Liberalism and radicalism in Italy

This article gives an overview of liberalism and radicalism in Italy. It is limited to liberal and radical parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. For inclusion in this scheme it isn't necessary so that parties labeled themselves as a liberal party.

Background

The formation of political groups in the 19th century in divided Italy is based on personalities, like Camillo di Cavour and Giuseppe Mazzini. Both the Historical Right ("Destra Storica") and the Historical Left ("Sinistra Storica"), were composed of monarchist liberals, while republicans organized themselves as Italian Republican Party. Only in the Twenties of the 20th century the Liberals around Giovanni Giolitti formed their party, the precursor of the Italian Liberal Party. After the end of World War II both Liberals and Republicans reorganized themselves, followed by more liberal parties in the upcoming decades.

Liberalism got strongly divided after the shake up of Italian politics, following the Tangentopoli scandal and the subsequent Mani Pulite. Nowadays a broad group of parties, not all included, tend to use the label liberal. Liberals are now divided over the centre-right Forza Italia (a merger of liberal and Christian-democratic forces) and the centre-left Democratic Party (a merger of social-democrats, Christian-democrats and social-liberals). Then there are some minor liberal parties: the old centre-left - nowadays centre-right - Italian Republican Party (member ELDR), the Italian Radicals (observer member ELDR) and their most recent split, the libertarian Liberal Reformers, which joined the centre-right.

Also the populist-centrist Italy of Values is a member of ELDR, although it is very difficult to classify it as a liberal party in whichever sense.

Most members of the late Italian Liberal Party (refounded as a very small party in 2004, see Italian Liberal Party) and many former Republicans have joined Forza Italia, which is often presented and defined in Italy as a liberal party, and the other parties of the House of Freedoms coalition. This is the reason why the term 'liberals' is more often used when speaking of the centre-right coalition, dominated by Forza Italia, which combines economic liberalism with freedom of conscience on ethical matters.

Timeline

Radical Party (1877)

*1877: Progressive liberals left the Historical Left ("Sinistra Storica") and formed the Radical Party ("Partito Radicale")
*1926: The party was banned but many members remained politically active

Italian Republican Party

*1895: The Mazzinisti organized themselves in the Italian Republican Party ("Partito Repubblicano Italiano")
*1926-1943: The party was banned, but continued its activities in exile
*1946: A faction of the Action Party, the Republican Democratic Party ("Movimento Democratico Repubblicano"), joined the party, followed by other members of the PdA
*2001: The party joined the centre-right House of Freedoms coalition of Silvio Berlusconi
*2003: A progressive liberal faction formed the European Republican Movement ("Movimento Repubblicani Europei")

Italian Liberal Party

*1848: Cammillo Benso di Cavour formes a parliamentarty group in the Kingdom of Sardinia Parliament named "Italian Liberal Party" ("Partito Liberale Italiano")
*1922: Conservative liberals, remnants of the Historical Right ("Destra Storica"), by then called Liberal-Conservatives ("Liberal-Conservatori"), and members of Giovanni Giolitti's Liberal Left ("Sinistra Liberale"), which until then acted only as parliamentary factions nor as organized parties, formed the Italian Liberal Party ("Partito Liberale Italiano", PLI)
*1926: The party was banned
*1943: Renmants of the old liberal current organized themselves in the conservative-liberal Italian Liberal Party ("Partito Liberale Italiano", PLI)
*1994: After the collapse of the party system, the left-wing of the party formed the Federation of Italian Liberals ("Federazione dei Liberali Italiani", FdL), the centre-right the Union of Centre ("Unione di Centro", UdC) and the Liberal Party ("Partito Liberale", PL), the right-wing the Italian Liberal Right ("Destra Liberale Italiana", DLI), which elected some candidates on National Alliance's list, while many other centrist members joined Forza Italia
*1996: FdL joined the Democratic Union
*1998: UdC merged with Forza Italia
*1999: FdL formed an electoral alliance with the Italian Republican Party
*2004: Splinters from FdL formed the Association for Liberal Democracy ("Associazione per la Democrazia Liberale"), which joined Democracy is Freedom, while the Liberal Party and the Italian Liberal Right (now called Liberals for Italy, "Liberali per l'Italia") re-established the Italian Liberal Party ("Partito Liberale Italiano", PLI)
*2007: the PLI formed an alliance with the Italian Republican Party

National Union

*1924: Anti-fascist liberals formed the National Union ("Unione Nazionale")
*1926: The party was banned

