The Republic of Parties: From Singular to Plural in the 1948 Italian Constitution
benedetta barbisan
1. When Political Parties and the Constitution the Resistance. The national flag might have Met: How To Make a Form of Government sufficed against the Germans, but, against Deliberately Inefficient and Unstable Mussolini’s puppet Fascist Social Republic in the North and the royal dictatorship in To understand what occurred in the the South, Italians needed a new banner of proceedings of the Constituent Assembly1 democracy that only the committees could and how the new form of government was champion. Symbolising the democratic engineered, we need to start our story political unity of the country, the CLN was «the most important political innovation of before, in fact from the so called svolta di 2 Salerno (turning point of Salerno) in April the Resistance» . The CLN was composed of the Commu- 1944, when the leader of the Communist nist Party (PCI), the Socialist Party (PSI- Party, Palmiro Togliatti, put forward the idea UP), the Action Party (Pd’A), the Christian of a compromise between antifascist parties Democratic Party (DC), the Labor Dem- gathered in the CLN, the House of Savoy ocrats (LD) and the Liberal Party (PLI), and the Prime Minister, Marshal Pietro each accorded an equal voice. During the Badoglio, to create the first government of years of the exile in France, the antifascist national unity since Mussolini’s deposition. groups had attempted to stay together, but In the late summer 1943 – after the fall in 1933 the effort had definitively failed. It of the fascist regime caused by the Grand was immediately after the armistice, then, Council of Fascism passing a vote of no that the CLN self-attributed a true constit- confidence against Mussolini –, a network uent power in the guise of an original public of committees mushroomed in several cit- institution3. ies and provinces for the purpose of coordi- The ethos and nature of the CLN is wor- nating the political and military activities of thy of closer attention, both for the role giornale di storia costituzionale / journal of constitutional history 39 / I 2020, pp. 173-190 173 issn 1593-0793 / isbn 978-88-6056-654-6 / © eum 2020 Ricerche it played in those years and for its flaws, deal was closed on the firm understand- foreshadowing future dysfunctions and ing that, retaining the formal ownership of even pathologies of the Republic’s insti- the throne, the king Victor Emmanuel III tutional system. Operating an irreplacea- handed over the royal prerogatives to his ble political and institutional part within son, Umberto, as Lieutenant General of the the provisionary system, the CLN became Realm8. a Parliament-like body4 in a de facto par- Marshal Badoglio, that had until then liamentary form of government5. The CLN opposed the collaboration with the un- located in the South struck a political deal derground parties, felt obliged to abide with the Crown with the turning point of the agreement also in light of the declin- Salerno, whilst in the North the National ing reputation of the Crown to the benefit Committee for the Liberation of Northern of the CLN9. But Badoglio would remain Italy (CNLAI) acted as a revolutionary force in power less than two months, resigning in the territories occupied by the Nazis or right after the liberation of Rome from the under the rule of Mussolini’s Social Italian German occupation, on 8 June 1944. Ivanoe Republic and as a ruler in the zones gradu- Bonomi, the President of the CLN, was then ally liberated. entrusted with forming the second govern- The CLN experience in the Italian dem- ment of national unity in virtue of the sup- ocratic transition did not resemble other port offered by all the parties of the CLN. coeval national liberation movements, like With public institutions collapsing and the the Jugoslavian or the French, headed by moral fibre of the nation decomposing, the charismatic leaders as Josip Broz Tito and commitment political parties were capable Charles De Gaulle. On the contrary, the of in that phase through the CLN allowed CLN was always directed by a coalition of the participation of popular masses in the political parties and operating under the democratic rebirth of the country10. rule of unanimity and equal representation. The transfer of power from Badoglio to All the forces convened in the CLN were Bonomi took place in the lapse of just few unanimous in pursuing the Liberation, days, but it amounted to a radical consti- but not as much in singling out the aims to tutional transition, with an unprecedented achieve and in drafting a political program gain in importance for the CLN’s political of the Resistance6. What the political par- parties: on 22 April 1944, Marshal Badoglio ties collected in the CLN were skilful at was and his ministers had sworn in before the approaching democracy by providing rep- king, according to the precepts of the Al- resentation, but they could not be as much bertine Statute; on 18 June 1944, instead, resourceful at organising that representa- Bonomi installed his government as the tion. As a result, the CLN ended up tracing direct expression of the CLN’s parties. By out worn out models of Italian institutional 18 April 1945, the date of the first national past7. elections after the war, the monarchy, the The first government of national unity army, the liberal élite were all already out forged in Salerno in April 1944 involved of the picture, with CLN’s political parties all the parties included in the CLN and was remained as the sole interlocutors for the presided over by Marshal Badoglio. The Allies. So much had been slow the evolution
174 Barbisan of popular political parties under the mon- est momentousness of the parties that had archy how fast and profound their transfor- animated the CLN. We saw already that the mation between 1943 and 194811. germinal idea of a constituent phase had After the end of the war, the major issue been concocted between the fall 1943 and was how to generate democracy in Italy. On the early 1944, during the intricate nego- this account, there were those, like Ferruc- tiation in Salerno among the Crown, the cio Parri, who contended the failure of de- political parties and the Allies. The parties mocracy in Italy even before the coming of inside the CLN envisioned the involvement Mussolini, having been fascism a litmus test of the people as the most befitting solution of sorts of the evils already affecting Italian to sort the Italian crisis out, also because institutions; on the other side, Benedetto they wanted to ease the work of the Constit- Croce asserted that Italy had experienced a uent Assembly. Also the monarchy and the real democratic development between 1860 representatives of the Allies were in favour and 1922 and exhorted to restart from there of this option, convinced in this way to get to found a new democracy. For the former, better chances to survive. Italy had a democratic will but not a demo- The process of devising the form of gov- cratic regime to look up to; for the latter, the ernment put at its very core two ingredi- past would teach the future. Whether Italy ents: the centrality of political parties and had ever known democracy was, then, what the refusal of any snap decision method. the dispute was about12. On 20 November 1946, Giuseppe Dosset- An undemocratic mass society was the ti proposed an agenda (ordine del giorno) critical heritage fascism had left behind, for the acknowledgment of constitutional and the major challenge the Italian transi- prerogatives to political parties, as suggest- tion after the war would pose is the access of ed by Lelio Basso the day before. Although these popular masses in a newly