ROME: A stagnating economy, corruption, organised crime, political apathy, misogyny, youth unemployment... The person elected to run Italy next weekend will have a formidable to-do list.

1. The economy: With the effects of austerity taking their toll and fears building about long-term capacity for growth, it is little wonder that Italy’s economic situation has taken centre stage in the election campaign.

The country is now in its longest recession in 20 years, the economy having contracted for the last six consecutive quarters and languished in more than a decade of almost nonexistent growth. Unemployment is at more than 11 per cent; for under-25s, it is more than 36 per cent. Italy has the second highest ratio of sovereign debt to GDP in the EU.

Economists say much more needs to be done to affect the kind of deep and lasting change needed to get Italy growing again. They focus on Italy’s lack of competitiveness; its untapped labour market resources — women and young people; a thorough reform of product markets and of crucial institutions such as the justice and education systems.

2. Women:

Held back by ingrained cultural attitudes, inadequate public services and political under-representation, women in Italy may have better educational qualifications than their male counterparts but they are significantly less likely to be in paid work.

Italy’s female employment rate is, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 46.5 per cent — better only than Greece, Mexico and Turkey among advanced economies, and 12 percentage points below the EU average.)

“It’s a country in which women are still very connected to a traditional vision of their role. Care work is work principally done by women. So we find ourselves in a situation where women aren’t getting work,” said Maddalena Vianello, a leading feminist activist. “If they get it, statistics show that they are more precarious, worse paid and in professional positions which, let’s say, are inferior in relation to their level of education.”

3. The justice system: Slow-moving, hugely bloated and sometimes alarmingly politicised, Italy’s justice system needs fixing. In a critical report last year, the Council of Europe’s top official for human rights, Nils Muiznieks, said Italy could “ill-afford” such an inefficient system, which is estimated to waste the equivalent of one per cent of GDP.

Italy is one of the most litigious countries in Europe, with more than 2.8m cases brought in 2011 alone, and has by far the most lawyers of any EU country — around 240,000. But the system simply cannot cope.

A shockingly high proportion of inmates in Italy’s overcrowded prisons are awaiting trial. Meanwhile, others remain free pending appeals against lower court convictions.

4. Organised crime and corruption: If there is one industry in Italy that has not suffered from the economic crisis, it is organised crime. It is a sector that booms year in, year out. With three significant mafia organisations — the ‘Ndrangheta, the Camorra and the Sicilian mafia — the country remains a hub of organised illicit activity, even if the nature of that activity is changing with the times.

During the recession, organised crime groups took advantage of ordinary Italians’ plight, offering loans to individuals or businesses with extortionate rates of interest, thus making a whole new group of people beholden to them. According to a report last year by anti-crime group SOS Impresa, the people acting effectively as loan sharks are likely to be apparently respectable professionals. “This is extortion with a clean face,” it said.

5. Politics: Italy has had more national elections and more governments than any other big European power since the Second World War. Only one government has lasted the full five-year term since 1945. In this election, the number of different possible outcomes and permutations is daunting even for the most dedicated student of Italian politics. Apathy and disenchantment are rife. “I’ve developed a sort of sickness from politics,” said first-time voter Gianmarco Caprio. “Here in Italy we get so much of it — on TV, or just when you hear people talk in a bar that one can reach the point of saturation. I’ve had enough of politics, and of the same politicians that dare to come out and still make the same old populistic claims.” One outcome, by no means to be ruled out, would neatly encapsulate the vapidity of Italian politics: if the centre-right wins the lower house but no one controls the senate, the most likely upshot would be... further elections. And political and economic mayhem.

6. The north/south divide: In 1861, the year of Italy’s birth, unification pioneer Massimo d’Azeglio declared: “We have made Italy; now we must make Italians.” To what extent this task has been accomplished remains, more than 150 years later, unclear. The disparity between wealthy north and poorer south is one of the country’s most impervious and worrying problems.

According to the Bank of Italy, GDP per person is more than 40 per cent lower in the south than in the centre and north — a situation that has endured for the past 30 years and has only worsened with the current recession.

In his valedictory New Year’s Eve speech, President Giorgio Napolitano repeatedly drew attention to the issue, speaking of the urgent need to invest in the south which, he said, was home to 70 per cent of all children in Italy living in relative poverty. Italy, he stressed, needed a vision of economic growth for “the whole country”.

Unfortunately this kind of political message has more often been drowned out in recent years by others that seek to further entrench the differences rather than erase them.

By arrangement with the Guardian