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On Political Compromise: Italy after the 1979 Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Luigi Graziano
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Extract

SINCE 1976 ITALY HAS BEEN EXPERIENCING A POLITICAL STALEmate which should not be confused with the periodical difficulties of the system. What is at stake is the capacity of Italian democracy to ensure change in a peaceful manner – which I take to be one of the main functions of democracy. The political essence of the crisis lies in the Christian Democrats' (DC) growing incapacity to assure the governability of the country and in the problem of providing an alternative governmental leadership which would include the main opposition party, the Communist Party (PCI).

The resulting impasse is what explained both Moro's insistence on the need for a ‘great national solidarity’ and the PCI's strategy of the ‘historic compromise’. Convergence found political expression in the grand coalition governments which ruled Italy between 1976 and 1979, the first majority in thirty years which included the PCI.

On the analytical level, convergence in polarized systems like Italy's can be fruitfully analysed, as I have suggested elsewhere, from the viewpoint of the consociational model. I shall first briefly review the model before turning to a discussion of the prospects for cooperation after the 1979 general elections.

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Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , 01 April 1980 , pp. 190 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1980

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References

1 Cf. Graziano, L., ‘The Historic Compromise and Consociational Democracy: Toward a New Democracy?’, paper presented at the XIth IPSA World Congress, Moscow, 12–18 08 1979 .Google Scholar

2 Lijphart, A., ‘Typologies of Democratic Systems’, Comparative Political Studies 1 (April 1968) , pp. 3–44 and Democracy in Plural Societies, New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1977 Google Scholar; Lehmbruch, G., Proporzdemokratie, Tübingen, J. C. B. Mohr, 1967;Google Scholar Steiner, K., Politics in Austria, Boston, Little, Brown, 1972.Google ScholarPubMed

3 Graziano, , ‘The Historic Compromise’, pp. 28 ff.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., p. 30.

5 Ibid., Part II.

6 Ibid., pp. 11–12; cf. Lehmbruch, G., ‘Consociational Democracy, Class Conflict, and the New Corporatism’, paper presented at the IPSA Round Table on Political Integration, Jerusalem, 9–13 September, 1974 .Google Scholar

7 Regini, M., ‘Changing Relationships Between Labour and the State in Italy: Towards a Neo‐Corporatist System?’, in Corporatist Policy‐Formation in Comparative Perspective, Lehmbruch, G. and Schmitter, P., eds., London, Sage, forthcoming.Google Scholar

8 Cf. Kirchheimer, O., ‘Changes in the Structure of Political Compromise’, Zeitschrift fur Sozialforschung, 9, 1941, pp. 264–289 CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 I elaborated on this point in ‘The Historic Compromise’.

10 Unless otherwise specified, all the electoral data refer to the vote in the Chamber of Deputies. Gains and losses are calculated with reference to the 1976 general elections.

11 Cf. Doxa’s pre‐electoral polls as reported in L’Espresso, 3 June 1979.

12 ‘L’intervento di Berliguer’, L’Unità, 5 November 1979.

13 Ibid.

14 L’Espresso, 1 April 1979. The quotation is from an interview with a DC leader in charge of the party’s electoral campaign in 1979.

15 Ibid. The quotation is from the socialist leader in charge of the PSI’s electoral campaign.

16 ‘II comunicato sui colloqui’, L’Unità, 21 September 1979. The communiqué refers to a meeting between Berlinguer and the socialist leader Craxi.

17 Agreement was also reached on foreign policy, an area which I cannot discuss here for lack of space. I would simply note that for the first time since 1947 the parties in the coalition agreed on a parliamentary motion on the general lines of Italy’s foreign policy (December 1977). Cf. ‘The Historic Compromise’.

