for related considerations, which are the subject of extensive literature and philosophy on political topics.

Thus, on the example precisely of Anglo-Saxon countries, the term "intervention forces" is not generally used in the context of crisis responses, therefore in those countries there are no dedicated 'intervention forces', but rather different entities work together to respond and contain crisis situations, among which we include natural disasters, technological crises, clashes, deception and political misconduct, violence in the workplace, social consequences resulting from misleading-alarmistic news, terrorist attacks, and I point out to the smartest persons that Italy has so far never been a particular target of terrorism attacks, then man-made disasters. First aid bodies such as Fire fighters (to whom all my respect goes because they risk every day when they have to rescue us), police and emergency medical services (EMS) intervene in these countries to evacuate civilians, protect the involved areas, and provide medical assistance. Often, specialized units within these agencies are trained for situations with hostages or for counter-terrorism operations. Then, following the principle of relationship between internal security and military apparatus, depending on the severity of the situations, there is the possible use of special forces units (with departments of the 3 Armed Forces), which can be deployed to neutralize any attackers and save hostages. And each of these countries has national agencies responsible for coordinating counter-terrorism efforts: these agencies collect information, analyze threats and collaborate with law enforcement agencies to prevent attacks (e.g. the UK Security Service (MI5), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency).

Here I would like to open a parenthesis regarding the Italian intelligence services, included among the bodies subject to regulatory intervention in the 'security decree' of 2025, which have been given extra powers, because this measure is highly contested by the opposition parties, including Matteo Renzi, who in an interview on June 4, 2025, described it as substantially unreasonable, but these powers were initially granted during his government (as can be evinced by reading here). While I will not discuss the orientation of this law here, I recognize that it attempts to provide solutions to certain issues that have arisen in an increasingly multifaceted society, and I view these delicate issues in the following way:

premising that I have no connection with this sector, in order to dispel any possible doubts,

it's true that the misuse or exploitation of intelligence services, anywhere, has the potential to cause enormous damage to society, so much so that I have pointed out material concerning certain investigations for readers to consult, and we have a good bibliography that is not 'fictionalized', but at present the most pressing issue is that, to quote Spiderman's uncle, 'With great power comes great responsibility', so I think that a dilemma remains in trying to prevent any possible abuse of power, understood here as 'crossing the border' for purposes other than those related to state and public security, in the use of the exceptional powers conferred on operators with high-security institutional roles.

So, in the meantime, we can ask ourselves, how can a public institution assess and test a person's behavioral attitudes regarding their sense of responsibility, integrity, honesty, ethical, moral, and professional profile, and personal history, as in general we could say "this is a good person", if they are to be employed in high-security roles? To date, there is no 'scientifically' definitive answer. I therefore conclude that there must be an element of trust, until proven otherwise, which is why it's not easy to combat possible degenerations and 'deviations' as has often happened in the history of Italy and the world, but worse still, and here we return to the first theme of this article, in states like ours where the intelligence services have too many operational arms, namely the current Gendarmerie (of course, military intelligence agencies already have the regular armed forces at their disposal, and civilian intelligence agencies have the civilian police forces, in their respective areas, and this does not mean that they should not collaborate when necessary).

I see men/women in intelligence services as men/women of a certain culture (this does not guarantee moral integrity, but stupidity tends to take root more among the ignorant; in other words, the stupidity of an ignorant person is more dangerous than that of someone who has studied).

So, as a state, I would trust a secret agent 'with my eyes closed', so to speak, if he were, for example, someone like Giovanni Falcone or Paolo Borsellino, who, given their moral integrity, would use extraordinary institutional powers only in the service of state and public security, but I would not confer this status on someone like, for example, Roberto Formigoni: a word to the wise is enough.

Continuing on the issue of crisis management, for those functions that are now assigned to gendarmerie departments, in the option of their disposal, at present we are already at a good starting point: for rescue operations, with the Civil Protection and other bodies such as the Red Cross, cooperate departments of the 3 sufficient Armed Forces, which already have the necessary facilities for Search and Rescue capabilities in land, sea and sky, like the S.A.R. department of the Italian Air Force, the Corpo degli Alpini, passing through the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue. Similarly, for support/aid functions in police operations, in cases of necessity specific Italian Army departments

would intervene on land, and at sea the Coast Guard/Port Authority of the Italian Navy.

And then finally, something seems to be moving for the management of international crises at a European level, as former European High representative Joseph Borrell says " [...] These new [military] exercises, will boost the EU's ability to act faster, to respond to crises outside the EU, and it also helps to build a common strategic culture on defence."

Regarding border control tasks, Anglo-Saxon countries-the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand-organize border control through specialized agencies that integrate law enforcement, customs, immigration, and biosecurity functions. These entities prioritize security, trade facilitation, and compliance with international regulations, employing a mix of personnel, technology, and interagency collaboration. Anglo-Saxon countries structure border control around centralized agencies with specialized divisions for enforcement, trade, and biosecurity. Staffing emphasizes rigorous training, technological proficiency, and adaptability to evolving threats. While approaches vary-from the U.S.’s massive CBP to New Zealand’s lean customs service-shared challenges include balancing security with trade efficiency and addressing workforce sustainability. Future strategies will likely prioritize AI-enhanced risk assessment and regional cooperation to manage cross-border crises. A more detailed examination can be found in the concluding section of this post.

Other examples of tasks over time 'attached to' (taken by) departments of italian gendarmeries, include units against sophistication and for control in agro-food chains, the N.A.S. of Carabinieri, tasks in reality well carried out by organisms of the Ministry of Health, of the various Regional Agencies of the Territory, of Environmental Protection, and by the Functional Areas of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety that depend on Prevention Departments of A.S.L.s (Local Healthcare Agencies), all tasks to which NAS overlap. For example, following episodes related to the discovery of toxic foods in distribution to consumers (2025), the Campania Region remarked on the urgency of collaboration between the Regional Food Safety Observatory (ORSA), established in 2008 to support the Regional Health Department, local ASLs and municipal authorities, to improve surveillance systems and activate widespread information campaigns.

Another example of no need is the presence of the Carabinieri in the labor inspectorates. 

Not to mention the 2015 'abolition' of the Corpo Forestale dello Stato by Matteo Renzi's government, which was actually a replacement, where it is plausible that the aforementioned underlying 'forces at play' took advantage of it in an equally plausible infighting since, guess what? That Corps instead has largely merged into the purposefully formed ' Comando unità forestali, ambientali e agroalimentari' of the Carabinieri: as usual, the media did not tell you the whole story, which went unnoticed by most. In reality, functions related to forest protection overlapped with the responsibilities of the Guardiaparco (the Park Rangers in English-speaking countries), and it is logical to think that these (here an official website of the Italian ones, even if outdated) must have the status of Administrative Police in the exercise of their functions, with regard to the prosecution of crimes involving habitats and natural species, coordinating their functions with the aforementioned regional agencies,

therefore of course it is already more than enough for having what were competences and functions inherent to the former Corpo Forestale.

By the way, the International Ranger Federation

is a non-profit, public utility and charity organization, and if we want to 'adopt' Park Rangers, it can be done here.

Transformation into practice-2

Remaining in Italy, then where these Local/Regional Police garrisons as natural replacements in place of the current ones shall proved redundant in the territory, I want to spur the long-awaited reformers to convert the current larger structures and barracks basically to research centers, which is the present and future of human society: I invite you to watch a TV program 'TGR Leonardo' on Rai3 on 28 June 2024, an examination of the backward research situation in Italy compared to other countries.

Following, I think of destinations like 

Residences for the execution of security measures or new prisons, which unfortunately seems to be needed.

As a possible subsequent alternative, I suggest dedicating them to healthcare facilities, e.g. clinics and medical offices, and schools.

'Cupole' and International peacekeeping operations

I I thought it appropriate to devote a separate paragraph here to international peacekeeping operations, given the growing complexity of the subject. First of all, since I know my chickens, I will introduce the paragraph with a consideration that follows on from the attitudes of italian people, drawing general conclusions from specific details, as I often do in many of my reflections: at this web reference link, there is some data on participation in the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces, the so-called 'Blue Helmets', in 2007, while here you can download the data for 2020. For participants from 'developing countries', the economic appeal may be understandable as they are less affluent countries, but from the top 10 participating countries, guess which affluent country is in first place? Yes, Italy is in first place (7th overall), France is second (10th overall), with this trend confirmed subsequently. It smells like the typical affair of the 'usual crafty ones' to me, to add to Flaiano's definition of our people: consider that in many foreign countries, the typical Italian is synonymous with 'mafia', and many brilliant minds, such as researchers, are right to go and work abroad. And here I have only considered missions under the aegis of the UN, given that the operational machinery of these missions is complex: I cite, for example, the Kosovo Force organized by NATO or the Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai. And, of course, the gendarmerie of these countries and EuroGendFor also participate.

Now, how much more public money could we save by ad hoc downsizing Italian and French involvement in these peace operations? In any case, so to speak we appease all sides: the true 'religion' of the people is money (it is no coincidence that we say 'the god of money').

Now let's return to more carefully reasoned scenarios. For those who wish to explore this subject in more detail I refer to a separate chapter for a review,  further detailed here. I only say that major contributors naturally include countries with a single federal or state police force, and here I will try to summarize this topic as much as possible.

