A fish always starts to stink from the head down and in our case, Parliament is the head. Deputies and Senators don’t serve their Country, but rather their master, their benefactor. Italy is a vassallistic-democratic system. All the Deputies and the Senators have been appointed by the party bosses. The individuals that actually control Parliament, and therefore the Country, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The Pdl and the Pdwithoutanel have essentially established a parliamentary dictatorship. Certainly none of the Deputies or the Senators are likely to request an immediate review of this election law that prevents the citizens from directly electing their preferred candidates. Certainly none of them resign out of shame. None of the institutions are about to intervene, least of all Morpheus Napolitano. Yet with the current electoral law still in place, fresh political elections would be absolutely useless. Little more than a rip-off and a waste of public funds. It makes no sense whatsoever to go and vote with an unconstitutional law in place (just in passing, why hasn’t our Divine Constitutional Court not said anything?). At the end of a legislature, it would be far simpler and better for Casini, Berlusconi, Bersani and the others to get together in chambers, decide who whose names will appear on the party lists and then simply inform the people. The net result would be precisely the same and at least then they wouldn’t have to inconvenience tens of millions of Italians. We’ve gone back to the days of the vassals and serfs, just like in the Middle Ages. "Vassallage was a type of individual relationship that was established in a vassal-beneficiary system. It was essentially a private "contract" between two people, a vassal and a master: during a “homage” ceremony, the former would declare himself to be the latter’s “homo" and, as such, would benefit from the master’s protection in return for his loyalty and service to his master". The feudal system granted immunity, the privilege of not being subject to the control of public authority as long as he/she remained within the confines of the feudal seignory." The Italian vassallistic-democratic system is precisely the same, including the privilege of parliamentary immunity. But today perhaps it has got even worse. Although I have no way to prove it, I suspect that the modern "contract" between the vassal and the "homo" for the al location of a parliamentary seat may well be financial in nature. A million Euro or some other serious amount of money in Exchange for a guaranteed place in Parliament. It wouldn’t be at all surprising, nor improbable for that matter. Those that hold the seats could sell them or auction them off to the highest bidder. A parliamentary seat is a tangible asset, worth hundreds of thousands of Euro a year, a guaranteed pension, high visibility and all sorts of additional benefits. It has to be one of the best investments ever, far better than any fund or Government bond. There must be many people who would be willing to pay the price. Our Parliament has become an economic re source that should be turned into an Election Lottery. The prize would be a five-year stay at Palazzo Madama or Montecitorio. First prize would be the post of Prime Minister. In this way, the State coffers would be much better off, as would our democracy.