The Italian Socialist Party and the crisis of party democracy. The transformation of the Italian socialists

The Italian Socialist Party (PSI) is central to any history of the crisis of Italy’s post-war system of party democracy. The party seemed to be in its death throes during the mid-1970s, but under the new leadership of Bettino Craxi, elected in 1976, the party made a surprisingly successful political comeback. However, in the early 1990s, the party’s success quickly evaporated. It became the face of the Tangentopoli scandals as many Socialist politicians, including Craxi, were convicted for corruption. The party even disbanded itself in 1994. This article traces the transformation of the Italian Socialists through the 1980s, looking at their ideology, organization and mode of representation. It connects these changes with the party’s electoral fortunes, showing how they ultimately contributed to the party’s demise, which had repercussions for Italy’s party system

The British Occupation and the Making of Democracy in Italy and Germany, 1943–1949

Over the past two decades, historians have become increasingly fascinated by the question of what enabled the emergence of a stable model of democracy in post-war Western Europe, characterized by the persistence of pre-war elites and top-down forms of decision-making. This article reveals the importance of the British occupations during and after the Second World War in fostering this model of democracy. It does so by comparing and weaving together British occupation strategies in Germany and Italy between 1943 and 1949. Based on a novel examination of archival sources, it demonstrates that British ruling strategies influenced the form of democracy that emerged in these two states. As such, the article reveals the centrality of ‘indirect rule’ practices and their multifaceted impact. Building on imperial precedents, the occupations were primarily run through pre-existing local elites who commanded authority and influence amongst the population. The article argues that this choice explains why the British produced, first, functioning occupation regimes and, subsequently, contributed to the emergence of remarkably stable democracies. At the same time, however, this ruling strategy aided the creation of political regimes that were elite-led and that strongly limited popular participation, leaving many democratic aspirations unfulfilled

Fascist past, present and future? The multiple usages of the Roman Empire in Mussolini’s Italy

Review of: Jan Nelis, From ancient to modern: the myth of romanità during the ventennio fascista: The written imprint of Mussolini’s cult of the ‘Third Rome’, Brussels/Rome, Belgisch Historisch Instituut te Rome/Institut Historique Belge de Rome, Brepols, 2011, 242 p., ISBN 9789074461740. € 35,00

№ 1. Промови перед збором пожертв на ремонт Софіївського собору від 1926 р.

Публікація Д. Бойко, І. Бухарєвої, С. Кокіна, П. Кулаковського

Fascist past, present and future? The multiple usages of the Roman Empire in Mussolini’s Italy

Review of: Jan Nelis, From ancient to modern: the myth of romanità during the ventennio fascista: The written imprint of Mussolini’s cult of the ‘Third Rome’, Brussels/Rome, Belgisch Historisch Instituut te Rome/Institut Historique Belge de Rome, Brepols, 2011, 242 p., ISBN 9789074461740. € 35,00

The Italian Party System before the crash: parties and the challenge of renewal in the 1980s

As many historians suggest, the collapse of the Italian party system in the early 1990s was the result of dynamics that had troubled the political system in the previous decade. This Special Issue examines the parties’ views on the loss of their capacity for representation and governance in the 1980s. The focus is on how aware the political actors themselves were of the ‘crisis’ of the political system and the need for reform of some of its aspects/articulations, what strategies of delegitimization of the system they themselves had aimed at, and, possibly, what strategies they put in place or attempted to put in place to get out of the crisis