While the requirements of modern international peace operations include trained forces, comprehensive mandates, political support and consent, accountability and conduct (there is a growing demand for accountability regarding sexual exploitation, abuse, and other forms of misconduct by peacekeepers), gender balance, flexible and adaptive approaches, 

the challenges include changing nature of conflict, targeting of peacekeepers, complex and expanding mandates, political stalemate and weak peace processes, restrictions on movement, disinformation and misinformation,

resource and budget constraints, geopolitical fragmentation, withdrawal requests.
Trends are regionalization of peace operations,

militarization and securitization, decline in large-scale un missions, flexible, adaptive deployments, integration with sustainable development goals, erosion of universal norms.

Modern international peacekeeping is at a crossroads, facing more complex threats, higher operational risks, and mounting political and resource constraints. The landscape is shifting toward regionalized, more militarized, and flexible operations, with a concurrent decline in large-scale, multidimensional UN missions. To remain effective, peacekeeping must adapt to new conflict realities, strengthen partnerships, and reaffirm its core principles in an increasingly fragmented world. 

Let's see how these countries included in the roster of major contributors in 2025 deal with the above issues.

Organization of Peacekeeping Participation by Anglo-Saxon Countries

Anglo-Saxon countries, namely the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand-organize their participation in international peacekeeping operations through a combination of government departments, military forces, civil police agencies, and civilian experts. Their involvement is shaped by national policy frameworks, international obligations, and cooperation with multilateral organizations such as the United Nations (UN). 

Staffing and Entity Involvement

• Military Personnel
• National Police Agencies
• Civilian Experts
• Training and Education 

Key Features

• Multilateral Engagement
• Integrated Staffing
• Whole-of-Government Coordination
• Training and Capacity Building

In summary, Anglo-Saxon countries organize their peacekeeping participation through integrated government structures, deploying military, police, and civilian personnel, and emphasizing interdepartmental coordination to address the complex demands of international peace operations.

Anglo-Saxon countries coordinate military resources for international peace operations through bilateral partnerships, multilateral alliances, and UN-led frameworks, prioritizing interoperability and shared strategic goals. Their approaches reflect evolving security challenges and regional priorities, particularly in the Indo-Pacific.

Scandinavian countries

Scandinavian countries-Sweden, Norway, and Denmark-organize their participation in international peacekeeping operations through a coordinated, multi-entity approach that leverages military, civilpolice, and civilian expertise. Their contributions are shaped by national priorities, regional cooperation, and a strong commitment to multilateralism, particularly under United Nations mandates.

Organization of Participation

• National Coordination
• Regional Cooperation

Key Features of Scandinavian Peacekeeping Participation are:

Scandinavian countries organize through robust national frameworks, specialized military and civil police units, and civilian expert agencies. Their efforts are amplified by deep regional cooperation via NORDEFCO, allowing them to offer highly qualified, flexible, and innovative contributions to international peace operations where intervention is required.

Participation of Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg in International Peacekeeping Operations

International peacekeeping operations rely on contributions from diverse nations, each organizing their participation through distinct institutional frameworks. Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg employ specialized military, civil police, and civilian entities to staff missions, guided by national policies, multilateral commitments, and evolving security challenges. The following is an overview of their organizational structures and staffing mechanisms.

Germany

• Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces)

Austria

• Austrian Armed Forces International Command (AUTINT)

Belgium

• Ministry of Defence and NATO Integration

Switzerland

• Swiss Armed Forces International Command (SWISSINT)

Luxembourg

• Luxembourg Army and Multilateral Engagement

The Luxembourg Army has contributed over 1,500 personnel to missions since 1992, including NATO’s KFOR (Kosovo) and EUFOR Althea (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Despite its small size, Luxembourg prioritizes niche capabilities such as medical support and reconnaissance, often partnering with Belgium and France for joint deployments.

• Modernization and Commemorative Efforts

Recent reforms have modernized the army’s operational readiness, aligning with EU and NATO standards. A 2022 commemorative book highlighted 30 years of Luxembourg’s peacekeeping history, underscoring its commitment to international stability.

Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg organize their peacekeeping participation through dedicated military commands, interagency coordination, and adherence to multilateral frameworks. While Germany leverages technological innovation and financial clout, Austria and Switzerland emphasize rapid deployability and ethical standards. Belgium integrates gender perspectives into mission mandates, and Luxembourg punches above its weight through specialized roles. Together, these nations exemplify the diversity of approaches underpinning effective international peacekeeping in complex conflict zones.

Modern military police

I am repetitive but I want to clear the field of anyone who should 'point the finger' here thinking of arguments pro-something: for example, I know well that after the Second World War the nations that lost the conflict have remained under the influence (even conditioning) of the United States. Instead the article is in a more than anything else direction of impartiality and practicality, given that with regard to the topic under discussion, Italy, as we will see shortly in 'Quietly, how many there are!', is in the top positions among the countries in the world not to be taken as an example, and if our political class wants to understand something, it is better that they follow the example of other nations well present also in Europe. I would add that aspects such as military spending and defense (or offense) structures of various states would be the subject of separate analyses, which are already being carried out by bodies and associations that seek to monitor these expenditures and human rights violations as far as possible, of which I will shortly include a list.

However as a basic concept, in countries with less authoritarian and autocratic-repressive regimes there are, where there are, specific departments of Military Police exclusively for military areas and contexts, such as American M.P. Corps as the British M.P., which protect the safety of military personnel and refer to military penal codes. I point out that according to guidelines aimed at the assignment of limited areas of action (somewhat like the current Italian prison police should be for civil society), as we have seen above for Anglo-Saxon countries, the italian Air Force had its own department in charge of the protection and surveillance functions of air bases and other infrastructures, formerly known as V.A.M., now disbanded, and not imitated by the italian Army and Navy, these also without departments used as their own military police.

Italian Police, still Baronies?

And speaking of the State Police in Italy, the civil agency responsible for public order and security at national level, still has problems of privileges and is to be economically restructured, because if they are not Archdukes like their ('higher') military equivalents, they still have Baronies inside them, perhaps still legacies of their previous military status before the reform of the corp in 1981: while the salaries of the categories from 'agent' to 'inspector' remain somewhat at a standstill, I understand that a member of the commissioners category earns, at least around 2015, the double of the Scotland Yard Police Chief!; the salary levels of the commissioners are not the same (!) to those of the equivalent levels of public functions (I add, aside from considering reasonable compensation for risks or assignments of particular responsibility), which are excesses of expenditure that could be redistributed to the subordinates; another example that comes to my attention among other privileges is an 'a priori' assignment of a carer's allowance to policemen with disabled or elderly relatives.

The point of arrival

We must take example from those nations where their ordinary citizens in civil life, for their safety, are represented by one, and only one national law enforcement body, such as a Federal or State Police, and to varying degrees devolved police forces, and nothing else: under ordinary conditions there must be no interference between political and military spheres (also in the jurisdictional sphere), and only under extraordinary conditions departments of armies, navies and air forces, with the means at their disposal, can intervene in support of the organs in charge for the benefit of society, such as for the aforementioned 'Operation Safe Streets'.

To stay in Europe, as examples I mention the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Albania, Greece.

In summary, as still happens in many states, even in Italy it is the military that actually still conditions civil society through politics and mass-media, and too much concentrated power in a few entities, to begin with, always implies too much potential abuse of power, it is in the nature of the human being. And so naturally this will give any existing 'aristo-élite' the opportunity to always be able to take advantage of it.

Here we go again, ‘roosters crowing’

As we will see later, Italy is a country that has the 3rd highest number of law enforcement agents in the world in relation to the population, also considering the anomalous, for a change, penitentiary police which over time has acquired further functions comparable to other law enforcement agencies, well beyond the penitentiary contexts, among their tasks that have been added, include that it carries out traffic police activities under Article 12 of the Codice della Strada, participates in the maintenance of public order, carries out judicial police and public security activities even outside the penitentiary environment, as well as all other police forces [...] The corps has also joined the staffing of the Direzione Investigativa Anti-Mafia and Interpol thanks to Legislative Decree No. 218 of November 15, 2012 [this may also fit, ed.]

it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpo_di_polizia_penitenziaria#Compiti_e_funzioni): as usual an italian proverb seems to apply "give them a finger and they'll take an arm": I believe that to this body those added functions are too much, overstepping the perimeter of the structures of the prison administration and the scope of conducting, transferring, and custody of inmates, taking on duties that are instead the State Police's.

From what has just been expressed, therefore in Italy there is a quadrupling of the same nation-wide services with management spread across various ministries: Defense for Carabinieri, Interior for State Police, Finance for Guardia di Finanza, and Justice for Penitentiary Police, and the citizen pays the same service (National Public Security) 4 times.

“This people of saints, poets, navigators, grandchildren, brothers-in-law ... ”, "...of crafty ones*, soccer coaches, and of flashing lights", of which the usual bungle of multiplication of public functions are an expression, with all these 'roosters crowing' (even if other countries come close) in the case in question it seems that, apart from those who commit crimes, anyone who gets up in the morning decides "oh well, I make me employed as a public security officer here or here or there or there": it is the caricature of a now well-known phenomenon, that of the stereotype of the carabiniere/finanziere, to a lesser extent also policeman, 'ambushed' (here I've literally translated an italian word that we use with the meaning of 'recommended') by relatives or friends usually military, or Police commissioners/quaestors etc.