established this agenda was never discussed, it reveals democracy. After the First World War, both the inspiration underneath, aiming at lo- Mussolini and Don Luigi Sturzo, the found- cating political parties in the very bosom of er of the Popular Party, had realised that the the new institutions. And the discussion on state had to be restructured entirely and how to design the form of government was masses finally pulled into public political conducted on the implied premise that po- life. The Fascist National Party (PNF) was litical parties could manoeuvre it. used to build a mass society inside a total- A few key sessions within the Constit- itarian regime. Once it lost its general ap- uent Assembly outlined this address. On proval – not for the entry into the war or 4 and 5 September 1946, three positions because of the antifascist wave, too fieble emerged concerning which form of gov- and almost non existing, but by implosion, ernment to introduce: firstly, everybody, by inner erosion13 –, it had already indel- with the sole exception of the Action Party ebly marked not only Italian laws and in- (Pd’A)14, was against presidentialism and stitutions, but, more importantly, Italians’ inclined to promote a parliamentary gov- mentality. ernment; secondly, catholics and liberals The debate inside the Constituent As- were endorsing a more rationalised system; sembly mirrored this climate and the lat- thirdly, socialists and communists insisted
175 Ricerche on avoiding too rigid constitutional limita- of the legislative power16 –, rationalised but tions on the form of government. On this not too vigorously: for instance, with refer- latter account, it was the member of the ence to the relation between the executive Communist Party Giorgio Amendola that, and the Constituent Assembly, Article 3, on 5 September 1946, delineated this view- paras. 3 and 4, D. Lgs. Lgt. n. 98/1946 pro- point: vided for the executive to resign only if an absolute majority of the Assembly passed Although it is evident that a democracy must em- brace a model of stability, if governing and real- an explicit vote of no confidence and not by ising a program is the goal, that stability cannot virtue of a simple vote against the govern- be achieved through legislative devices; on the ment. contrary, discipline and stability in a form of gov- However, on that very same day, the ernment derive from a political conscience that dem- representative Egidio Tosato of the Chris- ocratic political parties are in charge of generating15. tian Democratic Party presented the idea of In his analysis, the unprecedented in- a constructive vote of no confidence, similar volvement of great popular movements to what the German Basic Law would codify in the political life, the contrast between the next year in its Article 67. Tosato be- new social claims and the forces resisting lieved that only a rationalised parliamenta- their fight, had provoked the institutional rism could keep up with a presidential form instability that had characterised the first of goverment and in this spirit presented decades of the Twentieth century. Only the the following text: action of political forces, then, could gen- For a vote of no confidence, at least a third of re- erate discipline and stability of the sys- presentatives of both Chambers shall deliver a tem, insufflating life into institutions even motivated motion of censure to the President of through political crisis endangering the the Republic. The Head of State shall convene the efficiency of the government but allowing Chambers and, should the majority pass the vote of no confidence, the first signatory of the motion a gradual adaptation and preventing deep- shall be considered the designated President of er fractures. Being aware of the fluidity and the government. Were several votes of no confi- undetermination of the political situation, dence presented and passed, the first signato- Amendola maintained that omitting con- ry of the motion of censure gaining the relative stitutional stability, while giving political majority shall be the designated President of the government. parties leeway to define their balance of power, seemed the most recommendable This forward-looking suggestion, approach. alongiside with his notion of chancel- Even on the side of the Christian Demo- lorship17, that came from Tosato’s medita- cratic Party (DC), the leader Alcide De Gas- ted knowledge of Leon Blum18 and others peri was very critical against any attempts to according to which the frailty of democracy strengthening the executive branch. After is the frailty of the executive power19, would all, the ‘provisionary constitution’ in force get progressively eroded during the mee- between 1944 and 1948 had already em- tings of the assembly. braced a plain parliamentary form of gov- With the benefit of hindsight, the true ernment – with the Constituent Assembly day of reckoning within the Constituent acting as a parliament, although deprived Assembly was 6 September 1946, when
176 Barbisan the Republican Tomaso Perassi noted that entire process22. As unexpected as it may a parliamentary system could not be dis- sound, the least rationalised parliamenta- joined from the necessary stability devices rism that prevailed in the end, mainly en- to ward off a parliamentary degeneracy and dorsed by the Communist Party, had been therefore proposed an agenda (ordine del totally minoritarian before the Constituent giorno) to address the constitutional disci- Assembly. Two institutions, in particular, pline of the parliamentary form of govern- attracted the highest regard: the President ment. At that point, then, the kernel of the of the Republic, accordingly with the clas- debate was not between a presidential or a sical prerogatives attributed to the Head of parliamentary system, but between a par- State in the constitutional monarchy, and liamentarism endowed with stability con- the Constitutional Court, to counterbalance trivances or devoid of them. the Parliament. It was the executive power Yet, Perassi’s proposal was never placed that stayed in the shadows. on the agenda. Three months later, in De- Abundance of mutual guarantees and cember 1946, the discussion on the Head of paucity of discipline, we could say, were the State and the executive will take place in an strongest suits of the new institutional ma- altogether mood: this is the time of the so- chinery. Certainly, in those years political cialist split20 and Alcide De Gasperi is about parties were utterly strong, but not only be- to fly for the first time after the war in the cause in that time Twentieth century socie- United States. By May 1947 when, with the ties like Italy naturally tended to see them- empowerment of the fourth government selves in big popular parties, as Maurice 23 led by Alcide De Gasperi, the left-wing par- Duverger theorised . They were strong ties are ousted from the antifascist coalition because they could legitimize the state, they operating since 194421, everybody is in fear were the state, for the state, in the person of that the political opponent could disregard the monarch with his government, had es- the democratic rules, upset the public or- caped and stopped to function, while politi- der and even re-enact the tyranny. Mutual cal parties in the CLN had assured the oper- suspicion was the watchword. Needless to ativeness of the essential services, starting say, all that political parties could aspire with the daily distribution of milk. They felt to achieve was a weak government, with no strong because they did represent the only 24 constitutional dispositions to safeguard its hope to redeem Italians’ dignity . efficiency and reinforce its stability, ca- pable of wearing out whatever majority in power. The mutual mistrust of political parties, 2. Parliamentarism as the container of on one hand, and the political conscience political parties’ power: the ineliminable they were in charge of bringing into being, bequest of the past on the other, caused the frail, unstable, inefficient institutional arrangement that One of the long-lasting and most negative was born with the 1948 Constitution. The effects of the fight among political parties debate on the form of government was per- in the infancy of the new democracy was haps the richest and most intriguing of the the initiation of a staunch party affiliation,