Action Party

*1942: Liberal and social-democratic elements of the anti-fascist resistance formed the Action Party ("Partito d'Azione")
*1946: The liberal wing of the party formed the Republican Democratic Movement and joined, followed by others, the Italian Republican Party; the party thus disappeared

From Radical Party (1955) to Italian Radicals

*1955: A progressive liberal faction of the Italian Liberal Party formed the Radical Party ("Partito Radicale")
*1988: The party was transformed in Transnational Radical Party
*1992: The party was re-organized at the Italian-level as Pannella List ("Lista Pannella")
*1999: The party decided to use the label Bonino List ("Lista Bonino")
*2001: After a new re-organization the party named itself Italian Radicals ("Radicali Italiani")
*2005: Italian Radicals joined Italian Democratic Socialists and founded the Rose in the Fist electoral coalition. A faction left and formed the free-market movement, Liberal Reformers ("Riformatori Liberali"), which is barely a faction within Forza Italia.

From Democratic Alliance to Democratic Party

*1993: The new social-liberal Democratic Alliance ("Alleanza Democratica") was formed by the Republicans (which left in early 1994), ex-Socialists, ex-Communists and ex-Christian Democrats
*1996: The new social-liberal Democratic Union ("Unione Democratica") and the centrist Italian Renewal ("Rinnovamento Italiano") were launched, and members of Democratic Alliance joined the first
*1999: The new social-liberal The Democrats ("I Democratici") were formed by the merge of Romano Prodi's supporters (some form the Italian People's Party) with Democratic Union
*2002: The party joined Italian Renewal and the leftish Christian-democratic Italian People's Party to form Democracy is Freedom - Daisy ("Democrazia è Libertà - La Margherita"), a combination of liberals and Christian-democrats.
*2007: Democracy is Freedom - Daisy joined the social-democratic Democrats of the Left to form the Democratic Party).

Forza Italia

*1993: Forza Italia was founded by the political initiative of Silvio Berlusconi. Most of the PLI members joined Forza Italia alongside many ex-Christian Democrats. Though some members of the party initially joined ELDR, the party as a whole joined the Christian-democratic EPP in 1999. In any case the party, considered by many as a liberal and Christian-democratic party, is a staunch supporter of free-market and it sometimes regarded as an extreme-libertarian party which pursues neo-liberal policies, indeed it is much more moderate
*1998: The Union of Centre merged in Forza Italia
*2003: Liberals within Forza Italia formed Popular Liberalism ("Liberalismo Popolare"), a liberal faction
*2006: Liberal Reformers elect one deputy in Forza Italia's list

Liberal leaders

*Before 1861: Alessandro Manzoni, Carlo Cattaneo
*Historical Left / Liberal-Conservatives: Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, Sidney Sonnino
*Historical Left / Democrats: Francesco Crispi, Agostino Depretis
*Radical Party (1877): Felice Cavallotti, Ernesto Nathan, Francesco Saverio Nitti
*National Union: Giovanni Amendola
*Liberals / Italian Liberal Party: Giuseppe Zanardelli, Giovanni Giolitti, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, Benedetto Croce, Luigi Einaudi, Bruno Villabruna, Manlio Brosio, Leone Cattani, Gaetano Martino, Agostino Bignardi, Bruno Leoni, Giovanni Malagodi
*Italian Republican Party: Ugo La Malfa, Giovanni Spadolini, Giorgio La Malfa
*Radical Party (1955) / Italian Radicals: Marco Pannella, Emma Bonino
*Forza Italia: Silvio Berlusconi, Alfredo Biondi (ex-PLI), Raffaele Costa (ex-PLI), Antonio Martino (ex-PLI), Marcello Pera (ex-PSI, ex-Rad), Giulio Tremonti (ex-PSI), Renato Brunetta (ex-PSI), Benedetto Della Vedova (ex-Rad), Daniele Capezzone (ex-Rad)
*Democratic Party: Antonio Maccanico (ex-PRI), Valerio Zanone (ex-PLI), Francesco Rutelli (ex-Rad, ex-Green), Enzo Bianco (ex-PRI), Paolo Gentiloni (ex-Green), Gianni Vernetti (ex-Green), Linda Lanzillotta (ex-PSI), Beatrice Rangoni Machiavelli (ex-PLI)

Liberal thinkers

In the Contributions to liberal theory the following Italian thinkers are included:

*Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527)
*Benedetto Croce (1866-1952)

References

ee also

* History of Italy
* Politics of Italy
* List of political parties in Italy
*Radicalism (historical)