After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Italy, like other European countries, was in position of devastation. The defeating of fascism meant that the country required immediate reconstruction, and that was the main purpose of the new Italian government. The years 1945-1948 were the triumph of continuity. Such things as rhetoric and constitution were changed; however, most of the former institutes still remained untouched. The expected reconstruction faced some problems.
In May 1945, the Italian partisans officially took control of the government in Rome. According to Duggan, the country faced three main domestic problems to resolve: first of them was a question of the fascism purge, second was the institutional question, and third was the question of the economic restoration (Duggan 247). All of these problems were the highest priority diplomatic questions of the maintenance of peace and the place of Italy in the new international order.
The question of the purge was especially difficult to resolve. By that time, most of famous fascist leaders had already been arrested and shot, and about 15,000 fascist disciples were killed under revenges and vendettas only within the next couple of months after the end of the war. However, the main problem lied in the grant of amnesty to former fascists and their sympathizers. Determining fascists and deciding who of them deserve punishment was a difficult matter (Duggan 247). The “wind from North” that, Italian partisans believed, should cleanse the country from the remainders of fascism, never was strong enough, and with time “the desire from moral renewal was soon frustrated” (Duggan 246). As the result, the “new order” new government spoke of, did not come about. The Italian South liberated by the Allies some months earlier got no pro-liberation and strong anti-fascist movement; the old landlords continued to maintain power, because there was no new ruling elite to take it away.
The reason why political desire to conduct a purge was not very successful, lied in the institutional question. It was widely assumed that Italy was hard up for a new well-drafted constitution. The country was in psychological and political need to deal with the past, however, “only at the cost of reproducing some of the main weaknesses of the old liberal systems” (Duggan 250). The first issue to be changed was monarchy. Victor Emmanuel III was caught in fascism and abdicated in 1946; a month later partisans held a referendum, were with the margin of about 2 million people a republic was voted in. But the new political regime was born in disagreement: only North voted for the republic, while South and Rome rejected it in order to retain monarchy. That mothered regional conflicts, which weakened the power of the central government and promoted local democracy. The Risorgimento presented new actual emotional dilemma that could not be solved for the next couple dozens of years: the question of “how to combine freedom with unity” (Duggan 251).
When it comes to the last question, it is worth noting that after 1945 Italy “was locked economically as well as politically into the world of advanced industrial economies, with all that this implied for expectations and values” (Duggan 254). It was partly due to strategic decisions made by post-war Italian governments. Fascism had attempted creation of a national self-sufficient economy, and, as a reaction to this, even despite the fact most economic levels still belonged to old-school liberals, the Republic promoted free trade, and, due to this decision, Italy’s post-war economy had the least state intervention and planning among other western economics. In comparison with another countries, Italian export industries still had main sources of power and hydroelectric plants working. In order to develop international trade, the government passed lenient foreign exchange controls, and that mothered appearing of currency speculations. In spite of a great boom of some economical sectors, the planning was still poor: the government could not control types of imported goods, and what different areas of economy got and when.
The main problems of the Italian reconstruction after the Second World War were the question of punishments of fascists, the question about the political system of the country, and the one dealing with the restoration of the Italian economy. The solutions found by the new government, however, could not immediately change the country and increase its level mothering new problems and conflicts, that would be solved only some dozens years later.
Works Cited
Duggan, Christopher. A Concise History of Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.
Social Protests in Italy from 1960s to1980s
After the Second World War, the world went through an unusual baby boom, which mothered a generation of people grown on public education provided by programs and news on television. A common perspective, new vision of the world, and chance to experience major public events gave an impulse to waves of social movements and shaping of new values in 1960s in most of countries, and Italy was not an exception.
