What happened to the trash? Political miracles and real statistics in an emergency regime

The article focuses on waste struggles in Campania, Italy, showing how the state of emergency has been used for years to silence alternative solutions to the waste crisis and favor private economic interests. In Italy, when an event severely jeopardizes human security, the prime minister declares a 'state of emergency' and appoints a commissioner with the power to coordinate actions regarding the catastrophe and rescue of the population. This procedure concentrates all the powers in one agency for coping more efficiently and timely with situations of extreme danger, which, due to their intensity and extent, need extraordinary means and power to guarantee an effective coordination and avoid institutional overlaps. In recent decades, the history of the Italian republic attests to an increasing use of the state of emergency to govern the most ordinary issues of contemporary society. Indeed, even if the first commissioners were appointed in the 1970s, Italians have experienced several extraordinary commissioners also for traffic and mobility control, or to manage 'grand' events including G8 summits, international sports meetings, and global religious conventions.