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The article looks at political and economic conditions in Italy as of July 2012. It recounts the 2011 resignation of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his replacement by a technocratic government led by Prime Minister Mario Monti, citing mass demonstrations in October 2011 as a key factor in Berlusconi's fall. It describes Italy's relative economic stagnation and rising public debt from the 1990s on. Topics include tax rates and tax evasion, bureaucratic and undemocratic aspects of the political system, labor law, and the effects of adoption of the euro.