Most of us in Italy if we don't know at least one policeman, will know a carabiniere, if he is not a carabiniere he will be a finanziere (Guardia di Finanza), if he is not a finanziere he will be a penitentiary guard... Personally, among the carabinieri that I have known in my life, guess what? Almost all (I remember 5) were sons of marshals or officers (from another Armed Force), of which 4 from Campania.

All this feeds into the negative aspects of law enforcement agencies such as, for a change, those in Italy, as a reservoir held up ad-hoc of 'permanent jobs' in the pay of their home states.

(*) Of course, crafty people are not only found in Italy, but this is how we are typically viewed in many foreign countries

Quietly, how many there are!

As previously announced, among the things that obviously are not known around, following

herein the reference to the article which sees Italy ranked 3rd in the world by number of law enforcement agents in relation to the number of inhabitants (at the other extreme just to get an idea, around 2015 U.S., U.K. and Germany had almost half of agents per capita compared to us). Consider also the fact that countries such as China and Israel (which, as you know, experiences terrorist attacks on a daily basis) do not even appear in this partial ranking. For a nation like ours that declares itself a 'democratic republic', this ranking betrays a contradiction: the fact that we are only a short distance behind the second on the list, and are preceded only by countries that have some difficulties with civil rights, leads to profound reflection. Beyond how the degree of authoritarianism in Italy is perceived by each individual, the more attentive reader can grasp its latent aspect.

Then again, with four (!) national law enforcement agencies...

Personally, and here I speak as a simple observer, I had noticed for a long time now, at the very least in the Italian cities I have frequented, a coming and going around of many motor vehicles of the police forces (Rome will be partially justified since the headquarters of the central organs of the state apparatus are concentrated there, plus there is also the Pope.  Meanwhile, Italian and foreign 'n'dranghetas, quietly...), something that I had not seen in other countries I had been to, except when there was some intervention of theirs, and from this alone a slightly smarter person would ask himself questions about the quantity and waste of men, vehicles, fuel and infrastructure of the Police forces in Italy. Not that these signals necessarily have to be there, obviously the data presented here are enough, and in theory there can be hordes of law enforcement operators in any state who are 'hidden' in their various locations (to draw a parallel, and there are plenty of examples, the comical situation of the 'Forestali di Sicilia' and 'di Calabria' comes to mind, whose employees are more than those of Canada!!!), but they constitute additional reasons to think about.  

As someone who is more 'well-informed' about the facts instead, I would add that essentially from the end of the Cold War to the present day, there has been a phenomenon of growing tensions and insecurity in other countries as well as in this one, which has led to a constant long-term proliferation affecting law enforcement agencies, passing unnoticed under the noses of the Italian people (with the prevailing contribution of the 'leftists' of which shortly): calculating the overall average for the following types of security forces, it turns out that while the workforce of the regular armed forces contracted by an average of around 40% between 1980 and 2010, the gendarmerie expanded significantly by around 30% over the same period; evidence of this development can be seen from this table. What do you think? If many people had noticed, I think some voices would have been raised, wouldn't they?

And I am not mentioning these figures for other countries such as Turkey and North African countries, so as not to disturb the peace of mind of my more attentive readers...

On the other hand, the people, unknowingly, have them and are letting them do it: to borrow a phrase from a popular italian actor of the past, Totò, we are men (the people) or corporals...

How much law enforcement in Italy:

www.truenumbers.it/quanta-poliziaitalia/

Rules of law

So, as I have already expressed, the reform of the current law enforcement agencies in many countries also has the effect of getting rid of the conditioning that various 'forces at play' behind all these 'roosters crowing' bring to politics.

Moreover, as Euronews shows us based on a report 'Global State of Democracy 2023', drawn up by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental organization based in Stockholm, which takes into consideration some aspects considered expressions of the level of democracy of nations, for the purposes of this article we are specifically interested in the aspect 'Rule of law', we see that Italy is in 23rd place, behind even countries such as Cyprus and Portugal, and that half of the countries are suffering a decline in the parameters of the rule of law and freedom of expression, also of interest here. By comparison, looking at an index compiled by The Economist in 2024, only countries such as Scandinavia, Iceland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Southern Ireland are classified as 'full democracies', but I would currently downgrade countries such as Spain, Portugal and others, while advancing countries such as Germany and Austria.

The 'Sinisters', aristocrats disguised as 'socialists': double obstacle

I had already understood that the variables that form the political concepts of 'right' and 'left' can make them changeable over time and individually 

relative, because they arise from the innumerable facets of human and social complexity, prone to contradictions; think, because of my outlook as an anti-(mona-auta-oliga)-rchic and anti-aristocratic republican implying a change of course from the past as highlighted in this article of mine, I mistakenly thought that the 'leftists' more than the 'rightists' manifested a sensitivity to these issues.

But I was wrong, because as I was putting up this article, from the information I was gathering I was realizing that in recent political periods, contrary to what I would have expected, precisely during the governments of the self-styled more or less 'left', there had been not only a steady increase in funding in the specific case to the gendarmeries, but during their terms of office these have done nothing but strengthen their power, and since 2000 the Carabinieri have become an Armed Force, the fourth. Now, I have already associated these with a kind of more or less parallel world, so let's consider these options: either the Cupola finds 'clear field', or it is intertwined with other historical Cupole operating behind political parties, governments and presidents, at least 'complacent'. Note that this is not a matter of 'speculations', readers with good reasoning skills can easily deduce that these entities exist and span transnational contexts: beyond having a whole series of hypotheses, I am unable to 'focus' on them.

In any case, to learn more I reviewed the periods of participation of the more or less 'leftish' governments in the years at the turn of the 2000s to the present: compared to how their ideas were represented, theirs was more of a 'sinisters' (in italian language this is a word coincidentally homonymous with the definition of a figurative sense of it, as Infamous, unfavorable, adverse, sinister, grim, threatening, lugubrious, for example 'sinister omens', from Treccani Vocabulary) policy; other than rightists!: Partito Democratico di Sinistra, the DS, L'Ulivo-PD, the President of the Republic, at that time at the very least, I would have called them the Italian party of counter-revolution or -reaction

(almost like this)! I am addressing voters who have certain values: will a Giuseppe Mazzini still be turning in his grave today?

You can find a list of representatives of those 'clans' in footnote (7).

Not only that, but it is noteworthy that the most significant steps so far taken towards the option of demilitarizing gendarmeries have been made by centre‐right governments.

For example, the most far‐reaching changes of the French Gendarmerie were launched under Sarkozy’s centre‐right government, while the Berlusconi government in Italy also announced similar plans for the Carabinieri, even though they were not implemented, thus in late 2009, as a first step in this direction, the then Interior Minister announced plans to consider the transfer of the Carabinieri from the Defence to the Interior Ministry.

And although off-topic from the main subject in exposition, I want to be 'naughty' by adding that other more or less 'leftists' have contributed to 'sweeping' privatizations and decreased spending on Public health during the period 2006-2018 approx. (as evidenced by an article, that reports a report by the Gimbe foundation).

A list of those representatives is found in footnote (8).

And going to vote I would ask, the current 'left' will carry the legacies of those clans with them, or will a different leftist will take a dissociating 

direction from them? I don't see any dissociation, the current 'leftist' parties appear to me to be recycles of old parties from recent history, associated with the same thought patterns, almost no innovative/reforming ideas of interest to me (I will talk about reforms shortly), except support for a law to make it illegal to pay below a certain threshold for labor services, but as far as I know, I don't want to be wrong, it is an idea borrowed from the Movimento 5 Stelle.

In short, at 2025, looking for ideas of true renewal, such as these reforms toward more authentic Republics (democratic or otherwise), neither left nor right nor above nor below, there is nothing new under the sun.

In a future that I hope is ever closer, I hope that this article will have contributed to making me vote for someone in future electoral occasions, as instead I have not done for many legislatures (which then does not take much, given the average duration of governments here in Italy). Now I don't know if in the past during the italian post-ww2 period there has been any political class not distant from broader views and time horizons, but now I keep a special eye on the average age of the political class, the fact that it does not exceed certain limits: there are many more conservative mentalities among the old than among the young. So I especially appeal to the many bright young people who are interested in politics (as for me, I follow politics but I don't have the vocation of 'ruling class'): come on, let's shake up this politics as candidates, that little is still moving here!

And as voters, meditate voters, meditate...

The costs

How much do we pay for all this luxurious law enforcement apparatus? These are sore notes, and in many ways.

Understanding the financial allocation and spending patterns of Italian Law Enforcement  requires navigating Italy's complex public budget framework, where data is distributed across multiple institutional sources and budget categories. The available evidence suggests that while specific budget allocations can be identified through official government documents, obtaining comprehensive spending figures requires accessing multiple data sources due to the fragmented nature of Italian public finance reporting. This structural complexity reflects the broader challenges of Italian public administration, where coordination between different budget authorities can obscure the true cost of specific government functions. 

Furthermore, the reduced reliability of data from the previous year (2024) compared to data from two years earlier (2023) in the financial reporting of Italian law enforcement agencies stems from structural gaps in Italy's budgetary process, institutional reporting delays, and ongoing methodological transitions. The reliability gap arises from Italy's multi-phase budgetary process, where 2023 benefits from closed-loop auditing while 2024 remains in flux due to:

1. Institutional non-compliance with BDAP submissions ([Source 2])
2. PNRR implementation delays altering spending timelines
3. Methodological transitions in procurement tracking

Full 2024 transparency is projected for Q3 2025, contingent on regional compliance and final audits. Until then, 2024 law enforcement spending estimates remain inherently provisional, with error margins exceeding those of finalized 2023 data.