177 Ricerche
1948 electoral campaign
juxtaposing separate political identities Paired with a poorly rationalised parlia- and, accordingly, unnerving a sentiment mentarism, the new democracy decided on of national identity and democratic citi- a method of proportional representation to zenship25. In this phase, political parties’ elect its representatives. It was after all the action was twofold: on one hand, with- only possible choice to make such radically in the Constituent Assembly they could divergent, ideologically incompatible pop- translate the experiences and values of the ular parties coexist. Ultimately, the deal people especially into the first part of the the Constituent Assembly struck meant to new Constitution, laying the foundation of defer the true democratic revolution some a potentially accomplished democracy; on time in the future and to give up any mod- the other, though, they developed separate, ernization of the parliamentary system27. conflicting identities. If, through the Con- The worst use of power by political parties stitution, they created an unprecedented to achieve a large popular approval would democratic arena, at the same time, by ad- compensate for the lack of rationalisation vocating and voicing the interests of their in the form of government. respective communities, they became the Therefore, the 1948 Constitution surrogate for democratic institutions26. ended up engineering a model of parlia-
178 Barbisan mentarism very much in continuity with the old institutional system outliving the the previous experience of the Albertine Constitution. The second is the evolu- Statute, that Augusto Barbera has called a tion of the party system during and after pseudo-parliamentarism28. Between 1861 the constitutional convention. Too heavy, and 1922, the Crown had never lost its grip then, was the burden of the past institu- on the executive power, always retaining the tional tradition, especially among the old last word on the ministers’ appointment liberal establishment, to draw attention to and exerting a veto power against the Par- the deficiencies of parliamentarism and the liament in lack of true political leaderships. proportional system. But how heavy and in The absence of political leaderships was what sense? How is the 1948 Constitution due in the first place to a very slim popular consecutive of the Nineteenth early Twen- participation in the political representa- tieth century constitutional practice? In tion that never really increased – if, in 1861, this concern, two patterns seem relevant: right after the Unification of the country, the imprints of the Albertine Statute in the only 1.9% of the people was allowed to vote, 1948 form of government and the identifi- in 1909 the percentage had grown to 8.3 cation between the party and the state in the only29. Even after the electoral reform of fascist regime as the paragon for Republi- 188230, the opposition against the enlarg- can political parties. ment of the suffrage was still rather strong: On the first account: the king Carl Al- political rights had to be accorded to things bert had proclaimed the Albertine Statute and not to citizens – representation of the as the fundamental law of the monarchy land, since the Middle Age the source of «perpetual» and «irrevocable», qualifi- sovereignty, and not of men31. cations that made the Statute appear exces- Such a narrow suffrage had caused a sub- sively rigid, hindering a further dialogue stantial delay in the creation of mass politi- between the king and the nation. Thanks to cal parties, in lack of which it was very hard the President of the Council of Ministers, for the Presidents of the Council of Minis- Camillo Benso di Cavour, that in 1863 ex- ters to follow a coherent political guidance plained that only the pact underneath the and to count on stable parliamentary ma- Statute was perpetual and irrevocable, the jorities, possibly curbing the engagement fundamental law could live and evolve. In of the Crown. As a result, between 1861 and this vein, the Statute provided in Article 2 1922, a sequence of 60 executives, presid- that the institutional machinery, never in- ed over by 26 Presidents of the Council of tended to function as a parliamentary form Ministers, followed, with an average dura- of government, was «a Representative Mo- tion of 9 months, not too far from that of narchical Government», the king firmly the Republican era32, when the democracy clutching the control on the executive but, of political parties replaced in the end the at the same time, involving somehow the democracy of notables. parliament in the support of the govern- The Italian Republic as we know it has ment, although not as an exclusive source very little to do with that designed in the of legitimization. These were the condi- Constitution, and this is for two reasons33: tions for a double confidence. Yet, what we the first is the viscous force of the past, with would tend to dispose of as an unresolved
179 Ricerche ambivalence of the Statute was in reality its cess leading to Article 49 of the 1948 Con- most appreciated virtue: the flexibility of stitution disciplining political parties, their the form of government preventing drastic taking roots in the Republican institutions unilateral fractures and easing a gradual, and their degeneration – we need first to reassuring development – a balance be- take a step back and to reconstruct the doc- tween the monarchy and the representation trine of the political party since the Nine- without leaning towards one or the other teenth century. once and for all34. Adaptability, moderation, balance: this was the constitutional heritage the Statute had been very efficient to keep safe. No 3. Political Parties: From One to Many? wonder that, for example, when the Con- stituent Assembly discussed the establish- As we noted above, within the Constituent ment of a Constitutional Court, the old lib- Assembly the cooperation among political eral leader Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, the parties was difficult and littered with mis- former President of the Council of Minis- understandings from the very start: the ters to the Paris Peace Conference, objected elections of 2 June 1946 would show that that, by introducing such rigid, formal con- the country still leaned towards the polit- trol over public powers, Italy would lose its ical right, embittering the left parties and 35 national tradition . revitalizing the most conservative of Catho- The Albertine Statute, then, would be lics. The long-lasting effect of this ulcerat- able to offer guidelines only in the negative: ed landscape would instil a strong sense of firstly, the ruling class of the CLN consid- juxtaposed political affiliations in the Ital- ered it the anteroom of fascism or, in the ian popular culture and, consequently, en- best case scenario, the last defensive line feeble a true national identity, a real demo- of the monarchy. Secondly, and most im- cratic citizenship. portantly, it embodied the void of an ‘in- As the historian