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Italian Studies in Russia: Exploring Political Landscape

March 22, 2022
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Authors:

Maxim Sigachev

Elena Berezkina

There exist several key directions of Soviet and Russian academic studies regarding the Italian political system and its main political actors. Most scientists who conduct such studies focus on the post-WWII period of Italian history. Their scientific interests revolve around “the first steps” of the Republic following the adoption of the Constitution in 1947; the system and functions of the Italian Parliament; the functions of the executive branches; the main political parties and their activities; the crisis of the first Republic and the transition to the Second Republic.

images.jpgSource: liberoquotidiano.it

Only some authors are interested in the problems of political terrorism and the functions and activities of local authorities or overall economic development.

The activity of trade unions was among the main topics of scientific research throughout the Soviet period as a part of a self-propaganda tool for internal use, but this topic has subsequently lost its significance.

During the Soviet period, scientists focused primarily on analyzing the Italian Social Party, the Italian Communist Party, whereas the Christian Democracy party was only analyzed as an opponent to leftist parties.

In the modern day, Lega Nord and Partito Democratico are analysed, while plenty of other notable parties in the Italian system have gone unmentioned or scientifically unobserved.

Scientists and researchers have a shared vision on major Italian issues. They especially agree that Resistenza italiana affected the foundations of modern Italy’s democratic state. The heritage of the Resistenza italiana and consolidation of Italian antifascist political forces after the Second World War are considered as main fundamental sources contributing to the creation of the Italian republic. The evidence of this perspective is punctuated by the participation of all political parties in the creation of the Constitution of 1947, which can be labeled as the beginning of Italy’s democratic development.

Another theme, which has been at the center of attention of Russian studies, is the “imperfect bipartisanship” of the Italian political system during the First Republic period. Researchers tend to notice negative factors in this phenomenon, which badly affected the development of Italian democratic institutions.

One of the negative consequences of the “imperfect bipartisanship” is social unrest in the 1960s and The Years of Lead (Anni di piombo) in the 1970s. Even though all researchers agree that the “imperfect bipartisanship” was the key problem of Italian social and political life throughout this period, there is no consensus concerning the real causes of the crisis and collapse of the First Republic. Some scientists believe that the end of USSR and bipolar global system were two main external factors, while others see the investigation of Mani puliti and the crisis of state institutions as a crucial release mechanism which ruined the First Republic.

The Italian Communist Party is far more represented in the research than any other Italian political party. Scientists focus on its transformation to social-democratic principles. The Christian Democrats and their long-term period in power are considered as abnormal phenomenon in the Italian politics, which inspired the opposition of the Italian Socialist party. Modern Italian political parties are studied as parts of centre-right or centre-left political wings.

There are some disagreements about the last decade of the 20th century. A majority of papers published in the 1990s and early 2000s claim that the events, which occurred in Italy in the 1990s, were transformative steps from the First Republic to the Second Republic. However, modern researchers disagree with this point of view and consider that the process of political transformation remains incomplete.

Additionally, Russian scientists possess controversial opinions regarding the assessment of the activity of both left and right governments. Most authors positively assess the results of the first 5 years of the Italian left’s leadership and see the election results in 2001, which paradoxically brought right centred groups in power.

Many studies of Italian political parties focus on the personalities of Italian leaders and from there, analyse their impact.

Overall, it is possible to state that the transition period of Italy from the First Republic to the Second Republic is still understudied, which has led to controversial conclusions overall.

Italy as a part of the European Union also interests researchers. Generally, such researchers focus on the issues of euro-integration along every stage in its relations with the USSR and the Russian Federation. Such researchers believe that being a part of the EU and NATO was one of the main external reasons for this “imperfect bipartisanship.”

There are several Russian researchers whose academic impact and contribution to the study of the Italian political system and its parties in the period after WWII, is difficult to overrate in Russia. Among many works of mention, first is Kin C.I. and her work Italy at the turn of the century. From the history of social political thought (Kin C.I., 1980). In her research, Cecilia Kin analyzed different currents of Italian political thought, from liberal to socialist. Kin divided the liberal political thought into purely liberal and catholic.

