Italy's drive to reform runs into a problem: Corruption lingers on.

Focuses on politics and government in Italy leading up to elections in April 1996, and how hopes for reform there are abating fast. Candidates including Ciriaco De Mita, who has been resurrected from a political scandal; Frustrations of reformists including Mario Segni, who is not running as he would normally, and Antonio Guetta, who may not even vote; Dashed expectations that an investigation into corruption, known as mani pulite, would clean up fraud.