Pietro Scoppola main- stitutional strategy’36 useful for the design tained, the breakdown of the nation on 8 of a more stable and efficient form of gov- September 1943, when the armistice of ernment. As a result, the new form of gov- Cassibile with the Allies entered into force, ernment was surely equipped to soften the amounted to the disintegration of the na- challenges, but not to respond forcefully to tional sentiment, opening a void in the any; to absorb the transformations, but not public conscience of the people, and to the to promote any; to accommodate itself but exasperation of the always typical Italian not to innovate; to centralise instead of fa- attitude of fending for oneself38. As it was cilitating a democratic change in power37. noted, after the armistice and the king’s es- The second account is the legacy of the cape, men and women were devoid of any fascist regime, the heaviest impending on state protection, left alone with themselves the development of political parties in the and their lives39. Political parties filled that newly devised democracy. The mark im- void and guided the country through the pressed by the National Fascist Party (PNF) hardships towards the democratic transi- was indelible, but – to understand the pro- tion. Such pre-eminence of political parties
180 Barbisan should have required a firm control on their first time workers, classes, religions, and internal democracy, as Costantino Mortati already operating within the society, even had suggested40. But even this proposal, in lack of political representation43. just like Perassi’s agenda, encountered the Article 4944, on the contrary, welcomed strenuous opposition of the Communist the idea of the political party as an institu- Party and was rapidly discarded. tion: Santi Romano had already realised that What model of political party was then parties could not be considered anymore adopted in the 1948 Constitution? Which like mere associations and even Costanti- rules were introduced both for their pub- no Mortati had maintained the urgency of lic role and their internal functioning? such a shift towards more modern insti- As a matter of fact, Article 49 presented tutional conceptions45. Three motivations some special novelty with reference to the sustained the need for this passage: firstly, Nineteenth century liberal doctrine: old the idea of ‘people’ or ‘nation’ had become politicians and legal thinkers like Vittorio more and more controversial, tightly em- Emanuele Orlando – according to whom broidered with a plethora of potentially the majority supporting the government conflicting interests. Society was, then, the could not correspond to a majority of par- place of contrasts and peculiar claims, and ties, otherwise it would endanger the bal- not of unity. Secondly, before the multi- ance between the monarch and the Parlia- plication of such juxtaposed interests, only ment so hardly enforced after the Albertine political parties could aggregate claims. Statute – had endorsed a social notion of Thirdly, the party was intended as a faction the party, moving from what established counting for the whole – an entity capable in Article 641 of the 1789 French Universal of creating unity. As Maurizio Fiorevanti Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the noted, Citizen, that does actually not mention po- it was the role of political parties to overcome litical parties, but refers to people’s repre- the indistinctiveness of popular sovereignty, to sentatives through which citizens can par- canalise the torment into a constituent effort, to ticipate in the general will’s foundation. discipline, make legal, produce the new consti- The people is sovereign, then, through tution. In this sense, it can be said that political parties were the ‘authors’ of the Constitution46. its representatives, gathered in political factions, but not through parties, which can Let us look at two European constitu- facilitate the citizens in concurring to the tions entered into force in those same years law in the capacity of a social body and cer- – the 1946 French Constitution and the tainly not of an institutional one42. Tradi- 1949 German Basic Law: while the French tionally, political parties were the result of Fourth Republic ignored altogether politi- the spontaneous association of people and cal parties, Germany gave up the neutrality opinions, like the transfer in the public do- towards political parties embraced in the main of the individual autonomy character- Weimar Republic and, conversely, exalted ising the liberty of modern. The real turning the role of political parties in the newly es- point, though, occurred when new political tablished democracy; at the same time, the parties started to flank those originated in Basic Law disposed that every political party parliament – groups representing for the be required to abide by some fundamental
181 Ricerche constitutional values (die freiheitliche de- citizens – and understandably so, after two mokratische Grundordnung) and hence to be decades of aphasia for any political party – subject to public control47. commitment in the national politics analo- In this context, the Italian way consti- gously with the seminal role they had played tuted a middle ground: to begin with, the in the transitional phase48, but nothing is Constitution provided for political parties. said about the in-between: what if the party This fact is relevant because the founding method is less than democratic? The im- fathers broke with the tradition of neglect- pact of a lack of internal democracy would ing the phenomenon of political parties. be threefold: on the strategy and political However, Article 49 is not placed under program of the party; on the selection of Title V, devoted to the organisation of the candidates; on the appointment of manag- state, but under Title IV, reserved to po- ers and officers49. But, as strange as it may litical relations. The implications of this sound, the 1948 Constitution does not pro- choice are far from being obscure: political pose any antibody nor offer any remedy to parties were not treated as institutions, like these very serious potential abnormalities. gears of the governmental machine, but as The thing is that CLN’s stakeholders had a garrison for spontaneous association of been not single political representatives or citizens and, ultimately, for pluralism. In a leaders, but political parties, inebriated comparative perspective with Article 21 GG, with the finally regained status after the it is glaring that, whilst the Italian way fo- long fascist era. It is natural, therefore, that cuses on the right of citizens to create polit- the Constitutent Assembly treated political ical parties to facilitate their participation parties like institutions (for what they had in the national politics, the German Basic done during the democratic transition50) Law attributes directly to political parties and that any restraints on their role were the function of taking part in the formation openly avoided. Article 49, then, exalted of the will of the people. So, differently from the intermediation of political parties be- Article 21 GG devoted to political parties, tween popular preferences and national the kernel of Article 49 are the citizens with politics, but too many problems hidden just their freedom. Lastly, Article 49 alludes around the corner were left unattanded. to the democratic method within political In the 70 years since the Constitution’s parties, but without foreseeing any control entry into force, the distance between by public authorities to check the practice the idea of political parties dwelling in of internal democratic processes. the mind of the drafters and the role they According to this approach, then, the would in fact act within the institutional citizens are the promoters of a complex machinery has become unmanageable. In dynamic by which they elaborate their po- the Italian system, political parties are still litical agenda, creating or participating in institutions that think of themselves with a political party in charge of advocating the no restraints. They have radically trasn- interest thereof: the party contributes to the formed through the impactful, traumatic definition of national politics and, in this events of the last 25 years – from the majes- way, fulfils the ideals of the citizens repre- tic collective organizations of the first half sented. Article 49 cares for the freedom of century of the Republic to the present-day