18 Bocca, G., ‘Cosa è nato da quel morto’, L’Espresso, 25 03 1979 .Google Scholar

19 Galgano, F., Le istituzioni dell’esonomia di transizione, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1978.Google Scholar

20 The term is generally meant to designate the anti‐fascist parties, from the Liberals to the PCI.

21 Di Ginlio, F. and Rocco, E., Un ministro ombra si confessa, Milano, Rizzoli, 1979.Google Scholar

22 Cf. Cederna, C., ‘Andreotti, vuota il sacco!’, L’Espresso, 4 03 1979 .Google Scholar

23 Interview with Flaminio Piccoli, in L’Espresso, 18 March 1979.

24 Di Palma, G., ‘Risposte parlamentari alla crisi del regime: un problema di istituzionalizzazione’, in La crisi italiana, Graziano, L. and Tarrow, S., eds., Torino, Einaudi, 1979, vol. 2.Google Scholar

25 The basic source is Moro’s last interview, reported in Scalfari, E., Interviste ai potenti, Milano, Mondadori, 1979, pp. 298–302.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., p. 299.

27 Ibid., p. 300.

28 Ibid., p. 299.

29 Ibid., p. 301.

30 Di Giulio and Rocco, Un ministro ombra, p. 56.

31 Pedone, A., ‘Aspetti della crisi finanziaria del settore pubblico e problemi del suo superamento’, in La crisi italiana, vol. 2.Google Scholar

32 Di Giulio and Rocco, Un ministro ombra.

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36 According to governmental data, tax evasion is especially high among professional people and entrepreneurs, who may pay 50 per cent less of what they are supposed to in taxes. Among real estate owners the situation is even worse. Cf. La Repubblica, 14 November 1979.

37 Napolitano, ‘Non “tirarsi indietro” etc.’

38 Napolitano, , ‘Quale strategia per il prossimo triennio’, Rinascita, 8 07 1979 .Google Scholar

39 One important factor was the PCI’s growing international autonomy. Berlinguer’s speech in Moscow in 1977 for the sixtieth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution was especially important in this connection.

40 Giulio, Di and Rocco, , Un ministro ombra, p. 65.Google Scholar

41 Ibid., p. 116.

42 One recent example of the negative effects of lottizzazione is the suspension from office of ENI’s chairman for an alleged oil scandal. This man is known to be close to one socialist faction which the PSI’s secretary has repeatedly accused of monopolizing most of the positions reserved for the party. The ENI affair seems to be crucially linked to this intra‐party fight.

43 Di Giulio and Rocco, Un ministro ombra, p. 39.

44 Lehmbruch, Proporzdemokratie; Kirchheimer, ‘Changes in the Structure etc.’.

45 Kirchheimer, ‘Changes in the Structure etc.’.

46 Napoleoni, C., ‘Un rimedio borghese e democratico’, Rinascita, 26 10 1979 .Google Scholar

47 Ibid.

48 Cf. Kirchheimer, ‘Changes in the Structure etc.’ for the veto element inherent in the compromise.

49 Kirchheimer, , ‘The Transformation of the Western European Party Systems’, in Political Parties and Political Development, La Palombara, J. and Weiner, M. eds., New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 1966.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 Napoleoni, , ‘La sinistra e due crisi’, La Repubblica, 13 09 1979 .Google Scholar

51 Ibid.

52 Napolitano, ‘Quale strategia per il prossimo trienno’.Quale strategia per il prossimo trienno

53 Lowi, T., ‘Four Systems of Policy, Politics and Choice’, Public Administration Review, 32, July-August 1972, pp. 298–310 CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 Cf. Tarrow, S., Between Center and Periphery, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1977.Google Scholar For a case study of distributive policies in the localization of industries cf. Graziano, , Clientelismo e sistema politico. Il caso dell’Italia, Milano, F. Angeli, 1980, Part III.Google Scholar

55 Pedone, ‘Aspetti della crisi finanziaria’.

56 Napolitano, , In mezzo al guado, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1979, Introduction.Google Scholar

57 Berlinguer, E., ‘Il compromesso nella fase attuale’, Rinascita, 24 August, 1979 .Google Scholar

58 Momigliano, F., ‘Democrazia industriale e autogestione’, Mondoperaio, 32, 09 1979, pp. 103–108 Google Scholar