In 1960s, together with France, Italy was in the midst of a socialist movement. At the end of 1963 the Socialists entered Italian government and immediately started “a series of centre-left coalitions which, it was widely hoped, would bring about major reforms in areas such as housing and education, and reduce the gap between North and South” (Duggan 269). However, it brought much less results than expected. The inability of the Socialists and the Christian Democrats to meet expectations of the society that had undergone rapid changes in preceding years caused a series of social protests movements around the country. The availability of international news did not allow seeing Italy’s experience in isolation, and similar upheavals in other countries were a driving force for assertion of rights for the Italian society. This reached a peak in 1968; Italy, as well as the rest of European countries, went throw a period of potential revolution, and that led to appearing of numerous groups that were ready to use violence in order to attain their aims. In 1968-1969 a huge amount of factory occupations, strikes, and demonstrations held by northern workforce swept through the country and resulted in the “Hot Autumn” of 1969 (Duggan 274). These waves had both social and economical background. The unemployment level had declined, but industrial waves still remained much lower than in other Western Europe countries; the quality of housing, education, transport, health care etc. also was terrible. Furthermore, with the popularization of consumerism expectations of society had significantly risen.
Together with the labor unrest, another reason of the protests was a political discontentment with trade unions and the parties of the center and left. However, different revolutionary groups that wanted to gain mass support on this basis, could not reach an agreement on further actions, and, as a result, could not succeed in this field.
It was not a surprise that the working class was reassured due to economic concessions. In 1969-1973 industrial wages increased almost twice, and that forced the government to pass a new pension law as well as another social prospects and benefits (Duggan 275). Industrial worries were steered into constitutional channels, and that made the possibility of revolution more distant than ever. By 1974 motivation for collective agitation significantly decreased.
However, the new laws did not fully solve the problem but only put it off. The spread of urbanization, expectations of high living standards, increased level of education and its accessibility along with another fresh ideas made imperfections of the government politics and state of the country worse than ever. In 1976 the percent of dissatisfied citizens was about 80% comparing to 45% for the European community in whole (Duggan 277). Above the mentioned reasons, the lack on confidence in the government institutions was explained with the problem of growth of Northern and Southern terrorism, which was solved only by the beginning of 1980s (Duggan 285).
Social protests in Italy lasted for almost twenty years and brought some significant changes to the life of the country. They ended with the end of recession in 1984 and rapid economic growth, “a second economic miracle” followed next. Italy entered an age of optimism and national pride, which changed consciousness of its citizens.
Works Cited
Duggan, Christopher. A Concise History of Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.
Politics in Italy Today
Italy has been remaining a constitutional republic with a multi-party system since 1946-1948; it had faced significant challenges and undergone substantial changes for these times. However, nowadays Italy still seems to be politically divided country with unstable government in a grip of crisis.
After the elections of 2013 it became clear that Italy is a divided ungovernable country full of financial and geopolitical instability (“Italy’s Political Crisis”). This was an effect a political and institutional crisis that had affected Italy for more than 20 years before, and conflicts of parties. Italians politics has a lot of problems, which should be solved, and each of country’s rulers has a great to-do list. According to Davies, these problems mainly are unstable economy, treatment of women remaining from the bunga bunga politics of Berlusconi, imperfection of justice system, organized crime and corruption, politics – Italy has had more governments than any other European country, – and the North-South divided that is still actual nowadays (“The six things wrong with Italy – and how to solve them”). A lot of researchers think that the only way to stabilize the country is reestablishing of the traditional alliance between the main parties: the Liberals, the Democrats, and the Left. They stabilized the country’s political system before and are more likely to do it again and “to open a new era of political and socio-economic reforms that could appease a country still full of tensions” (“Italy’s Political Crisis”).
Italy has gone through a long way of building a high-level developed country, but it still has a lot of problems that should be solved, and this is the main thing every new Italian leader should concentrate on.
Works Cited
Davies, Lizzy. “The six things wrong with Italy – and how to solve them.” The Guardian, 20 Feb 2013. Accessed 11 Jan 2016.
Mastroianni, Roberto. “Italy’s Political Crisis.” ISN, 10 Jun 2013. Accessed 11 Jan 2016.