182 Barbisan personal parties or movements that aim at Essential but cumbersome, functional but getting rid of representative democracy –, unsettling, powerful, too powerful, but in- but they are still tempted to subsume that suppressible, it was at the core of multiple old identification. It is as if political parties tensions and conflicts – with the Minis- have moulted but their relation with pow- try of Interior and the prefects, with the er have stayed. And, most importantly, the executive branch and its ministers, with Italian people seem to entertain the same the Grand Council of Fascism, with il Duce expectancies from political actors, in spite Mussolini55. In 1925, after the entry into of their radical mutation. force of the so called legge Acerbo56 and Gi- But political parties’ identification with acomo Matteotti’s murder57, fascism was the state is a bequest of the fascist era. The at some crossroads: either the PNF should idea, largely indebted to Benedetto Croce’s coherently carry on with the purity of its or- interpretation and for decades prevalent igins or should it turn into a national par- among Italian legal scholars51, that Mus- ty – the one party of the Italian people. In solini’s regime was incidental in the Italian other words, the PNF should make up its history is hugely misleading. It is undoubt- mind whether to be a party avanguard or a edly reassuring for contemporary genera- party collector. This latter appearance would tions to mark a distance between that au- gradually take hold, being the PNF the fun- thoritarian experience and our previous or damental connection between fascism and future institutions, but it corresponds more the masses, generating the intimate, in- to a wishful thinking than to the truth of the dissoluble unity between the party and the matter52. ‘Fascism has not been a paren- state accordingly with an unprecedented thesis in the Italian history since Unifica- model of immanence of the state in the so- tion, but only a bridge between “before” and ciety58. “after” – a long, painful transition’53. Since the mid-1920s, the PNF attend- Three aspects of the Fascist National ed the task of guaranteeing the indispen- Party (PNF)’s action and significance seem sable regime’s legitimization through the conspicuously relevant to understand the organization of the masses and of using its long-lasting influence exerted on the Ital- pedagogy to instruct a new, ideal fascist ian attitude towards political parties: on leading class59. In a speech pronounced a first account, PNF was the only public before the second quinquennial fascist as- channel that enabled the political participa- sembly in Rome on 18 March 1934, Mus- tion, individual or collective, of the Italian solini proclaimed the strategic function of people in the state; secondly, the overarch- the PNF, ‘the formidable instrument, and ing PNF touched the ordinary life of mil- at the same time widespread, that leads the lions of men and women by administering people into the general political life of the the welfare system of the time; lastly, the state’60. The leader of the PNF, Achille Sta- membership to the PNF injected the notion race, set in motion three major policies: he of a second citizenship in the Italian society. extended the physical, tangible presence of Despite the numerous amendments to the party to the tiniest alley, encompassing its charter54, the PNF always represent- within the PNF the largest number of social ed a very critical ambiguity of the regime. institutions already existing; he grew the
183 Ricerche influence of the party on the economic life over 5 million of milk, 33 million of people’s of the country; lastly, he promoted the de- meals (rancio del popolo), almost 10 million velopment of youth organizations to achieve of school refections, all amounting to more the whole fascist education – spiritual, po- than 130 million liras65. Kids involved in litical, and warlike. sleep-away camps reached half a million With such branched out structure, and instructions were imparted by the PNF broadened to cover every single aspect of for the national reforestation, wine trans- ordinary life, the PNF became the means portation, fresh fruit consumption, the na- for the modernisation of Italians, who got tional festivity for grapes, the toy day, the accustomed to its pervasive presence and protection of the Sardinian rough woollen learned through it what modernity entailed fabric (orbace sardo)66. The PNF took ad- – radio, cinema, trains for the people, hol- vantage of the legal vacuum in which asso- idays at sea or in the mountains with sleep- ciations had sprung and flourished during 61 away camps . The PNF’s mission was to the Nineteenth-century liberal state pro- make every Italian the perfect fascist, re- moting associations intervening in every gardless of their social condition, sex, age, moment of an average Italian’s life: not one in order to create a political community in- single profession, trade or craft, from birth tegrated in the state62. to death, was left unattended – figli della But the PNF was also a source of social lupa, balilla, avanguardisti67. The PNF was protection for the individuals that were always above them all like a state-party, an moving from the countryside to urban ar- equivocal merge of public institutions and eas; it gave assistance for the accommo- the PNF, symbolising, on one hand, the fa- dations, to find a job, to get ahead in one’s tal attraction of the state to the party and, on profession, and was active with the utmost 63 the other, the infiltration of the party in the responsiveness in welfare policies . If the 68 PNF was always excluded from the politi- state . cal address of the government, it was con- The PNF leader Achille Starace was es- versely located at the core of a system of pecially eager to translate into practice Mus- social aid that affected quite permeating- solini’s watchword to get close to the people. ly the common life of millions, young and Through this system of welfare, the greatest old, children and parents, men and women, majority of Italians became dependent on labourers and white collars, illiterate and the PNF, with a remarkable growth in terms 69 well cultivated – what today we would refer of enrolments in the party . Such a capil- to as the welfare state (to name a few, price lary intervention of the PNF in response to control, rental market, job placement, job the most fundamental population’s needs assignment in public offices, mass media in everyday life engendered the divide be- management)64. It was reported that, dur- tween fascist and non-fascist Italians, the ing the winter 1934, 1,750,000 families, membership to the PNF functioning as the equalling nearly 3 million people in total, basic pre-requisite for a full enjoyment of had been daily supported with the distri- citizenship rights70. bution of 17,000 tons of white flour, over 17 In Matteotti’s poignant, prophetical million rations of beans, 14 million of rice, words,
