Republican ideas and the unification of Italy . His thoughts influenced many politicians of a later period, among them
Woodrow Wilson,
David Lloyd George,
Mahatma Gandhi,
Golda Meir and
Jawaharlal Nehru. In the
history of Italy there are several so-called "republican" governments that have followed one another over time. Examples are the ancient
Roman Republic and the medieval
maritime republics. From
Cicero to
Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian philosophers have imagined the foundations of political science and republicanism. But it was
Giuseppe Mazzini who revived the republican idea in Italy in the 19th century. An
Italian nationalist in the
historical radical tradition and a proponent of a republicanism of
social-democratic inspiration, Mazzini helped define the modern European movement for
popular democracy in a republican state. Mazzini's thoughts had a very considerable influence on the Italian and European republican movements, in the
Constitution of Italy, about
Europeanism and more nuanced on many politicians of a later period, among them American president
Woodrow Wilson, British prime minister
David Lloyd George,
Mahatma Gandhi, Israeli prime minister
Golda Meir and Indian prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru. Mazzini formulated a concept known as "thought and action" in which thought and action must be joined together and every thought must be followed by action, therefore rejecting
intellectualism and the notion of divorcing theory from practice. In July 1831, in exile in
Marseille, Giuseppe Mazzini founded the
Young Italy movement, which aimed to transform Italy into a unitary democratic republic, according to the principles of freedom, independence and unity, but also to oust the monarchic regimes pre-existing the unification, including the
Kingdom of Sardinia. The foundation of the Young Italy constitutes a key moment of the Italian
Risorgimento and this republican program precedes in time the proposals for the unification of Italy of
Vincenzo Gioberti and
Cesare Balbo, aimed at reunifying the Italian territory under the presidency of the
Pope. Subsequently, the philosopher
Carlo Cattaneo promoted a secular and republican Italy in the extension of Mazzini's ideas, but organized as a
federal republic. , the first martyr of the modern
Italian Republic The political projects of Mazzini and Cattaneo were thwarted by the action of the Piedmontese Prime Minister
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, and
Giuseppe Garibaldi. The latter set aside his republican ideas to favor Italian unity. After having obtained the conquest of the whole of
southern Italy during the
Expedition of the Thousand, Garibaldi handed over the conquered territories to the king of Sardinia
Victor Emmanuel II, which were annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia after a plebiscite. This earned him heavy criticism from numerous republicans who accused him of treason. While a laborious administrative unification began, a
first Italian parliament was elected and, on 17 March 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was
proclaimed king of Italy. From 1861 to 1946, Italy was a constitutional monarchy founded on the
Albertine Statute, named after the king who promulgated it in 1848,
Charles Albert of Sardinia. The parliament included a
Senate, whose members were appointed by the king, and a
Chamber of Deputies, elected by census vote. In 1861 only 2% of Italians had the right to vote. In the political panorama of the time there was a republican political movement which had its martyrs, such as the soldier
Pietro Barsanti. Barsanti was a supporter of republican ideas, and was a soldier in the
Royal Italian Army with the rank of corporal. He was sentenced to death and shot in 1870 for having favored an insurrectional attempt against the
Savoy monarchy and is therefore considered the first martyr of the modern
Italian Republic and a symbol of
republican ideals in Italy.
Albertine Statute and liberal Italy The balance of power between the Chamber and Senate initially shifted in favor of the Senate, composed mainly of nobles and industrial figures. Little by little, the Chamber of Deputies took on more and more importance with the evolution of the bourgeoisie and the large landowners, concerned with economic progress, but supporters of order and a certain
social conservatism. The Republicans took part in the elections to the Italian Parliament, and in 1853 they formed the
Action Party around
Giuseppe Mazzini. Although in exile, Mazzini was elected in 1866, but refused to take his seat in parliament.
