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The Significance of the Italian Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Francesco Sidoti
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Extract

FREQUENTLY IT HAPPENS IN HISTORY THAT REVOLUTION is followed by restoration or sometimes by reaction. The events that have convulsed Italy for the past two years can be described as a legal revolution. The Italian elections of 27 and 28 March can be seen as forms of restoration, or reaction, or continuation of revolution by other means. From 1992, the enthusiastic popular acclaim which accompanied the thundering clang of prison doors and the scandalous tumble of famous heads resulted in an unexpected final conclusion: the victory of an assorted coalition of rightist and moderate forces, the Freedom Alliance, led by the media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, which gained an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies and a qualified majority in the Senate. It was the most important Italian election since 1948, when, after the abolition of the monarchy, Stalinists attempted to seize power democratically.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , 01 July 1994 , pp. 332 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1994

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References

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3 This was the first time in Europe that a political idea had been sold to the public in the American style. In Italy Americanization is more rapid than in any other European country. In the USA the extraordinary impact of visual communication has revolutionized both consumer marketing and political campaigning. See Putnam, R., ‘Per rivitalizzare la democrazia americana’, Queste Istituzioni, No. 90–91, 1992, pp. 40–49.Google Scholar

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5 Imposed by Hitler, in the Italian puppet fascist state under complete Nazi control, from 1943 to 1945, race laws caused deportation of thousands of Italian Jews to death camps during the Second World War. However, the differences between fascism and Nazism, and between the sovereign fascist state before 1943 and the Italian puppet fascist state under German occupation after 1943, were enormous, especially in the policies regarding the Jews. See die moving memory of Ivo Herzer (published at the same time as the debate on post-fascism), ‘Fascist Italy’s Forgotten Rescuers’, The Washington Times 9 March 1994, and, for a broader perspective, see De Felice, R., Storia deli ebrei italiani sotto il fascismo, Einaudi, Torino, 1993 Google Scholar.

6 For more information on These matters see Sidoti, F., ‘The Extreme Right in Italy: Ideological Orphans and Countennobilization’, in Hainsworth, P. (ed.). The Extreme Right in Europe and the USA, Pinter, London, 1992 Google Scholar.

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