Equally of mention are some fundamental works, dedicated to the phenomenon of Christian democratic party. Among such works, are the research papers by V.P. Gaiduk Christian democracy in Italy (1960s – 1970s) (Gaiduk V.P., 1985), where the author describes the party as a clerical and reactionary political force. The role of Christian democracy as a ruling party in the political structure of Italy until 1971 was considered in detail throughout the third volume of The History of Italy, prepared by the Institute of World History of the Academy of Sciences of the URSS in 1971. The questions of political representation of the Catholic movement were regarded in a thesis by Kisovskaya N.K. Social politics of Christian democratic party in Italy, where the author analyzed the social basis of the Christian democratic party and its social program during its formative period.

Lubin V.P.1, Levin I.B.2, Komolova N.P.3, Grigorieva I.V.4, Lisovsky Y.P.5 cover the key moments and stages of the development of the Republic of Italy in their works. They focus on the organisation of the state in the post-war period, constitution drafting, the lifecycle of the “imperfect bipartisanship,” activity of Italian political parties, the formation of governments and their functions, terrorism and mafia threats, transition from the First Republic to the Second Republic and the rebuilding of the Italian political system in the 1990s.

Lubin V.P. covers the political culture in Italy in the post-war period as well as the performance of Italian political parties, especially of the Italian Socialist party. Moreover, the researcher evaluates the events, which occurred in the 1990s and became a milestone in the history of the Italian Republic. Lubin V.P. asserts: “In the 1990s, Italy entered a period of political instability, which it tried to overcome in the late 20th and 21st centuries. The transformation, the transitional stage from the First to the Second Republic, is associated with an essential change in Italian democracy, giving it more perfect forms”6. Lyubin believes that “the predominant voting of the Italian voters for the right-wing parties can be explained, first of all, by psychological, social and economic reasons”. He notes that “the 1994 elections and the coming to power of the right-wing forces meant an undoubted step forward in the further development of the process of transition from the First to the Second republic. Right-wing parties have become as much a recognized part of the country's political establishment as traditional parties7.”

Levin I.B. studies similar issues, while Lisovsky Y.P. studies the rise and fall of the Italian democracy, he focuses on analysing the development of the Italian democratic institutions and functions of the Italian political system. The significant impact in analysing the processes, which occurred in Italy after WWII and the political crisis, which occurred in the early 1990s. Lisovsky Y.P. writes that “the crisis of this contradiction. The strong and shaky political system did not entail, as one might expect, the victories and triumphs of the traditional opponents of communism, who were united and rallied by hostility to the common enemy ”.8 The heritage of La Resistenza Movement and the creation of the parliament system can be found in the works written by Komolova N.P. and Kholodovsky K.G., who studied the process of creation and functions of state entities and political system in the post-WWII period.

Zonova T.V, focuses on a wide range of issues, which cover diplomacy and international policies in Italy along with regional problems and the activities of the Italian parliament.

The works written by Kholodovsky K.G.9, Yakhimovich Z.P.10, Zonova N.V.11 and Popov N.Y.12 are dedicated to the creation and activity of the Italian parliament. Mamedov R.M.13 focuses on the topic of institution building in Italy.

The source of problems in Italy’s regional development is demonstrated in the history of the country before unification. Despite its long history, the climax of the problem of regional development was reached only after WWII and it remains unsolved. According to a large body of Russian research, the “North-South” cleavage and its resulting conflicts has more political than economic underpinnings connected with Italy’s past (as it occurred in the mid-19th century).

Lisovsky Y.P. claims “the South was the region, where the future of modern Italy was created. The traditionalist and conservative political forces were concentrated in the South regions. The left parties had to make more efforts to get the support there and start the democratic movement in the South.”

Vyalkov Y.A. writes “the problem of the Italian South got its new meaning: it became a reason for discussion of the federal reorganisation of the country”14. Lubin V.P. claims that “in the end of the 20th century the concept of decentralisation of Italy changed into the concept of federalisation of the country. New laws were created to change the state’s Constitution”. According to Kholodovsky K.G., “despite the big movement of people from Southern to the Northern Italy and their proceeding assimilation, the attempt to stop the South-North opposition had failed.”

