A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #41 - What Revolution in Italy? La Repubblica, 1943-1948 - Roberto Manfredini (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The "Resistance" government led by Actionist Ferruccio Parri, in office 
from June to December 1945, fell as the possibilities for a democratic 
revolution led by the CLN were exhausted. De Gasperi's appointment 
ushered in a new political and economic balance. Anti-fascist unity 
failed to sever ties with the fascist past and the ruling classes 
implicated in the regime. A potential radical renewal was thwarted by a 
creeping "coup d'état," which continued in 1947 with the expulsion of 
the PCI from government. In this way, moderate and reactionary forces 
prevented the purge of those compromised with the regime and a 
regeneration of the country.

The relationship between the concept of nation and the collective 
identity of Italian citizens harks back to the profound significance of 
September 8, 1943. Compared to the idea of nationhood emerging from the 
formation of the unified state, this date represents the beginning of 
the civil war and a transitional phase that marked a break with the 
liberal tradition begun with the Risorgimento. The crisis of 1943 and 
the collapse of the state, the fall of the regime, reopened the national 
question as the national-fascist identity that had profoundly affected 
Italian culture and mentality was overwhelmed.

Historians have traditionally viewed Italy's national identity as weak, 
even calling the period following September 8th the "death of the 
fatherland," the moment when a phase of Italian unification history 
marked by separation, conflict, and the clash of identities between 
government and opposition came to an end. The new parties committed 
themselves to mending the relationship between state and civil society, 
outlining the terms of democratic citizenship. But the guiding principle 
for the major forces was also the social organization implemented by 
fascism: its widespread presence, mass outreach, and involvement in 
welfare activities and sports associations. In a spirit of social 
alliances and structures linking parties and institutions, new women's 
and youth associations emerged, taking on not only welfare tasks but 
also management and administration. These initiatives had electoral 
benefits and boosted the parties' social roots in areas where they were 
not present.

In Italy, a rift still exists between the concept of the nation and the 
embodiment of popular representation. Fascism entered this rift with its 
concept of political dictatorship, which established a direct 
relationship with the masses through mobilization. The post-World War II 
period was a parenthesis in Italian history, partially healing the rift 
between social subcultures and the state and establishing a method of 
"directorate government," governed by a coalition of parties more 
responsive to the new reality. In the post-war period, the mechanisms 
for electoral control of the government and the guarantee of political 
alternation were not implemented within the context of militant parties 
and voter adherence to a political ideology. From a long-term 
perspective on the history of Italian democracy, the Republican period 
represents a project of institutional refoundation within the framework 
of classical constitutionalism.

One aspect of the historiographical debate concerns the characteristics 
of the formation of the Italian left. Major authors have assumed the 
Risorgimento as the historical trajectory, or the continuity between the 
liberal system and fascism, or a vision of national history locked into 
successive political systems, where the cultural and political values 
engendered by national unity become useful only to the new myths of the 
localist or plebiscitary right.

Instead, it is important to remember the Mazzinian movement's constant 
attempt to promote a democratic revolution to counter the moderate 
direction of the unification process. The subsequent rapprochement 
between Garibaldi's movement and internationalism, and the role of 
Bakunin, who introduced to Italy a critique of liberal oligarchies and 
the social demands of the lower classes, definitively marked the 
transition from the Mazzinian and democratic tradition to the socialist 
one. But even in Italy, a split emerged within the left between the 
federalist and internationalist principle of nationality and the demands 
for a strong foreign policy that would lead to nationalist irredentism. 
Another model of internationalist intervention emerged, drawing on the 
political legacy of Garibaldi's voluntarism and the push for a 
"democratic congress" that in Italy included anarchists, republicans, 
and radicals.

Another aspect of historical research is the strategy of "progressive 
democracy" developed by the PCI in the mid-1930s and enriched by the 
experiences of the Popular Fronts, but which entered into crisis during 
the Spanish Civil War. The beginning of the liberation from Fascism and 
Nazism, the balance of power within the Allied forces in 1943, and the 
demands arising from Italy's inclusion within parliamentary democracies 
led to the need for a phase of democratic transition. The end of the 
period of anti-fascist unity and the beginning of a period characterized 
by the repression of centrist governments (1948-52), the Cold War, and 
Italy's inclusion in the Cominform, led to a period in which "political 
engagement" was impossible, forcing the delegation of social engagement 
and mass initiative to trade unions, unitary social organizations, 
workplace cells, or other mass organizations.

The formation of mass parties is characterized by political tensions and 
territorial roots. This is reflected in the party's new function and in 
a reflection that sees the party as a new instrument for training the 
ruling class.

After the Second World War, the confrontation with the reality of 
fascism, with the processes it induced of mass nationalization and its 
exploitation of state and cultural institutions, left the forces 
traditionally tied to the values of freedom and individual rights, and 
opposed to clerical interference, in an isolation that expressed a sense 
of inadequacy with respect to the indelible transformations fascism had 
brought about in Italian society, viewing them as relics of the past. 
The forces deriving from the socialist, anarchist, and activist 
conception of a "world apart" began to reflect on the "new world" or 
internationalist "third front." The party assumed a "moral" or 
alternative role, without renouncing its function of political 
leadership of the masses. There were also more classist orientations, 
characterized by an economic or structural Marxism.

Workerist political movements struggled in the postwar period. The 
working-class workforce was still a minority in the social composition 
of the working classes, and even the formation of factory management 
councils failed to transform itself into a means of industrial 
management to support the working class. This situation led to a shift 
in strategic focus, oriented toward strengthening political parties. 
Parties were based on cadres, connected and embedded in the workplace, 
or tended to assume a pedagogical role in democratic education, becoming 
central to the formation of popular sovereignty. This approach, which 
became part of the Republican Constitution, saw sovereignty shift from 
the traditional referents of the nation or state to the people.

However, the parties are not preventing divisions on the left, between 
the governing and democratic alternation tendencies, opposing strategies 
in shaping the new Italian ruling class. The national election results 
immediately highlighted the gap between the mass parties and the other 
political forces, and this opens a debate on the nature of the new 
political and economic system. This debate will lead to tendencies 
opposed to the proportional electoral system or criticisms of the party 
system, caused by the loss of identity and representation due to 
factionalism and collateralism.

Bibliography

Anarchists and Anarchy in the Contemporary World , Luigi Einaudi 
Foundation, Turin, 1971.

Giuseppe Muraca, Luciano Bianciardi, a Writer Outside the Box , Pistoia 
Documentation Centre, Pistoia, 2011.

Nello Rosselli, Mazzini and Bakunin: Twelve Years of the Workers' 
Movement in Italy (1860-1872) , Einaudi, Turin, 1967;

Pier Giorgio Zunino, The Republic and Its Past , Il Mulino, Bologna, 2003.

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