The essay intends to reconstruct how the Italian Radical Party became, from the mid-1960s, the party of ‘civil rights’, and what its main battles for these rights were between 1967 and 1979. As regards the political system, it played a crucial role in the process of re-institutionalization that took place in the 1970s, helping to transfer certain claims, which had been expressed on a social and cultural level since the 1960s, to the legislative-institutional level. Making the battle for civil rights the object of their own political action had a systemic meaning for the Radicals – namely, to undermine the dominion of the Christian Democrats and redefine the relations between the political sphere and society. This was closely linked to the political strategy of the party and to the organizational form it gave itself from 1967 onwards. These aspects, however, did not remain unchanged between 1967 and 1979; rather, they fed on the Radicals’ evolving vision of Italian society (on its social turmoil) on the one hand, and on the other they reacted to the evolution of the Italian political scenario, in particular to the possibility of building a parliamentary alternative to the DC.
Bonfreschi, L. (2019). Becoming the “Party of Civil Rights": the Radical Party, 1962-1979. JOURNAL OF MODERN ITALIAN STUDIES, 24(4), 600-617.
Becoming the “Party of Civil Rights": the Radical Party, 1962-1979
Bonfreschi Lucia
2019-01-01
Abstract
The essay intends to reconstruct how the Italian Radical Party became, from the mid-1960s, the party of ‘civil rights’, and what its main battles for these rights were between 1967 and 1979. As regards the political system, it played a crucial role in the process of re-institutionalization that took place in the 1970s, helping to transfer certain claims, which had been expressed on a social and cultural level since the 1960s, to the legislative-institutional level. Making the battle for civil rights the object of their own political action had a systemic meaning for the Radicals – namely, to undermine the dominion of the Christian Democrats and redefine the relations between the political sphere and society. This was closely linked to the political strategy of the party and to the organizational form it gave itself from 1967 onwards. These aspects, however, did not remain unchanged between 1967 and 1979; rather, they fed on the Radicals’ evolving vision of Italian society (on its social turmoil) on the one hand, and on the other they reacted to the evolution of the Italian political scenario, in particular to the possibility of building a parliamentary alternative to the DC.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.