Radical Party (Italy, 1877)
Encyclopedia
The Radical Party was a radical
political party in Italy.
It was founded in 1877 by Agostino Bertani
and Felice Cavallotti
as a radical-liberal
party of what was then considered the "far left", from the name of the parliamentary group the Radicals formed with Andrea Costa
, the first Socialist
elected to the Italian Parliament, in 1882. The Radicals supported complete separation of church and state
, decentralization giving more powers to municipal governments, the United States of Europe according to Carlo Cattaneo's beliefs, the progressive tax
, an independent judiciary
, free and compulsory education
for children, universal suffrage
for both men and women, women's
and workers' rights
, while opposed capital punishment
, as well as any form of protectionism
, nationalism
, imperialism
and colonialism
.
Leading Radicals included Ernesto Nathan
, who was Mayor of Rome
with the support of the Italian Socialist Party
and the Italian Republican Party
from 1907 to 1913, Romolo Murri
, a Catholic
priest who was suspended for having joined the party and who is widely considered in Italy as the precursor of Christian democracy
, and Francesco Saverio Nitti
. Under the leadership of the latter, the Radicals became part of the governing coalition dominated by the Liberals
of Giovanni Giolitti
, who had positioned his party toward the centre-left and supported many Radical reforms, while the Radicals moved to the political centre. Nitti himself was Minister of the Treasury from 1917 to 1919 and Prime Minister from 1919 to 1920.
The Radicals, who obtained their best result in the 1913 general election
(8.6% and 73 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
), before presenting joint candidates with the Liberals in 54% of the constituencies in the 1919 general election
, were strong in Lombardy
(where Carlo Cattaneo was from and where Lega Lombarda
/Lega Nord would emerge in the 1990s
), notably in the northern Province of Sondrio
and the south-eastern Province of Mantua
, Northern Veneto
and Friuli
, Emilia-Romagna
and Central Italy
and especially in the area of Rome.
In the 1900s and the 1910s
they lost votes in Emilia
to the Socialists and in Romagna
to the Republicans, but strengthened their positions in Veneto, notably holding for almost twenty years the single-seat constituencies of Venice
and Padua
, and in Southern Italy, where they were previously almost non-existent. For the 1921 general election
the Radicals joined forces with several minor liberal parties in order to form the Democratic Liberal Party
. The list gained 10.5% of the vote and 68 seats, doing particularly well in Piedmont
and the South.
After World War II
some former Radicals led by Francesco Saverio Nitti joined the National Democratic Union
alongside Liberals
and other elements of the old Liberal elite that governed Italy from the years of Giovanni Giolitti
until the rise of Benito Mussolini
and the instauration of the Fascist
regime. The Radicals who were once the far left of the Italian political spectrum were finally associated with the old liberal establishment, which was replaced by Christian Democracy
as the leading political force in the country. Some left-wing elements of the old Radical Party took however part to the foundation of the Action Party, while a new Radical Party was launched in 1955 by the left-wing of the Italian Liberal Party
. These new Radicals, whose leader was steadily Marco Pannella
since 1963, claimed to be the ideal successors of Cavallotti's Radicals.
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
political party in Italy.
It was founded in 1877 by Agostino Bertani
Agostino Bertani
Agostino Bertani was an Italian revolutionary and physician during Italian unification.-Revolutionary:Bertani was born at Milan on October 19, 1812. He took part in the revolutions of 1848, but he was opposed to the fusion of Lombardy with the Kingdom of Sardinia...
and Felice Cavallotti
Felice Cavallotti
Felice Cavallotti was an Italian politician, poet and dramatic author.- Early career :Born in Milan, Cavallotti fought with the Garibaldian Corps in their 1860 and 1866 campaigns during the Italian Wars of Independence....
as a radical-liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
party of what was then considered the "far left", from the name of the parliamentary group the Radicals formed with Andrea Costa
Andrea Costa
Andrea Costa was an Italian socialist activist, born in Imola.He co-founded the Partito dei Lavoratori Italiani in 1892 after renouncing his anarchist principles in 1879. It is probable that this happened due to his marriage to Russian Socialist Anna Kulischov...