So I had undertaken, considering the sources on the web, to spend (a lot of) time in the documentary meanderings of websites such as that of the Ministry of Finance, Defense, Interior and other more or less official sources, which report various items from economic accounts that I understand to be public, and among the unofficial sources I consulted, I thank Mil€x Observatory, Sipri.org, then a United Nations observatory that accepts voluntary reports from states, and others, for the outreach work they do.

When I came across these monumental expenditure figures, to say the least, I'm talking about 2023, and always historically increasing, after having a good look at them I thought 'maybe I was wrong', and after further inspection I still didn't believe it: here they send us all bankrupt! For as realistic an analysis as possible of Italian spending for police forces, I refer you to this detailed post, and I will summarize it here.

Thus, faced with a forecast of a negative balance of -198.9 billions of euros of the italian 2024 state budget (ref. here, but this website has limitations) (I do not mention public debt which has figures out of control), among all police forces let's consider first our first gendarmerie, given that being Italy's largest armed force with approximately 110,000 personnel in 2023, the Arma dei Carabinieri consume a significant portion of defense personnel budgets. Due to budgetary fragmentation, the Carabinieri's expenditures are distributed across four primary budget categories, making it necessary to consult multiple documents:

• Ministry of Defense 'Documento Programmatico Pluriennale' (DPP) and Annual Report

• Interior Ministry Security Budget

• E.U. P.N.R.R. Implementation Reports

• NATO Financial Reporting Guidelines
• For equipment and infrastructure investments, cross-referencing Defense Ministry procurement announcements with budget line items in the DPP, though exact Carabinieri-specific amounts remain embedded in joint procurement frameworks.

Synthesizing available data, the estimated total 2023 abominable expenditure for the Carabinieri likely ranged between €8.2-8.6 billion. This estimate reflects the Carabinieri's 2022 budget share of 22.7% within the €29.178B NATO-reported defense spending24, adjusted for 2023's 4.8% defense budget increase.

Researchers should submit formal information requests through the Ministry of Defense's Transparency Portal (pubblicazioni.difesa.it) for detailed programmatic spending data. 

The estimated €8.2-8.6B total for 2023 underscores the need for improved budgetary transparency in Italy's security sector financial reporting.

In comparing the data I have derived with the Italian military spending data from Mil€x (whose sources I infer include the State Budget for the financial year 2022 and Multiyear Budget for the three-year period 2022-2024), which I include at the bottom of the post dedicated to expenses, as we see mine are a bit higher, however is pointed out by them "The data shown are an under-estimate of military spending as a result of the poor quality of some web data (some.)", offering this observatory some extra references for their analysis.

Mentioning the gendarmeries, with regard to the Guardia di Finanza, access to comprehensive spending data requires navigating the multi-tiered Italian budget system and institutional transparency portals, where the Guardia di Finanza's financial reporting structure is layered and the different components of the budget are managed through separate institutional channels. Thus the related budget remains fragmented between the Ministry of Economy, with 63 percent of total funding, the Ministry of Interior, with 22 percent for joint law and order operations, and European Union structural funds, with 15 percent for initiatives against cross-border crime.

This dispersion makes it necessary to manually aggregate many separate budget items to calculate total expenditures (a starting point among the various sources is the State Budget for the 2022-2024 Triennium, downloadable 

here). The total estimated expenditure of the Guardia di Finanza for 2023 reached the figure of 5.1-5.4 billion.

For those like me who are interested in accurate data, in the name of transparency, should

submit formal requests through the Ministry's transparency portal using the access procedures of Law 190/2012, analyze the expenditure codes of "Chapter 3172" in the OpenBDAP dataset, and examine regional implementation reports for European Union co-funded initiatives. Guardia di Finanza's financial reporting maintains the structural complexities typical of Italy's multi-ministerial security funding model. Pending an imminent merger in the national police force, upcoming

transparency improvements must prioritize consolidated expenditure reporting aligned with NATO financial disclosure standards.

With regard to Italy's funding for the 'EuroGendFor', the information to be derived is spread or subtended among expenditure components pertaining to different budget items, such as those for defense, public security and missions abroad: in my opinion, even the holders of their accounting do not know all the implications, and these expenses largely fall within those used for the Carabinieri, holders for Italy of this organization. In any case, a starting point is here.

Regarding the economic accounts of the 'Polizia di Stato', related to the year prior to the current year (related to 2024), unfortunately I must note that there is a lack of information due to limitations and data accessibility challenges.

The available search results demonstrate this fragmentation, with specific allocations for insurance and personnel benefits clearly documented, while broader operational costs remain embedded within larger Ministry of Interior budget categories that are not readily accessible through the examined sources. This suggests that comprehensive spending analysis requires access to detailed Ministry of Interior budget documentation, regional police budget allocations, and potentially supplementary funding streams that may not be captured in standard budget publications. A reasonable approach to estimation would require combining the documented specific allocations with proportional calculations based on the agency's personnel strength relative to other security forces and historical spending patterns.

But accessing public spending data for Italy's Polizia di Stato requires navigating multiple official sources, with the agency's own website (www.poliziadistato.it) providing the most direct access to specific budget documents, while broader spending context is available through Ministry of Economy and Finance publications. The fragmented nature of Italian public budget reporting presents challenges for comprehensive spending analysis, suggesting that researchers and policy analysts should utilize multiple sources and acknowledge inherent limitations in available data. For the most accurate and complete spending information, direct engagement with the Ministry of Interior's budget office or formal requests for comprehensive financial documentation may be necessary to supplement the publicly available sources identified in this analysis.

On the other hand, as for data for the year 2023, I found some numbers on staffing size, about 100,300 officers, while accessing precise expenditure data still requires navigating multi-layered budgetary documents and institutional reports, but I was able to derive more reliable numbers. Synthesizing available data, the Polizia di Stato's total 2023 spending reached €12.4-13.1 billion.

This represents 37-39% of the Interior Ministry's €33.9 billion total expenditures, consistent with its role as Italy's largest police force by personnel count. While official documents provide mission-level totals, precise expenditure tracking requires synthesizing data from:

1. Legge di Bilancio 2023 Annex 5

2. Interior Ministry DPP 2021-2023

3. PNRR Security Implementation Reports

Future transparency improvements should establish dedicated budget codes for hybrid military-police operations and standardize regional expenditure reporting formats.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ITALIAN NATIONAL POLICE FORCES-YEAR 2023

Agency	2023 Budget	Personnel	Key Funding Source
Polizia di Stato	€12.8B	100,302	Interior Ministry (Mission 05)
Carabinieri	€8.5B	110,000	Defense Ministry (60%)
Guardia di Finanza	€5.3B	68,412	Economy Ministry (63%)

I told you that they send us all bankrupt, and given the trend of police expansion, starting with the Gendarmerie, post-Cold War to the present (you have seen some historical data in the table in its own post), I do not explain to myself how the Italian state as well as others, still have never failed!

Now I hope that all readers with a minimum number of brain neurons, having seen the data, have understood that we are facing an unsustainable, here for the Italian people, elephantine bandwagon with 4 police forces, and I am leaving out the 'Polizia Penitenziaria' because for the solution of the related problem I advocate a downsizing of the extension of their duties within the confines of the penitentiary setting. Then there may be those who do not want to understand: in that case, when a few 'right' people wake up sooner or later (not the whole population is needed), I am sure that the 'admirers' would become irrelevant, and the 'Cupole' weakened. As a citizen, I feel like I'm being taken for a ride, 'curnuto e mmazziato' (cuckolded and beaten), as I said in the introduction, as at least anyone who has read this far should feel, whether they are taxpayers or not. Italy is a country that, if it was once backward compared to many others, at least since the gradual decline of the Maritime Republics era, which also spanned the Renaissance, after the final blow dealt by the Napoleonic invasion, is now even further behind.

Therefore, it becomes inevitable to implement a structural reform involving a rational allocation of consistencies of people and infrastructure, as suggested earlier dependent on the Interior Department, local and regional governments, judicial administrations, research institutes, and public health agencies, that in any case would have put back for the Italian people for the year 2023 at the very least about 13.3 billion euros, considering the minimum cost of Gendarmerie.

Therefore, we understand that Italian taxpayers will save several billion euros per year once the new system will be fully operational (e.g., retirements, possible dismissals of structures and means, etc.).

As further dutiful information, I report the budget allocations for the italian Presidency of the Republic, substantially stable from 2015 to today with 224 million euros per year 

(https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidente_della_Repubblica_Italiana#Stanziamenti_e_bilancio_per_la_presidenza_della_Repubblica), even if the effective expenses for each past year then resulted usually higher, I quote an article here.

Ideas on how to spend this money instead

And it would take a lot of money to spend, just read the list that follows.

If we consider the option of absorption, in addition to the Guardia di Finanza, which I consider a given, of Carabinieri, the relative cost of the two gendarmeries will be at least 13.3 billion in 2023. I premise that, from the reform of law enforcement agencies, I expect efforts to be made in the meantime to strengthen existing local and regional police forces, for the rest it is more a matter of a transfer of functions, so some of this money would initially naturally remain used for the management of relocated personnel, structures and vehicles once they have been reconverted, net of any decisions to demolish or decommission them, and possibly for personnel deemed necessary by other bodies; the savings for the State would be gradual, increasing as the excess personnel retires: one more reason to start the mergers right away 

And with the money saved, apart from my historical-military knowledge, not being an expert or assigned in planning state interventions for the benefit of the community, for its use I trivially I think of the more or less widespread and long-standing issues that have often been the subject of political debate but, until now, have seen little concrete action. 