The consequence resulting from the “imperfect bipartisanship” system was total isolation for 50 years of the second leading political party, the Italian Communist party, which barred them from power and governing the country. The monopoly of power thereafter belonged to the Italian Christian Democrats (CD), this made the Italian Communist party transform into an opposition party. These years are referred to as a “semi-democracy,” “the imperfect bipartisanship” or the “imperfect bipartisan system.” Lubin V.P. and Lisovsky Y.P. consider the absence of intersystem opposition as the main feature of this period. Christian Democrats monopolized power in Italy, which placed them in a very difficult position. They possessed considerably strong opponents from the left (the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Communist Party), but none of them were fully included in the political system. The authors claim that these circumstances led to the impossibility of any political alternatives and change made neither by revolution nor reform. They call such kind of system as “structural abnormality” and believe it had negative effects on the development of democratic institutions.

The beginning of the 1990s was marked by upheaval in the country's political arena. During these years the situation changed radically: the system of the “imperfect bipartisanship” ceased to be acceptable for Italian society. As noted by Lisovsky Y.P. and Lyubin V.P.: “the party system has grown decrepit, relations between the world of politics and citizens have gone wrong. The parties have lost contact with the country, have ceased to notice even major changes in society. Concerning the reasons for the urgent crisis, Lisovsky Y.P. writes “… the political system of post-war Italy was incomplete just as the “imperfect bipartisanship” contained some elements of party authoritarianism. As an example of this, we can mention that the Christian Democrats were constantly creating various governing blocs, juggling these small party-satellites, however, the Christian Democrats did not have an equal partner – or an opponent – endowed with the legitimate approval of the people, who would be able to replace the Christian Democrats at the helm of power. The system finally led to the merger of elite groups within the party and the state apparatus, leading to its complete lack of control in the field of politics and finance, and finally, to mass corruption and decay.

Lyubin V.P. and Lisovsky Y.P. consider the events of the 1990s. In Italy it is not just a crisis of political structure: “It was a crisis of legitimacy, legality, a crisis of trust and consensus, a crisis of all political parties individually and of the entire party-political structure as a whole.” The result was a drop in voters' confidence in traditional parties and the emergence of new forces on the political arena.

Yakhimovich Z.P. and Grigorieva I.V. see the influence of external factors in the 1990s crisis: “as a reaction to the bankruptcy of 'real socialism' and the growing incapacity of the Italian «blocked democracy,” the country’s party-political system collapsed, based on Christian Democratic Party’s monopoly on power and the government majority they had created under the auspices (including the ISP and ISDP) of opposition to factor K “- the communist party of the country15.”

However, Kholodkovsky K.G sees the positive influence of an external factor on the situation in Italy: "It took decisive shifts in the international alignment of forces associated with the collapse of" real socialism ", the end of the Cold War, to unblock the situation in Italy and open the way for constitutional reforms" ... The result of foreign policy events was that "Italy turned out to be the only Western country that experienced profound changes in the party-political system simultaneously with the Eastern European states.”

Currently, various points of view are expressed in the literature regarding the internal political situation in Italy: most historians agree that the transition from the First to the Second Republic has not yet been fully realized, however, there are discussions which lend themselves to the possible formation of the Third Republic, the based on stronger presidential power. The highest objective in this case, is the idea of Levin I.B., who points out that “the outcome of the past political and electoral cycle indicates that the process of transition from the First Republic to the Second is far from complete” and V.P. Lyubin, emphasizes that "the division into periods of the First and Second Republics in Italy is relative and conditional.”

One of the latest works dedicated to Italy and its political landscape is a paper written by Kolomiets V.K.16 Political image of modern Italy. The view from Russia. The author examines the last half century of Italy’s history - a country deeply seated in the Western world, which during the 20th century and after its unification, had a chance to experience the most acute moments of alternativeness - a decisive historical choice, accompanied by dramatic changes in the balance of social and political forces and the emergence of new forms of power acquisition and even new statehood.


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