Carlo Cattaneo was elected deputy in 1860 and 1867, but refused so as not to have to swear loyalty to the
House of Savoy. The problem of the oath of loyalty to the monarchy, necessary to be elected, was the subject of controversy within the republican forces. In 1873
Felice Cavallotti, one of the most committed Italian politicians against the monarchy, preceded his oath with a declaration in which he reaffirmed his republican beliefs. In 1882, a new electoral law lowered the census limit for voting rights, increasing the number of voters to over two million, equal to 7% of the population. In the same year the Italian Workers' Party was created, which in 1895 became the
Italian Socialist Party. In 1895 the intransigent republicans agreed to participate in the political life of the Kingdom, establishing the
Italian Republican Party. Two years later, the far left reached its historical maximum level in Parliament with 81 deputies, for the three radical-democratic, socialist components and Republican. With the death of Felice Cavallotti in 1898, the radical left gave up on posing the institutional problem. In Italian politics, the socialist party progressively divided into two tendencies: a maximalist one, led among others by
Arturo Labriola and
Enrico Ferri, and supporting the use of strikes; the other, reformist and pro-government, was led by
Filippo Turati. A nationalist movement emerged, led in particular by
Enrico Corradini, as well as a Catholic social and democratic movement, the National Democratic League, led by
Romolo Murri. In 1904,
Pope Pius X authorized Catholics to participate individually in political life, but in 1909 he condemned the National Democratic League created by Romolo Murri, who was excommunicated. Finally, a law of 3 June 1912 marked Italy's evolution towards a certain political liberalism by establishing universal male suffrage. In 1914, at the outbreak of
World War I, Italy began to be counted among the world's liberal democracies.
Fascism and World War II titled himself
Duce and ruled the country from 1922 until
his overthrow in 1943. After World War I, Italian political life was animated by four great movements. Two of these movements were in favor of democratic development within the framework of existing monarchical institutions: the reformist socialists and the
Italian People's Party. Two other movements challenged these institutions: the Republican Party on the one hand, and the maximalist socialists. In the 1919 elections, the parties most imbued with republican ideology (the maximalist socialists and the Republican Party) won, obtaining 165 out of 508 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In the 1921 elections, after the foundation of the Italian Communist Party, the three parties republican, maximalist socialist and communist obtained 145 deputies out of 535. Overall, at the beginning of the interwar period, less than 30% of those elected were in favor of the establishment of a republican regime. In this context, the rise of
Benito Mussolini's fascist movement was based on the bitterness generated by the "
mutilated victory", the fear of social unrest and the rejection of revolutionary, republican and Marxist ideology. The liberal political system and part of the aristocracy chose to erect fascism as a bulwark against, in their way of seeing, these dangers. In October 1922, the nomination of Benito Mussolini as prime minister by King
Victor Emmanuel III, following the
march on Rome, paved the way for the establishment of the dictatorship. The
Albertine Statute was progressively emptied of its content. Parliament was subject to the will of the new government. The legal opposition disintegrated. On 27 June 1924, 127 deputies left Parliament and
retreated to the Aventine Hill, a clumsy maneuver which, in effect, left the field open to the fascists. They then had the fate of Italy in their hands for two decades.
, an axe cutting a fasces. Arditi del Popolo'' was a militant
anti-fascist group founded in 1921. With the implementation of fascist laws (Royal Decree of 6 November 1926), all political parties operating on Italian territory were dissolved, with the exception of the
National Fascist Party. Some of these parties expatriated and reconstituted themselves abroad, especially in France. Thus an
anti-fascist coalition was formed on 29 March 1927 in Paris, the "
Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana", which brought together the
Italian Republican Party, the
Italian Socialist Party, the
Socialist Unitary Party of Italian Workers, the Italian League for Human Rights and the foreign representation of the
Italian General Confederation of Labour. Some movements remained outside, including the
Italian Communist Party, the popular Catholic movement and other liberal movements. This coalition dissolved on 5 May 1934 and, in August of the same year, the pact of unity of action was signed between the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian Communist Party. In the meantime, in Italy, clandestine anti-fascist nuclei were formed, in particular in Milan with
Ferruccio Parri and in Florence with
Riccardo Bauer. Not only did Victor Emmanuel III appeal to Mussolini to form the government in 1922 and allow him to proceed with the domestication of Parliament, but he did not even draw the consequences of the assassination of
Giacomo Matteotti in 1924. He accepted the title of emperor in 1936 at the end of
Second Italo-Ethiopian War, then the alliance with
Nazi Germany and Italy's entry into World War II on 10 June 1940. Hostilities ended on 29 April 1945,
when the German forces in Italy surrendered.
Nearly half a million Italians (including civilians) died in World War II, society was divided and the Italian economy had been all but destroyed; per capita income in 1944 was at its lowest point since the beginning of the 20th century. ==History==