Let us consider, for example, policies aimed at the welfare state, supporting social progress 

(and here you will find relevant data aggregated from this database, while a social progress index can be found here), through support and assistance for a minimum standard of living for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals, not only with direct support funds for a 'social' income (this also applies to me), but also, where necessary, aiming at integration into a virtuous social and economic fabric, and where necessary, intervening in the processes of wealth distribution in order to cushion economic inequalities (in this regard, I cite reference data from analyses such as this one, both at the international level and by country), including, in turn, the development of policies that impact the labor market and entrepreneurship to varying degrees, which can be broadly defined as 'active labor market policies' (in this regard, there is something, and initiatives such as fermenti.gov.it and the public agency sviluppolavoroitalia.it are inspired by these intentions).

And from a sociological point of view, governments should maintain their commitment to promote societies with balanced values of cooperation, and not only of competition, which instead nowadays more than 'physiological' it seems to have moved towards an exasperated competition, antagonism, rivalry, partisan interests; then, adequate expenditure for a public health (foreseeing any effects of inflation), and on this subject, I would like to mention an issue that will become increasingly relevant given the aging population, namely care for the elderly, especially those who are not self-sufficient: if the state plans to contribute systematically, it will need billions of euros; continuing with the 'shopping list', there is scientific research (quoting a recently deceased physics luminary, Steven Weinberg: "The effort to understand the universe is among the very few things that raise human life above the level of a farce, giving it some of the dignity of a tragedy"); then, fortunately, I hear more and more talk about investing in workplace safety, given the dramatic figures relating to accidents in this area. And after yet another infringement procedure against Italy by the European Union (with some possible consequences for each of us), these savings would help amortize the enormous annual budget deficit, then there are works to be done on our territory for the management of hydro-geological instability and the high seismic and volcanic risk, compensation in non-biblical times to the territories affected by natural and artificial disasters, investments for energy saving (the human being is an irreducible consumer of all kinds with the consequent waste, also because over the ages get used to more and more comforts and vices), communication infrastructures...other ideas here and this book.

Crime and Public security

If there was ever a need for yet another reason for the urgent and unpostponable structural reform of the police force that I have mentioned, from the data that I have been collecting until recently, the number of crimes brought to justice compared to those committed, which of course vary substantially depending on the type of crime, for example minor crimes (thefts, muggings and others) or more serious crimes (robberies, murders, personal injuries and others), generally shows that unfortunately most remain unpunished. To give an example, you cannot even imagine how many people disappear in Italy and around the world! The percentages of solved cases have somewhat increased in recent years thanks to the widespread use of video surveillance cameras, drones, cellular networks (the latter will tend to have less of an impact on the effectiveness of investigations in the future because nowadays it is easy to buy SIM cards that are no longer linked to the personal data of the owners), web monitoring starting with social networks (here too I do not know if its effectiveness will be sustained over time). So, the phenomenon of the continuous increase of personnel in law enforcement, which occurred in Italy in the previous decades and until recently, instead, think about it, has been parallel to that of the increase in the proceeds of criminal organizations 

(www.cgiamestre.com/la-mafia-spa-fattura-40-miliardi-lanno/ , Eco-mafie , Spanish government raises alarm: Europe flooded with cocaine; and when are Fentanyl and other 'businesses'?)!; not to mention the jungle of mafia networks that have also emerged in recent decades and at an international level, as emerges for example from literature and TV investigative programmes (I have noticed that regardless of opinion biases of the various media communication channels, there are quality in-depth television programs), with regard to italian condition for instance in Rome just search on Google for "criminalità organizzata nella Capitale" and you will find a very alarming reality, I report here and here

some of the web reference links.

What do you say, regardless of everything and everyone, considering only Europe, who is winning so far, the states or organized crime? Answer: organized crime has continued to operate almost undisturbed. In short, as we have seen, all this smoke for very little fire, while here we need the opposite!

I quote the words of the late Judge Giovanni Falcone, "The Mafia will be defeated when civil society no longer gives it consent", so repression is not enough, and what is needed is for a critical mass of society to abhor mafias, and not only that, education and schooling can certainly play their part, especially in developing age individuals: as Maria Falcone said on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the massacres that killed first her brother and then Judge Paolo Borsellino: "The Mafia is fought with schooling, education, and culture," and then the testimony of Salvatore Borsellino, also an 'orphan' of his brother, among his messages: "The Mafia will be defeated by an army of teachers" and then "Study because the Mafia fears education and culture": in all this, politics must play an active role in preparing the ground, but on several fronts, such as education and, for example, by encouraging entrepreneurship and employment.

Then not to mention tax evasion, an historical 'practice' widespread in our country (in 2023 there was an estimated 'tax gap' of 80-100 billion euros). And examples in which the crime rate is independent of the presence of military police can be found everywhere, I mention only a few for brevity: in Mexico in the past 6 years there have been about 180,000 murders, the organizations of the narco-traffic are increasingly powerful, between 

forced disappearances, torture,  femicides, 

sexual and domestic violence, in Colombia

violence linked to armed groups of narco-traffickers, trafficking in human beings and mafias in Nigeria. On the other hand, to take up previously made considerations, how many times are military state regimes stifling human rights. Of course then there will be quantities

realistically and rationally plannable of employees and infrastructures for law enforcement, and forget about regiments, battalions, companies,  divisions and legions (this name is a legacy of the armies of ancient Rome), these must belong to the armies, but rather quality, and up-to-date technologies, given that crime is one step ahead from a technological point of view, as an italian judge on the front line in the fight against the mafia said in some interviews. An example of technology exploited by crime is this. Moreover, it won't be easy to find a compromise to safeguard what little privacy (alternate link) we have left, given the evolution of regulations and increasingly advanced investigative tools.

All this cannot be left aside from a revolution on prevention, among whose key factors I see schooling, opportunities and support for the inclusion of all individuals in the legal and virtuous socio-economic fabric, free dissemination of general culture, patronage of quality art and music, and the correct valorisation of the importance and management of information to the public. For this purpose, a balance must be modulated between confidentiality of investigations and social disclosure in the times and ways most useful to honest society: if Bobby is a fundamentally honest person and Charlie a criminal, if the latter is investigated there will be a given moment (choosing it on the basis of the effectiveness achieved in the timing or stages of completion of the inquires) where it might be appropriate that what, or some of what, has been discovered about Charlie be disclosed, when possible information that people like Bobby learn (honest society) becomes more effective or important than the counter-measures implemented by Charlie (dishonest society). It is important to publicly support a quality investigative journalism, which becomes a complement or even replacement of the 'vox populi', which from the perspective of legality, is very important when seen as a protective shield together with the police force, also modulating a combination of personal privacy and fairness of disclosure (also to avoid falling into false or premature accusations or inconsistent or worse unfounded news, transforming journalism from useful to deleterious), as in the Bobby and Charlie example. This theme can take mathematical 

cues from Game theory, considering how social sciences can benefit from it.

Certain expressions of the European Union can give us a big hand, even more so on the path towards a Federation of European States

I can't help but mention the role of European political history with its literature (starting with the pioneers of the European Union), on the path towards an increasingly accomplished European Union, about whose role fortunately a debate has recently been rekindled, also given the tumultuous times of international balances, and from many sides there is a feeling for the urgency to accelerate a path to a more politically united Europe, in this regard, ideas can be drawn from a Manifesto (the original is in Dutch language) written by Belgian politician Guy Verhofstadt, Europe which in a not too distant future could take on at least one interposing role amidst China, Russia and the United States, in the contest of a Global Order: 

I really hope that European politicians have finally realized that otherwise a united European federation is doomed from the start. Ideas can be taken also from other countries such as U.S.A., Canada, Australia, and similar ones (I cite countries with non-totalitarian or similar regimes), besides states such as Germany, Belgium, Austria, also Switzerland, that are 

federations by themselves in various capacities and grades. In order to contribute to a further push to reform the police forces in the states where they are problematic, which is a main theme of this article, the ideal would be a European Federal Police, I give one more reason by citing those few more successful operations in the fight against criminal organizations such as 'N'Drangheta, which took place under the aegis of EuroPol: a European police force would be an evolution in a structural sense of this agency.

Some of the problems to be solved in this direction would not be simple, given the multi-lingual context of the populations involved, on the other hand the federal police forces of states such as Germany and Austria, like the US FBI, concern homogeneous linguistic communities: it is precisely for this possible institution that I am thinking of a division of human resources by territorial area of ​​belonging, at least until one day there is also a common language. If it ever starts...

In the meantime, here is an excursus of the tormented historical path to set up a European integration, with the related treaties among those that appear to be not conditioned by interferences of military organizations. An European constitution has also been put in place, but what is missing is a strengthened European cooperation according to the principles of the above-mentioned Manifesto.

I am of the opinion that the nations that hesitate too much, or to put it simply that want to be 'with one foot in and one foot out', think again or leave the Union (easy to say, we know it, but times are running out). A relevant testimony of pro-European encouragement is in a Winston Churchill's speech, while here a presentation 

from italian bibliography on the topic.

For the current administrative organization of the European Union, there is a searchable institutional map on the official website.

In short, new generation governments should wake up and get a move on.