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Being fascist is, in sum, a second and more im- inhabiting state institutions – introduced portant Italian citizenship, in lack of which civil with fascism in the singular and adopted rights, the right to vote, the freedom of establish- by the Republic in the plural was about to ment and movement, the right of assembly, em- 74 ployment, the freedom of expression and even of die. The assertion stirred a hornet’s nest thought cannot be practiced and enjoyed71. and Norberto Bobbio for one warned Am- ato against perilous misunderstandings75 Many decades later, Pietro Scoppola has in the attempt of striking inappropriate enlightened this anomalous, endurable no- comparisons. The day after, Amato replied tion of citizenship rooted in the Italian civic to the many reactions to his speech and identity with rare clarity and discernment: explained that ‘it is a fact that the regime Citizenship in Italy is a legal notion, devoid of established on political parties acquiring the sociological, cultural and moral acceptation consensus through the use of public insti- typical of other countries […]. Fascism has real- tutions was born in Italy with fascism’76. ized the accession of masses to politics through Then, the party system during the Republic political parties in the guise of a political religion, but political religion is altogether different from degenerated when its legitimization came a democratic sense of citizenship. The post-war more from inhabiting the institutions than ideological juxtapositions, in the climate gener- from its rooting within the society. ated by the political fight against communism, Do Giuliano Amato’s words still speak have assumed the form of ‘political religions’ to us after 25 years? Should we keep seeing […]. But political religions are not easily com- patible with a good functioning of democracy72. the Italian form of government solely as the arena for winning political parties to exert Political religions and churches are now their power? And, more importantly, do buried in a remote past. And yet the attitude political parties still see the form of govern- towards political parties has not changed so ment in this self-referential perspective?77 remarkably: in spite of the different cir- Ideologies have wiped out, traditional par- cumstances of their genesis, the relation ties have vanished, new political subjects parties develop with citizens, on one side, and protagonists once raised as top-bill- and with power, on the other, has not sen- ing actors have fallen to meagre supporting sibly changed. The expectations of voters roles. Everything has changed along the are not changed – revolving today around a road of Italian politics. Still, voters’ en- political leader and not around an ideology dorsement evaporates with the utmost im- anymore – nor has the occupation of institu- mediacy, messianic leaders are worn out in tions changed. a heartbeat, affiliation is nomadic and ex- On 21 April 1993, the then President of tremely volatile. For a present-day political the Council of Ministers, Giuliano Amato, movement, putting down roots in the Ital- stepped down after the referenda aiming at ian electorate is but an easy task and every reforming the parliamentary electoral sys- campaign for the ballot box may shrink to a tem had collected a wide consensus among race for power, oblivious of the past like in the population. In his intervention before an ideal year zero, as if the Italian identity the House of Representatives73, he ac- is an instantaneous invention and not the knowledged a true regime change: the type outcome of a decades-long Constitution. of party-state – i.e. a party predominantly
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1 The Constituent Assembly in- and cultural milieu: communists, Nazionale, in Enciclopedia giuridi- cluded 556 representatives catholics, socialists, anarchists, ca, vol. VI, Roma, Istituto Enci- chosen in the election of 2 June republicans, workers, intellectu- clopedia italiana, 1988. 1946. 207 seats were attributed als, privates, officers, draft evad- 7 Ivi, p. 8. to the Christian Democratic Par- ers, students, artisans, peasants, 8 The appointment of Umberto di ty (DC), 115 to the Socialist Party mountaineers – and certainly not Savoia as the Lieutenant General of Popular Unity (PSIUP), 104 to by parties’ organisation. «Every of the Realm (of the Realm and the Communist Party (PCI), 41 pack is a fire that bursts out of not of the King to emphasise the to the National Democratic Unity many political hopes, moral ten- connection with the state and (formed by liberals, laburists and sions and emotions, included fear not with the dynastic heritage) independents), 30 to the Uomo of a sting against draft dodgers put the institutional quandary of Qualunque Front, 23 to the Re- and of raids to ship men to force the monarchy off and opened the publican Party, 16 to the National labour in Germany, young rebels door to an institutional truce. On Bloc of Freedom (Blocco nazionale refusing the righteousness, dis- 25 June 1944, Umberto signed the delle libertà), 7 to the Action Party cipline or hierarchy so inherent- D. Lgs. Lgt. n. 151/1944, estab- (Partito d’Azione) and the remain- ly enmeshed in the conformist lishing that, «after the liberation ing 13 to other minor lists. Left- turpitude fascism had exerted on of the entire territory of the na- wing parties together amounted people’s lives. Therefore, the no- tion, the institutional form will be to 219 seats corresponding to man’s land Italy was at the time chosen by the Italian people that, 39% of votes, the DC had 35%, under the German occupation through universal, direct, secret 8% was represented by revanchist was teemed with flashes of those suffrage, will elect a constituent movements (fascists and monar- fires that, over the months and assembly to draft the new con- chists), while the others were seasons, blazed, got now closer, stitution» (Article 1). At the time scattered in minuscule percent- then farther, extinguished and of the turning point of Salerno, ages. As for the internal organiza- bursted again. […] The pack is then, the Constituent Assembly tion of the Constituent Assembly, a fire of lives and choice, it’s the was supposed to decide in favour since it started to work without a small world where, in hatred either of the monarchy or the re- draft of constitution to discuss, it of fascists and Germans, draft public. It was two years later, with was created a special commission dodgers, degenerate soldiers, la- the D. Lgs. Lgt. n. 98/1946, that of 75 members (Commissione dei bourers, craftsmen and students the choice shifted to the elector- 75), proportionally selected, to found their homeland. A home- ate (see Cheli, Il problema storico prepare a constitutional project. land made of personal relations della Costituente, cit., pp. 487- On a proposal from its President, that thicken with time and under 488). Meuccio Ruini, three sub-com- danger and that political parties 9 S. Bonfiglio, I partiti e la demo- missions within it were institut- gradually try to interfere with crazia. Per una rilettura dell’art. 49 ed: the first to debate the rights their personnel and measures. della Costitutione, Bologna, il Mu- and duties of citizens, the second The birth of packs is spontaneous: lino, 2013, p. 51. on the constitutional organization parties and the CLN will show up 10 See R. Cherchi, La forma di governo of the state, and the third on the later, generating a crucial con- dall’Assemblea Costituente alle pro- economic and social principles nective tissue among the various spettive di revisione costituzionale, (see E. Cheli, Il problema storico partisan groups, but they existed in