, the first Socialist
Italian Revolutionary Socialist Party
The Italian Revolutionary Socialist Party was a socialist political party in Italy.It was founded in 1881 as Revolutionary Socialist Party of Romagna by Andrea Costa, a fomer anarchist converted to democratic socialism, after his marriage with Anna Kuliscioff...
elected to the Italian Parliament, in 1882. The Radicals supported complete separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
, decentralization giving more powers to municipal governments, the United States of Europe according to Carlo Cattaneo's beliefs, the progressive tax
Progressive tax
A progressive tax is a tax by which the tax rate increases as the taxable base amount increases. "Progressive" describes a distribution effect on income or expenditure, referring to the way the rate progresses from low to high, where the average tax rate is less than the marginal tax rate...
, an independent judiciary
Judicial independence
Judicial Independence is the idea that the judiciary needs to be kept away from the other branches of government...
, free and compulsory education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
for children, universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
for both men and women, women's
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
and workers' rights
Labor rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe...
, while opposed capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
, as well as any form of protectionism
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
, nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
and colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
.
Leading Radicals included Ernesto Nathan
Ernesto Nathan
Ernesto Nathan was an English-Italian Jewish politician, and mayor of Rome, Italy from November 1907 to December 1913.-Biography:...
, who was Mayor of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
with the support of the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
and the Italian Republican Party
Italian Republican Party
The Italian Republican Party is a liberal political party in Italy.The PRI is party with old roots that originally took a left-wing position, claiming descent from the political position of Giuseppe Mazzini...
from 1907 to 1913, Romolo Murri
Romolo Murri
Romolo Murri was an Italian politician and ecclesiastic. This Catholic priest was suspended for having joined the party Lega Democratica Nazionale and who is widely considered in Italy as the precursor of Christian democracy.In 1894 was a promoter of the FUCI, in 1901 of Democrazia cristiana...
, a Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
priest who was suspended for having joined the party and who is widely considered in Italy as the precursor of Christian democracy
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
, and Francesco Saverio Nitti
Francesco Saverio Nitti
Francesco Saverio Vincenzo de Paola Nitti was an Italian economist and political figure. A Radical, he served as the 36th Prime Minister of Italy between 1919 and 1920....
. Under the leadership of the latter, the Radicals became part of the governing coalition dominated by the Liberals
Italian Liberal Party
The Italian Liberal Party was a liberal political party in Italy.-Origins:The origins of liberalism in Italy came from the so-called "Historical Right", a parliamentary group formed by Camillo Benso di Cavour in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia following the 1848 revolution...
of Giovanni Giolitti
Giovanni Giolitti
Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman. He was the 19th, 25th, 29th, 32nd and 37th Prime Minister of Italy between 1892 and 1921. A left-wing liberal, Giolitti's periods in office were notable for the passage of a wide range of progressive social reforms which improved the living standards of...
, who had positioned his party toward the centre-left and supported many Radical reforms, while the Radicals moved to the political centre. Nitti himself was Minister of the Treasury from 1917 to 1919 and Prime Minister from 1919 to 1920.
The Radicals, who obtained their best result in the 1913 general election
Italian general election, 1913
The Italian general election of 1913, the first election with male universal suffrage took place on 26 October 1913.The Liberals, that is to say the governing coalition , narrowly retained the absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, while the Radicals came second with their best tally so far...
(8.6% and 73 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
), before presenting joint candidates with the Liberals in 54% of the constituencies in the 1919 general election
Italian general election, 1919
The Italian general election of 1919, the first after World War I and the electoral reform that introduced proportional representation, took place on 16 November 1919....
, were strong in Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
(where Carlo Cattaneo was from and where Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda
Lega Lombarda is a regionalist political party active in Lombardy. Led by Giancarlo Giorgetti, the party is the second largest in the region....