'Cupole' and Wars

From what we have considered so far, it can be seen that military government regimes are also related to guerrilla warfare scenarios, as was the case in the Spanish Civil War.

The times we live in see a new arms race and a growing global military spending by governments like never before, in the figure attached above we have seen military expenses in 2023 of Italy for defense, all expenses that increase in a context of wars, growing tensions and insecurity (after Finland Sweden, also sensing a threat from the East, has just entered NATO and will even provide

troops and armaments to Latvia), with the restoration of scenarios that have affinities with those of the post-1945 cold war. This, after past attempts, has also rekindled the interest of political leaders of the European Union to equip itself with a military shared force, and in this regard there are problems to be solved, and on the other hand a common European Army would be hopefully smaller and less expensive than the sum of individual armies. For now I see initiatives here and there of collaboration between EU states, such as this one to give a boost to the level of air defense capabilities, but without systematic projects. A description of the current European military procurement legislation is found in this book, and the 'SIPRI Yearbook' (downloadable here for the year 2023 in various languages) provides an overview of developments in international security, weapons and technology, military spending, arms production and trade, armed conflict and conflict management, together with efforts to control conventional, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. In short, the human war spirit recurs frequently, since the dawn of time.

And since wars often cause huge migratory flows, here I report some data on the relative dramatic situation to be urgently globally addressed, with a thought for the fate of many children, given the phenomenon of child trafficking.

Here is a short list of websites of military economy observers in the world: 

• disarmament.unoda.org/convarms/milex/ 
• Sipri.org 
• https://www.milex.org/milex-observatory-in-english/
• en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest_military_expenditures
• data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS
• ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title = Government_expenditure_on_defence
• International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) -The Military Balance
  www.iiss.org/publications/the-military-balance
• Transparency International – Defense and Security (TI-DS)
  ti-defence.org/
• enaat.org/
• www.europeforpeace.eu/en/
• Centro studi di geopolitica e relazioni internazionali  https://www.geopolitica.info/dove-e-come-investe-la-difesa-italiana-riflessioni-sul-dpp-2023-2025/

to whom I ask, in addition to the usual monitoring of military general expenditures in the world, and where there are no too demanding difficulties, a periodic extrapolation of the number, size, and costs of hybrid law enforcement agencies, organized along military lines with civil jurisdiction, as I 'photographed' in this article about Italy for Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza in 2022-23. I believe that in countries that care about civil rights and freedom of expression, there should be an obligation on the part of state administrations to periodically publish, through official means, in a clear and transparent manner, the amounts and expenses regarding all law enforcement agencies.

This would also constitute an important parameter for having a clue on the political situation of the various states in the world, where authoritarianism need intense use of force to maintain the public order it needs.

Here a list of human rights observers:

• Human Rights Watch
• European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
• www.osservatoriodiritti.it
• https://www.amnesty.org/en/
• rosalux.eu/en/about/
• Italian Coalition of Freedoms and Civil Rights
• International Institute of Humanitarian Law
• The Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) https://www.liberties.eu/en/about/organisation

A reflection on the history of revolutions and riots

Mine is a faith in republics that have reached such maturity as to clear the way for a historic change of course, having finally become aware that after more than two centuries, it is necessary to put a definitive end to the legacy of the Napoleonic Empire (in France even earlier) and the subsequent Restoration of the conservative order that sanctioned the return of absolute monarchies that suffocated the various insurrectional uprisings in blood during the first half of the nineteenth century, and then the uncontrolled expansion of law enforcement forces somewhat everywhere since the end of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR, all aspects that caused historical regressions in the evolution of human society in Europe.

Now that most of you have hopefully realized all this history, what Italy and other peoples need is to understand that the Risorgimento, which liberated peoples from oppressors costing the lives of so many brave people, is not yet over, where we now need to continue its work with a great cultural renewal, freeing ourselves from everything that prevents our evolution as an expression of a rule of law, which in the Italian case, as we have seen, the savoy left us.

This change of course is neither easy nor immediate unfortunately, someone smart would say: but we have seen that, aside from many of the countries I listed under ‘Changes that have already taken place elsewhere’, which have always had a single national police force, some former Central European states as well as Ireland, Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, have already 'crossed the watershed', and we know that if one has no ambitions and does not aim high, things take a long time: but the direction is set. And we know that the union of people with new consciences is strength: any activity in this direction has a great meaning, even if in the immediate future it does not achieve concrete results, because it is a growth of collective awareness for the near future.

I would like to share a few more thoughts on the general state of leaders and young people nowadays: while not taking anything away from the value of street protests such as, to give a few examples, those relating to demands for social justice, or against forms of oppression, history tells us that generally street riots have more rarely produced significant effects, if not often be repressed in the blood in a reactionary way, as for example the various revolutionary movements cited above during the first half of the nineteenth century against absolute monarchies like those of the Counter-revolutionary restoration of the Conservative order; with this we also intuit how the role of homeland security threats as the driving force behind the expansion for the case of gendarmerie forces is a concept that has extended to non-European states as well.

In comparison, there have been several successful cases of 'cultural revolutions' or otherwise 'led' by people who were not part of the common people. For example, regarding the improvement of the conditions of the rights of a people, a historically recent example of a successful revolution was that in Poland which brought Lech Wałęsa to the presidency of the country, but think about it, a polish Pope was decisive...

As for the reunification of the various more or less occupied territories of 'geographic' Italy, together with the venture of the expedition of the Thousand, unfortunately an aristocrat, Camillo Conte di Cavour, was strategic for the success, and the English Navy had an hand in it. But it's a shame that in order to drive out the previous monarchies (the bourbons in Southern Italy) we had to replace them with another monarchy, the savoys (to whom Giuseppe Garibaldi showed devotion, I don't know whether this was utilitarian in order to achieve his goals or not, and whether it can be linked to his membership of the Masonic lodge of the Grand Orient of Italy; the former aspect is considered in the content of this Wikipedia section, which I have already referenced), while I would have liked it if a new Republic/(Con)federation had then already won, as Mazzini would certainly have liked (a Republic).

However, for all communities that would like to aspire to progress, in addition, of course, to engaging in political life, regarding the protests there are proposals for alternative ways out, which I see taking cues from resistance to oppressive regimes through mass civil disobedience, such as that which progressively led India of Gandhi the 'Mahatma' to independence from the British. And as I have already implied, and as I have already implied, we will always need to be committed and vigilant in order not to regress. Included here and here are summaries 

(in italian) on 2 recent annual reports from Amnesty International on human rights violations worldwide.

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Back to the future: constitutional reforms of political institutions for a REAL turning point from the past and its napoleonic-aristocratic interferences

I have carried out an overview of the systems of government in other countries, including some infographics on the US system, which I will leave below for your reference. Meanwhile, as far as Italy is concerned, in order to put all these good intentions into practice, priority must be given to reforms that protect legitimate governments from possible interference by other institutions that are alien to a modern concept of politics, where I find that the normal 'weights' of politics are decisively counterbalanced by military ones. 

To explore this topic further, it would be useful to conduct separate comparative analyses with the organization of government systems in other countries that are more capable of maintaining more effective rule of law, such as the more strictly parliamentary republics

than Italy, which, as we will see below, does not represent these cases.

Of course, we must always bear in mind, as history teaches us, the inherently evolutionary nature of politics itself, and, among other things, take a look at the various

institutional competences and related entities 

of the United States. This, of course, is regardless of the fact that governments themselves can 'do damage'. 

However, upon closer analysis of the Italian case, I do not know to what extent the Constituent Assembly of 1946 wanted the figure of the President of the Republic

'essentially' as a representative of national unity (essentially of Italians) and as an 'arbitrator' or guarantor of the Constitution without any further extension of powers, given that we must carefully consider its historical and current form, where he has a whole series of functions

(and here is an overview), established in different parts of the current Constitution, which favor his role as an actor of interference in political action. Therefore, in my opinion, based on the organization of the Italian political system, these are powers that confer on the Head of State, real extra powers, which can be deduced from those that you will see underlined in the list below. First of all, I invite you to seriously consider some of them: those of Head of the Armed Forces (in other strictly parliamentary republics, this power is held by a President-Prime Minister) and President of the Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura (an administrative body of self-government, with the exception of its president, of the judiciary).

There are also other functions which, although 'indirectly', strengthen his role in political decision-making, even though Article 89 of the Constitution requires ministers to countersign presidential acts. Some of his powers are a guarantee, some are 'with reservation', and some are not very significant. I will list them here for the benefit of most readers: he appoints one third of the members of the Constitutional Court, ratifies international treaties subject to parliamentary authorization, declares a state of war decided by the Chambers, can dissolve the Chambers, calls elections, appoints the Prime Minister and Ministers, appoints up to five senators for life, promulgates laws (with the possibility of sending them back to Parliament) and issues decrees having the force of law and regulations, authorizes the presentation of government bills to Parliament, calls referendums, and appoints certain high-ranking state officials.

