Well, I think that since the survey is based in part on an executive opinion survey, the fact that Italians tend to be very critical towards their country also plays a role, although it’s true that the political/social environment has worsened since Berlusconi took power four years ago. However, I doubt that doing business in Italy is harder in Botswana. I just want to recall an interesting example regarding international surveys. When you ask Italians about their public health system, you’ll always find them saying it’s terrible. Well, three-four years ago, a study by the World Health Organization (which must be quite well informed when it comes to health) revealed that Italy’s health system was “surprisingly” second best in the world after France’s. And this because the survey did not gauge personal opinions, but rathered considered facts such as the availability of free health care, average costs, etc…and didn’t look exclusively at subjective factors and perceptions.

So what IS their health system?

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