/Lega Nord would emerge in the 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
), notably in the northern Province of Sondrio
Province of Sondrio
The Province of Sondrio is in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the town of Sondrio.It has an area of 3,212 km², and a total population of 176,856...
and the south-eastern Province of Mantua
Province of Mantua
The Province of Mantua is a province in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Mantua.-Communes:It includes 70 comuni , ranging in area from Viadana, with 102.19 km², to Mariana Mantovana, with 8.81 km²....
, Northern Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
and Friuli
Friuli
Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...
, Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
and Central Italy
Central Italy
Central Italy is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics , a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency...
and especially in the area of Rome.
In the 1900s and the 1910s
1910s
File:1910s montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Model T Ford is introduced and becomes widespread; The sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic causes the deaths of nearly 1,500 people and attracts global and historical attention; Title bar: All the events below are part of World War I ; French Army lookout...
they lost votes in Emilia
Emilia (region of Italy)
Emilia is a historical region of northern Italy which approximately corresponds to the western and north-eastern portions of today’s Emilia-Romagna region...
to the Socialists and in Romagna
Romagna
Romagna is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to the east, and the rivers Reno and Sillaro to the north and west...
to the Republicans, but strengthened their positions in Veneto, notably holding for almost twenty years the single-seat constituencies of Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
and Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
, and in Southern Italy, where they were previously almost non-existent. For the 1921 general election
Italian general election, 1921
The Italian general election of 1921 took place on 15 May 1921.The Liberal governing coalition, strengthened by the joining of Fascist candidates in the "National Blocs" , came short of a majority...
the Radicals joined forces with several minor liberal parties in order to form the Democratic Liberal Party
Democratic Liberal Party (Italy)
The Democratic Liberal Party was a social-liberal political party in Italy.It was formed for the 1921 general election by the union of the Radical Party with several other liberal parties, most of whom had taken part to the joint lists between the Radicals and the Liberals in many single-seat...
. The list gained 10.5% of the vote and 68 seats, doing particularly well in Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
and the South.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
some former Radicals led by Francesco Saverio Nitti joined the National Democratic Union
National Democratic Union (Italy)
The National Democratic Union was a coalition of parties for the 1946 general election, formed basically by the Italian Liberal Party, the Labour Democratic Party and some other liberal, conservative and monarchist parties...
alongside Liberals
Italian Liberal Party
The Italian Liberal Party was a liberal political party in Italy.-Origins:The origins of liberalism in Italy came from the so-called "Historical Right", a parliamentary group formed by Camillo Benso di Cavour in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia following the 1848 revolution...
and other elements of the old Liberal elite that governed Italy from the years of Giovanni Giolitti
Giovanni Giolitti
Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman. He was the 19th, 25th, 29th, 32nd and 37th Prime Minister of Italy between 1892 and 1921. A left-wing liberal, Giolitti's periods in office were notable for the passage of a wide range of progressive social reforms which improved the living standards of...
until the rise of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and the instauration of the Fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
regime. The Radicals who were once the far left of the Italian political spectrum were finally associated with the old liberal establishment, which was replaced by Christian Democracy
Christian Democracy (Italy)
Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic party in Italy. It was founded in 1943 as the ideological successor of the historical Italian People's Party, which had the same symbol, a crossed shield ....
as the leading political force in the country. Some left-wing elements of the old Radical Party took however part to the foundation of the Action Party, while a new Radical Party was launched in 1955 by the left-wing of the Italian Liberal Party
Italian Liberal Party
The Italian Liberal Party was a liberal political party in Italy.-Origins:The origins of liberalism in Italy came from the so-called "Historical Right", a parliamentary group formed by Camillo Benso di Cavour in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia following the 1848 revolution...
. These new Radicals, whose leader was steadily Marco Pannella
Marco Pannella
Giacinto Pannella, better known as Marco Pannella is an Italian politician.He is the historic leader of the Italian Radicals...
since 1963, claimed to be the ideal successors of Cavallotti's Radicals.