So, given the powers given to him, which are concentrated in this monocratic institution (meaning it's a single body made up of just one person) and self-determined (there are no oversight mechanisms for his actions), which is currently the President of the Republic, about whom, as I said before, I have my doubts on its definition as essentially a "representative" and an "arbitrator" or a "guarantor," these often and unhindered result in powers of political direction, despite the fact that some, whether partisan or not, would have us believe otherwise: proof of this is the long history of various interferences in Italian politics by the Head of State, of which I will shortly mention some of the most recent and representative episodes. Moreover, for the more attentive, I have already previously evoked the legacy of a historical figure from the past... Various episodes in our history could therefore only confirm a power parallel to that of the government, Parliament, and the judiciary (among the most prominent examples I have gleaned from online AI sources are the mandates of Giovanni Gronchi, Francesco Cossiga, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Giorgio Napolitano, and Sergio Mattarella, to which I would add Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who was in office during that sinister political period of the 'sinistri' [leftists], which I discussed in the dedicated paragraph). Along with this article, which will please some and displease others, but here it is not the purpose of these interventions by the presidential institution that interests us now, but rather how these episodes, among the most recent, are very representative of the interference of heads of state (which is why I propose radical reforms to this problem below), I leave here a brief list of historical analyses on the subject for those who wish to learn more, almost all in English:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

From the previous examination of that infamous period in European history, corroborated by significant statistical data from my own research correlating forms of government around the world with the presence or absence of more than one national police force, we therefore have evidence that, in addition to the phenomenon of the spread of the Gendarmerie, the Presidents of the republics of those countries whose governments are organized in certain ways, such as Italy, also present aspects inherited from the monarchs of the Conservative Order, which in turn were inherited from Napoleon, and these presidents have powers of influence over the main institutional bodies, the government, parliament, and the judiciary: so I see Italy's political system as having certain similarities with a semi-presidential republic, guess what? French-style, which has a diarchic structure in the management of executive power, split between the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister ^{[external note]}, with some differences compared to France, where the President of the Republic is elected by the people, like Parliament, and his term of office has been reduced to 5 years⁹.

According to a definition that is unfortunately widely accepted, Italy has a parliamentary republic form of government, as classified by Wikipedia itself, but, perhaps for reasons of brevity, it presents categories in general terms (the same entry in English has a few more), which gloss over the many variations/details that exist on a case-by-case basis (with the extreme case being that each state or community would be a category in itself), although this aspect is discussed in the text of the referenced entry. Moreover, in Italy, a nation with many dark, nuanced aspects, which no ruling class has ever escaped, and with which the Cupola generally 'wallow', our 'hybrid' political system presents shady areas that are unacceptable for a true republic. I would therefore define Italy as a parliamentary republic, at least with reservations.

The issue is complex and of the utmost importance, yet first and foremost, we need to thoroughly review the institutions of the presidents of certain countries: transform them into more collegial, directorial bodies, in a popular sense, or implement, to use a metaphor that has gained some traction among those interested in politics (which, unfortunately, not many people cultivate) and conveys the idea, a form of 'counterweight' that is currently lacking in this institution (in France, a sort of balance between their two executive bodies can only be expressed in periods of cohabitation, which are now much less likely after a reform of the electoral calendar and the length of the presidential term), but for me, if we consider these options mutually exclusive, the first one would be better.

Alternatively, following comparative analyses with other countries around the world where other forms of government have been tested to a reasonable extent, like Germany, Ireland, Iceland, India, and many Commonwealth nations that have maintained clearer distinctions between ceremonial and executive authority,

we should consider whether the constitutional reform should go further, providing for a more 'parliamentary' reorganization, in which a possible Head of State either has a purely representative/ceremonial role, and executive power would be exclusively held by a Prime Minister-President with his ministers, whose acts would be scrutinized by Parliament and other existing bodies (which I will mention), or this institution would be abolished.

Therefore, in order to progress towards a more realistic Republic, in addition to the reform of the police force, institutional reforms of historic significance are needed for Italy and other nations that have been left behind.

Now, I am not an expert in any humanistic discipline assisted by lawyers and other technical professionals useful for this purpose who truly have ideas for innovation (which should be the norm rather than the exception), but in short, there are complex but urgent issues for which working committees have already been set up in the past to address such important matters, without producing results: so here we would need round tables for a 're-constitutional assembly', with additional synthesis capabilities to avoid impractical complexities: I am going to make here an empirical reasoning, that involves reforms revising Part 2 of the current Constitution.

Therefore, starting from this 'confused' Italian political reality, in my opinion one of the priority solutions is a parliamentary appointment of governments without the presidential passage for the more or less "formal" appointment of the Prime Minister and Ministers, and the protection of their pre-established temporal stability, obviously regardless of their political 'color', naturally with maximum time limits for each term of office, but as we will see in more detail, in cases of re-election, I propose gradually decreasing periods. In this regard, the current italian government (2025) proposes universal suffrage for the election of the head of government but, as with the direct election of a head of state (as in France), based on what has been discussed above regarding democracy, I am uncertain how much this would resolve the issues. Here I am dealing with urgent issues and calling for practical and effective proposals to be tested, and I repeat, without any political partisanship: I believe that the advantage of averting politically unacceptable external interference in the main political bodies is a priority.

Continuing the discussion, beyond comparisons with other 'demilitarized' nations, for the sake of brevity I will limit myself to considering the hypothesis, which, as already mentioned, is one of the possible options, that goes in the direction of a significantly 'parliamentary' republic, with the replacement of those

historical functions that we have seen to be the prerogative of the President of the Italian Republic with more 'widespread' and 'dispersed' (but not too much so) bodies/entities.

Thus, in order to supervise the work of the executive and legislative powers, to begin with, the relative balance of power between the government and parliament could be well modulated. Then, as regards who elects the Constitutional Court², which is the most important institution guaranteeing the constitutionality of laws in Italy, an issue that I consider very delicate, in my (not so modest) opinion, the power of the President of the Republic to appoint one third of the members would either be abolished (in which case half of the members would be appointed by Parliament and the rest by the higher courts), or would be assigned to some collegial body of another legal nature competent to indicate personalities suitable for the guidelines referred to in note [2bis] (taking cues from the previous discussion on democracy, I would suggest candidates who are experts in the humanities). Then, still speaking as a non-expert, I would propose that it have the power to take its own initiative in cases where the Constitutional Court itself deems it necessary to intervene. With regard to another sensitive issue, namely the need to 'mediate' or 'arbitrate' on the proper management of the constitutional autonomy of the judiciary, a role now assigned to the President of the Republic in his capacity as President of the Consiglio Superiore della Magistratura, there would probably be more debate on how to replace this function: for example, whether as an individual or collegial body (in this case, a more collective presidency would add bureaucratic complexity), composed of whom, whether it would also be a supervisory body, and if collegial, whether composed of legal entities of different natures, etc. Similar questions apply to who would elect the president(s), since they would have to be elected by someone independent of the C.S.M. itself. A few words about the work of magistrates (but also lawyers, who I understand are rightly well paid; in my opinion, there should also be public lawyers who are equally well paid): their work requires, first and foremost, impeccable moral integrity (as already mentioned for intelligence services), and think about it, they play a highly responsible role (even more so in criminal proceedings), for some there is a high personal risk, combined with what I believe to be a very demanding commitment, so they must not only be paid a lot (as public doctors must be), but the judicial work organization must also ensure that possible (and perhaps currently probable) work overload is avoided (there is a technical term for this, Occupational burnout): are there enough judges in Italy for the workload of the proceedings? No? Let's hire them with assistants and support staff. It's a matter of protecting those who already work and ensuring fair rights for everyone.

Having closed this parenthesis, continuing with the case of possible reforms towards a parliamentary republic, if some people, and currently it will not be a few, think that the abolition of the office of President of the Republic seems too much, I would say to them that consideration could be given to maintaining this institutional figure in a purely representative role for the nation. 

For the sake of completeness with regard to the current institutional control bodies, I would like to mention also other organs provided for in the Constitution in the Italian political system

(here is more detailed in italian), which, taken together, have jurisdictional, control, public audit, advisory, and executive powers (i.e., they can impose mandatory actions), such as the Council of State³ (which is also the court of appeal for decisions of the Regional Administrative Courts) with regard to

administrative acts, the Court of Auditors⁴ with jurisdiction over public accounting matters, and, at a more purely advisory and monitoring level, the National Council for Economics and Labor (CNEL)⁵, with powers of legislative initiative and the faculty to contribute to the drafting of legislation on economic and social matters. it should be noted here that towards the end of 2016 this body came to the forefront of Italian public opinion, as its abolition was provided for in the Renzi-Boschi constitutional reform, which was then rejected by a constitutional referendum. The list of these bodies is completed by the controversial Consiglio Supremo di Difesa ⁶.

In conclusion, I would like to mention cases in which binding consultative power is vested in the people, through the institution of the abrogative referendum and, in constitutional matters, through the institution of the confirmatory referendum on constitutional laws (for an overview, see this this section of a Wikipedia entry). 

If a more general revision were to be considered, moving towards a broader reform of the organization of at least certain parts of the Italian political system, I imagine a concerted effort by cleverly devised political bodies inspired by ideas such as control, guarantee, supervision, and mediation, by and between different public institutions, also including/reviewing more or less the current ones (for example, we have auditors), 

with a possible Head of State having only representative/ceremonial functions,

and introducing where necessary arbitration panels similarly to probity arbitrators, juries, auditors and 'peer reviewers' without policy-making powers, and certainly without functions such as presiding over the Armed Forces and others such as those specifically underlined above with regard to the Head of State in its current form, all without overburdening the bureaucratic machine.

Finally, I will not elaborate here on questions such as who controls the controllers (but then who controls the controllers of the controllers? Or: what mutual control mechanisms should be introduced? Etc.), since it is impossible to control everything, seeking a balanced synthesis so as not to undermine decision-making capacity and timing: we could simply say that it would be 'too much bureaucracy of bureaucracy'. Perhaps this will be the subject of a separate post with technical details, which I will link to here.