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the reality, but may be one of the 20 After its fusion with the Prole- member constituencies system stimuli to bring into political life tarian Unity Movement in August was replaced by a proportional, the uses and methods to change 1943, the Socialist Party, known multi-member districts, list-vot- the social reality». To the argu- now as the Italian Socialist Par- ing system. Italy was divided in ments of those contending the ty of Proletarian Unity (PSIUP), 135 constituencies, each of whom uselessness of constitutional underwent the split of the social could elect between 2 and 5 rep- norms, for constitutions cannot democrats in 1947 that creat- resentatives. The number of citi- come in useful in changing the ed the Social Democratic Party zens enabled to vote passed from society as it is, he objected that (PSDI). 621,896 to 2,049, 461 (6.9% of the laws had a pedagogic value 21 See F. Grassi Orsini, I liberali, De the population). Yet, abstention and effectiveness. «To function, Gasperi e la «svolta» del maggio remained decidedly high, es- democracies need to have a sta- 1947, in «Ventunesimo secolo», pecially in the North (in Veneto ble government: this is the fun- n. 3, 2004, pp. 33-69 and G. For- 49.7%, in Piedmont 42.8, com- damental problem of democracy. migoni, De Gasperi e la crisi politica pared with Calabria (21.4), Molise If a democracy cannot express italiana del maggio 1947. Documen- (23.9) and Basilicata (27)). These a government that governs the ti e reiterpretazioni, in «Ricerche figures account for the usual country, it is fatally doomed. […] di storia politica», n. 3, 2003, pp. weakness of the Italian political Dictatorships do not descend 361-388. system and against the errone- from governments that govern 22 G. Amato, F. Bruno, La forma di ous idea – always very popular and last, but from the impossibil- governo italiana. Dalle idee dei among constitutional engineers ity for democracies to govern». partiti all’Assemblea costituente, in and politicians – that it is the 15 Giorgio Amendola, speech during «Quaderni costituzionali», n. 1, political system that models the the meeting of 5 September 1946 1981, pp. 33-85, 64. electoral system (see P. Pombeni, (italics added). 23 M. Duverger, Les parties politiques, La rappresentanza politica, in R. 16 See Article 4, D. Lgs. Lgt. n. Paris, Colin, 1951. Romanelli (ed.), Storia dello Stato 151/1944 as modified by Article 3, 24 G. Amato, Per i sessanta anni della italiano dall’Unità a oggi, Roma, D. Lgs. Lgt. n. 98/1946. Costituzione, in «Rivista trime- Donzelli, 1995, pp. 87 ff.). The law 17 With reference to the formation of strale di diritto pubblico», n. 1, 5 May 1891, then, will reintroduce the government, Tosato proposed 2008, p. 162. the two-round majoritarian sys- that the President of the Republic 25 Scoppola, La repubblica dei partiti, tem to avoid local manipulations conducted consultations to make cit., p. 168. of the lists. Only the law passed on a list of potential candidates for 26 Ivi, p. 174. 26 June 1913 will achieve the qua- the premiership to be voted by the 27 Ivi, p. 225. si-universal suffrage, extended to Chambers. The President of the 28 Barbera, Fra governo parlamentare male voters over 21 literate or over Republic would appoint the can- e governo assembleare: dallo Statuto 30 illiterate. This reform raised didate elected. albertino alla Costituzione repubbli- the electorate to 8,443,205 voters 18 Leon Blum had written his La cana, cit. (23.2% of the population). Réforme gouvernementale in 1918, 29 These figures appear even more 31 Bonfiglio, I partiti e la democrazia, even though narrowly circulated, miniscule if compared with the cit., p. 20. and reprinted it in 1936, at the gradually increased voting rights 32 Barbera, Fra governo parlamentare time of the Front Populaire. In it, in the United Kingdom by virtue e governo assembleare: dallo Statuto he had tackled the problem he de- of the three major electoral re- albertino alla Costituzione repubbli- finedle travail gouvernemental, that forms enforced during the Nine- cana, cit. is the set of institutional trans- teenth century: the Reform Act 33 G. Amato, Una Repubblica da rifor- formations necessary to a mod- 1832 raised the number of voters mare, Bologna, il Mulino, 1980, ern polity, according to which the from 400,000 to 650,000, going pp. 49 ff. Parliament remains the controller from 4% of the population to 7%. 34 M. Fioravanti, Costituzione e legge and inspiration of the Govern- The Second Reform Act 1867 in- fondamentale, in «Diritto pubbli- ment, but with a strong, unifying creased to 2 million (16%) and to co», n. 2, 2006, p. 477. address determined by the head 28.5% in 1868. Finally, the Rep- 35 V.E. Orlando, Studio intorno alla of the executive, that the people resentation of the People Act 1884 forma di governo vigente in Italia entrust with their sovereignty. brought the electorate to 5,5 mil- secondo la Costituzione del 1948, 19 G. Amato, Egidio Tosato e le ragioni lion, corresponding to 60% of the in «Rivista trimestrale di diritto dell’esecutivo, in M. Galizia (ed.), male population. pubblico», n. 1, 1951, pp. 5 ff. Egidio Tosato costituzionalista e 30 The electoral reform enforced 36 Cheli, Il problema storico della Co- costituente, Milano, Giuffrè, 2010, with the law 7 May 1882, the ma- stituente, cit., p. 491. p. 78. joritarian two-round, single 37 G. Pasquino, Art. 49, in G. Branca,
187 Ricerche
A. Pizzorusso (eds.), Commentario 42 Between the first half of the «1. Political parties shall partic- della Costituzione, vol. 21, I, Bolo- Nineteenth century and the first ipate in the formation of the po- gna, Zanichelli, 1992. of the Twentieth, the attention litical will of the people. They may 38 Scoppola, La Repubblica dei partiti, to political parties went through be freely established. Their inter- cit., p. 173. four stages according to Hein- nal organisation must conform to 39 Filippetta, L’estate che imparammo rich Triepel, Die Staatsverfassung democratic principles. They must a sparare. Storia partigiana della und die politischen Parteien, Ber- publicly account for their assets Costituzione, cit., pp. 25-31. lin, Otto Liebmann, 1927: from and for the sources and the use of 40 This was the inspiration behind an overt hostility on the part of their funds. his proposal pursuing controls the State (Bekämpfung) to a man- 2. Parties that, by reason of their over the democratic structure ifestation of indifference (Igno- aims or the behaviour of their and methods of political parties, rierung), to a legal recognition of adherents, seek to undermine for example on the procedures to political parties (Anerkennung and or abolish the free democratic select the candidates (see Relazio- Legalisierung) to their inclusion in basic order or to endanger the ne sulla disciplina legislativa della the State organisation (Inkorpora- existence of the Federal Republic formazione delle liste dei candidati tion). of Germany shall be unconstitu- alle elezioni politiche, Ministero 43 The classical literature in this tional. The Federal Constitutional per la Costituente, Atti della Com- field is, among many others, M. Court shall rule on the question of missione per il progetto di legge elet- Weber, Politik als Beruf, Leipzig, unconstitutionality. torale, Roma, u.E.S.I.S.A., 1945, Reclam, 1992; R. Michels, La so- 3. Parties that, by reason of their pp. 140-47), convinced, on one ciologia del partito politico, Bolo- aims or the behaviour of their hand, that political parties con- gna, il Mulino, 1966. adherents, seek