Two of the best books to appear about Italy recently - Christopher Duggan's history of modern Italy The Force of Destiny and Mark Thompson's The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919 - focus on the failure of the state to unite the country. Duggan argues that the Risorgimento itself was at best a qualified failure. Private patronage, legitimate and illegitimate, whether through the Fondazione Agnelli or the Cosa Nostra, is still trusted more than public tender and competition.

Even after unification, Rome has been the capital of two states, Italy and Vatican City. Andreotti himself started his career as a Vatican clerk. He is a devout Roman Catholic, heeding the authority of God and His Vicar the Pope more than the modern political Caesars of the Italian state. In the film Andreotti tries to manage a diabolical juggling act to keep the Christian Democrats running Italy, and the Vatican running the Christian Democrats. He can bargain with Mafiosi because he answers through the confessional to a higher authority.

In the end, Andreotti's power base collapsed under the sheer weight of conspiracies, real and imagined. He stood trial for conspiracy to murder the journalist Mino Pecorelli and association with the Salvo Mafia clan. Perhaps he should have heeded the thoughts of the greatest Italian authority on power and plotting, Niccolò Machiavelli. "On the issue of being feared and loved...the wise prince should build his foundation upon that which is his own, not upon that which belongs to others: only he must seek to avoid being hated."