In addition, these desired reforms will provide for well-modulated limits on the number and duration of the mandates of a President-Prime Minister, i.e., on his or her overall term of office, in order to control potential autocratic tendencies. As for the duration of terms of office, refining the ideas a little, the term of office of the same Prime Minister could be set in sub-periods of progressively decreasing duration, for example 5 then 3 then 2 years or 4-3-2-1 years (a longer term at the beginning would take into account the 'start-up' phase, and subsequently a progressively shorter term would serve as a moment of reassessment: if, after a certain period, the voters like him, he will be re-elected, otherwise, in the case of a new government, the sub-periods will start again, until the next electoral reassessment) with a maximum limit of, say, 10 years in office for each Prime Minister. Other aspects will then be dealt with, such as possible cases of no confidence/resignations/interruptions of governments for any reason. And I would not expect prohibitive increases in organizational and electoral costs, even with a greater use of proven technology, such as televoting systems at polling stations, with verification systems using digital signatures.

Then, if any readers have better solutions to the big problem of illegitimate interference in political institutions, I would be happy to hear them.

Then, of course, there are lobbies and historical and non-historical power brokers. For example, I have good reason to believe that oil and other lobbies are still active. However, I personally do not believe in what have been highlighted as conspiracy theories, such as the Kalergi Plan, reptilians, and the 'villains' George Soros and Bill Gates (beyond the opinions expressed by the figures mentioned here, the conspiracy theory concept is to see them as those who are plotting something, but no one has ever proven these 'conspiracies'; rather, it seems to me that there is someone who feeds them, as I mentioned earlier), the 'powerful' World Economic Forum, mysterious treaties, etc., which in my opinion are more distractions when not misdirection of public opinion: I don't think the real Cupolas should be sought in those places. To be a little more aware of them, I will mention some other powers that influence political decisions, both historical and real, such as the Pope and other religious authorities, certain Masonic lodges with their connections (in addition to the past Italian affairs of the 'P2 Lodge' (2) (3) (4) and 'P3-P4'), and the now fairly well-known Bilderberg Club. And about these 'parallel worlds', whether interconnected or not, there is fortunately now a wealth of investigative literature (of which I leave here a few examples (1) (2) (3), included a public 'network of archives'). Those who have the time to search around and carefully examine the sources can therefore educate themselves on the subject, given that ordinary citizens, if and when they become aware of such matters, usually do so after some time has passed, including following the declassification of confidential historical institutional documents.

Back to the past, the case of the Gendarmerie: the perfect synthesis

“In the Army there was an armed force that had above all an exclusively dynastic character: the Armed Force of the Carabinieri. This was the King's weapon. Here too Fascism tried to organize a police who gave guarantees from a political point of view and added a secret organization: the OVRA."

(From: Benito Mussolini, The time of the stick and the carrot. History of a year (October 1942 - September 1943), in supplement to Corriere della Sera, n. 190 of 9 August 1944, p. 40).

Pay close attention to the aforementioned part that I underlined: this should be enough a synthesis to 'wake up' citizenship, extending the case to the Guardia di Finanza, another uniquely Italian legacy of an era only seemingly distant.

P.S.: Oh, I forgot, at the beginning of the article I mentioned categories of readers who might have problems in assimilating the meanings, hoping that they will overcome any impasses; among these categories I also expect 'by logic' members of the various police forces perhaps in different measures, and tend to be their relatives and friends, while I hope for cooperation of at least another part of the readers of this same species.

"The bandwagon goes on by itself, 

 With queens, its infantrymen, its kings"

(From the song 'Il Carrozzone', Renato Zero)

Appendix

Regulatory references affecting demonstrations and assemblies

Here I point out some basic regulatory references in the field of public order for the Italian case in point and at a supranational level, which together can delimit a context of interest to better express judgments on specific news of protests and demonstrations. In cases of demonstrations in general, it would be

recalled (it is necessary to use the conditional verbal form because given what in general exposed in the article, we saw that there has never been a real Republic in this and other countries yet) a couple of articles of italian Constitution:

Article 21

"Everyone has the right to freely express their thoughts with the word, the writing and any other means of diffusion. [...]", 

Article 17

"Citizens have the right to meet peacefully and unarmed. No notice is required for meetings, even in a place open to the public. Meetings in public places must be given notice to the authorities, who may prohibit them only for proven reasons of security or public safety." So in public places advance notice is sufficient, then the authority just in case can prohibit a meeting for proven specific reasons. This is an aspect that may escape many people, but it is a very important feature of an albeit rule of law state such as ours, compared to another that is not at all.

Article 40 then further articulates the matter more specifically on the right to strike; as regards social and political initiatives in the field of human rights worldwide, we must also mention article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (here some historical data since its application), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, and article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights, adopted by the European Court of Human Rights, a body of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg (which is independent from the European Union, and independence is often a form of protection).

Notes

1) A story in itself is the tax haven Republic of San Marino, which also maintains multiple police forces, military-ordered and civilian jurisdiction, on the other hand in a country that seems proud of chivalric orders of nostalgic medieval evocation... I have nothing against medieval history, but history is also about change, to indicate here 'methods' that are no longer applicable to the modern era (San Marino medals, decorations and chivalric orders). 
As for the birth of the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City, is called this considering that from a legal point of view this state is an absolute monarchy, with a legacy similar to other former European monarchies, hinting that they are militias with a historical evolution similar to their gendarmeries.

2) The Constitutional Court judges any disputes on the constitutional legitimacy of the laws, and conflicts of attribution of powers between different organs of the State. 
The ways in which it acts are in principal or 
action, considered a prior action, and in an incidental or exception, considered a subsequent action; this does not provide for the Court to apply a 'motu proprio' principle, nor is it obliged to checks within its competence on each and every legislative enactment or act having the force of law.
Italy ratified the Treaty on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court, the European Court of Human Rights and, in 2014, accepted the mandatory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.

2a) [voters of the Constitutional Court] "This mixed structure is intended to give balance to the Constitutional Court: to foster this balance the constituent [Assembly] associates, in the composition of the body, the high technical-legal background and the necessary political sensitivity."
[https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corte_costituzionale_(Italia)#Composizione]

3) In the exercise of its advisory function, the Council of State provides opinions regarding the regularity and legitimacy, merit, and expediency of administrative acts of individual ministries, the Government as a collegial body, or regions.
[https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consiglio_di_Stato_(Italia)#Attribuzioni_consultive]
In the judiciary, it has the function of tutelage [including of citizens] against the acts of the public administration. In particular, the Council of State is the second instance of administrative justice, i.e., the court of appeal against the decisions of the Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR). In addition, the Council of State functions as a single-degree judge in the judgment of compliance, that is, in that judgment aimed at obtaining that a public administration execute a judgment issued by the ordinary judge or the Council of State itself. [https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consiglio_di_Stato_(Italia)#Attribuzioni_giurisdizionali]

4) Corte dei conti
https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corte_dei_conti_(Italia)

5) Consiglio Nazionale dell'Economia e del Lavoro (CNEL), a detailed description in Italian: 
https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consiglio_Nazionale_dell%27Economia_e_del_Lavoro#Funzioni.
A description in English:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Council_for_Economics_and_Labour

6) (Supreme Council of Defence (Italy))
"Its powers are largely delineated in negative terms, this is because in practice the majority of the practical decision-making powers mentioned in Law no.624/1950 actually belong to other institutions. In particular, those elements of the political process which relate to foreign affairs and military policy belong to the executive, and the Chief of the Defence Staff is responsible for the formulation of strategic plans and the defence of the borders. As a result, the council limited to playing a consultative and advisory role to the Council of Ministers, much like an Inter-ministerial Committee." (cit. Wikipedia)

7) President of the Republic from 1999 to 2006: Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
1998-2000: Government of D'Alema 1 and 2, with Russo Jervolino and Bianco (Interior) -Pasini and Mattarella (Defense) -Visco (Finance) -Diliberto (Grace and Justice); it is worth noting that in those years Italy also participated in the Kosovo war.
2000-2001: Government Amato 2, with Bianco (Interior) -Mattarella (Defense) -Del Turco (Finance)-Fassino (Grace and Justice).
Also worth noting is the European Council of Nice in December 2000, which gave rise to the aforementioned phantom EuroGendFor.

8) 2006-2008: Prodi 2 government, with D'Alema (Interior)-Parisi (Defense)-Padoa Schioppa (Economy) -Mastella/Scotti (Justice);
2013-2014: Letta government, with Alfano (Interior)-Mauro (Defense)-Saccomanni (Economy and Finance)-Cancellieri (Justice);
2014-2016: Renzi government, with Alfano (Interior)-Pinotti (Defense)-Padoan (Economy)-Orlando (Justice);
2016-2018: Gentiloni government, with Minniti (Interior)-Pinotti (Defense)-Padoan (Economy)-Orlando (Justice).

9) In France, an example historically taken as a reference by observers as a semi-presidential republic, the French executive power is given the appellation Bicephalous ('two brains', editor's note), shared between the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, head of government, and France remains a parliamentary republic with (strong) presidential influence. A more accurate definition of the form of government could be a presidentialized parliamentary regime or a bi-representative parliamentary regime ^{[external note]}, or we can still speak of, excluding periods of cohabitation, a presidential interpretation of the Constitution

This article may occasionally be updated from relevant sources or news.

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