to undermine or stituted the democratic ground 44 «Any citizen has the right to free- abolish the free democratic basic of the state, and consequently, ly establish parties to contrib- order or to endanger the exist- on the other, that political parties ute to determining the national ence of the Federal Republic of couldn’t but be submitted to ex- politics through a democratic Germany shall be excluded from ternal control of their democrat- method». state financing. If such exclusion ic nature: «a state grounded on 45 Costantino Mortati’s produc- is determined, any favourable fis- democratic grounds cannot tol- tion shows his constant, always cal treatment of these parties and erate that political parties refuse keen interest in political parties, of payments made to those parties systems and methods of liberty witnessed by his specific con- shall cease. in their internal structure», as tributions like Sulla posizione del 4. The Federal Constitutional he said at the Constituent assem- partito nello stato, in «Stato e di- Court shall rule on the question bly on 18 September 1947 (see C. ritto», 1941, pp. 279 ff.; Concetto of unconstitutionality within the Mortati, Interventi alla Costituente, e formazione dei partiti politici, meaning of paragraph (2) of this in Id., Raccolta di scritti, Milano, in «Quaderni di ricerca», n. 1, Article and on exclusion from Giuffrè, 1972, vol. I, p. 925 ff). 1949; Disciplina dei partiti poli- state financing within the mean- On this note, see also O. Massari, tici nella Costituzione italiana, in ing of paragraph (3). Mortati e il problema del partito po- «Cronahce sociali», 1950, pp. 5. Details shall be regulated by litico, in Costantino Mortati. Potere 25 ff.; Sindacati e partiti politici, in federal laws». costituente e limiti alla revisione co- Atti della XXI settimana sociale dei 48 P. Ridola, Partiti politici, in Enci- stituzionale, Quaderni di NOMOS cattolici italiani, Roma, Icas, 1952; clopedia del diritto, vol. XXXI, Mi- - Le attualità del diritto, Padova, Note introduttive ad uno studio sui lano, Giuffrè, 1981, pp. 72 ff. CEDAM, 2017, pp. 177-192. partiti politici nell’ordinamento ita- 49 Pasquino, Articolo 49, cit., p. 25. 41 «Law is the expression of the liano, in Scritti in memoria di Vit- 50 However, as much as it always os- general will. Every citizen has the torio Emanuele Orlando, Padova, cillated between organisation and right to participate personally, or CEDAM, 1957. He envisioned po- spontaneity, «the Resistance was through his representative, in its litical parties as the joint among a fine dust of individual choices, foundation. It must be the same civil society, political society and lives that rose up and mastered for all, whether it protects or pun- institutions. their own fate, joining the fires ishes. All citizens, being equal 46 M. Fioravanti, Costitutione e popolo and gathering with others to give in the eyes of the law, are equally sovrano. La Costituzione italiana order and freedom to their living eligible to all dignities and to all nella storia del costituzionalismo together» (Filippetta, L’estate che public positions and occupations, moderno, Bologna, il Mulino, imparammo a sparare. Storia par- according to their abilities, and 2006, p. 77. tigiana della Costituzione, cit., p. without distinction except that of 47 Article 21 GG (Grundgesetz) pro- 185). their virtues and talents». vides: 51 L. Paladin, Fascismo (diritto co-
188 Barbisan
stituzionale), in Enciclopedia del Lazzari, Giuseppe Micheli, Paolo partito del fascismo. Genesi, evolu- diritto, vol. XVI, Milano, Giuffrè, Orano, Vittorio Emanuele Or- zione e crisi 1919-1943, cit., 439. 1967, pp. 887-888 was critical lando, Raffaele Paolucci, Antonio 61 L. Cafagna, La grande slavina. L’I- against the tendency to see fas- Salandra, Michele Terzaghi, Fi- talia verso la crisi della democrazia, cism as the outcome of a fracture lippo Turati) to discuss it. Several Venezia, Marsilio, 1993, p. 62. with previous institutions, even amendments were advanced, but 62 In this sense, see E. Gentile, La via because, among other things, it in the end the bill was approved italiana al totalitarismo. Il partito e would be far from simple to single with a majority of 10 against 8. In lo Stato nel regime fascista, Roma, out the event or historical mo- the plenary assembly, the oppo- Carocci, 2018, pp. 186-190. ment when this fracture is sup- sition parties still tried to reform 63 Cafagna, La grande slavina. L’Italia posed to occur, given the gradual it, but with no success, and the law verso la crisi della democrazia, cit. and certainly not sudden fascist was finally passed with 223 votes and Id., Una revisione necessaria, grip of power. against 123. in J. Jacobelli (ed.), Il fascismo e gli 52 S. Cassese, Lo Stato fascista, Bolo- 57 Giacomo Matteotti (1885-1924) storici di oggi, Roma-Bari, Laterza, gna, il Mulino, 2010, p. 267. was a socialist politician, leader of 1988, pp. 20-25. 53 Ivi, p. 231 (italics added). the Unitary Socialist Party after its 64 P. Pombeni, Demagogia e tiranni- 54 After the first charter of 1921, new division from the Socialist Party. de. Uno studio sulla forma-partito versions of it will be promoted in Elected three times at the House del fascismo, Bologna, il Mulino, 1926, 1929, 1932, 1938. of Representatives (1919, 1921, 1984, p. 261. 55 See, in this regard, R. De Felice 1924), he conducted an overt, 65 Di Nucci, Lo Stato-partito del fasci- (ed.), T. Cianetti, Memorie dal very vocal opposition against Be- smo. Genesi, evoluzione e crisi 1919- carcere di Verona, Milano, Rizzo- nito Mussolini and his power. On 1943, cit., pp. 45-54. li, 1983, p. 201 and 201-12 and 10 June 1924, he was bundled into 66 Ivi, p. 454. G. Bruno Guerra (ed.), G. Bottai, a car and stubbed to death. His 67 Cassese, Lo Stato fascista, cit., p. Diario 1935-1944, Milano, Rizzoli, corpse was finally found after an 1130. 1989, p. 128. More generally, see extensive search north of Rome 68 With the fourth PNF charter L. Di Nucci, Lo Stato-partito del on 16 August 1924. Five men passed in 1932, article 1 provided fascismo. Genesi, evoluzione e crisi were arrested few days after the that PNF was a «civilian militia», 1919-1943, Bologna, il Mulino, kidnapping (Amerigo Dumini, «under the orders of Duce», «at 2009, pp. 423 ff. Giuseppe Viola, Albino Volpi, the service of the state». As noted 56 The so called legge Acerbo is actu- Augusto Malacria and Amleto by Gaspare Ambrosini, Il partito ally the L. 18 November 1923, no. Poveromo), but only three were fascista e lo Stato, Roma, Istitu- 2444, engineered by the then un- convicted. King Victor Emmanuel to nazionale fascista di cultura, dersecretary to the Presidency of III allowed their release under 1934, the PNF had finally become the Council of Ministers Giacomo amnesty shortly after. «an institution of the state» Acerbo in pursuance of Musso- 58 G. Melis, La macchina imperfetta. (reported in Melis, La macchina lini’s wish to have an electoral law Immagine e realtà dello Stato fa- imperfetta. Immagine e realtà dello for the House of Representatives scista, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018, Stato fascista, cit., p. 3995). capable of exalting PNF’s rep- p. 376. In the years 1926-30, 69 Between October 1932 and Oc- resentation. The legge Acerbo ab- when the PNF was managed by tober 1933, the members of PNF rogated the proportional system Augusto Turati, a myriad of ap- passed from around a million to in force since 1919 with a majority parently negligible measures nearly a million and a half (R. De premium of 2/3 of the parliamen- were introduced to integrate the Felice, Mussolini Il Duce. Gli anni tary seats assigned to the party PNF into the state. The R.D. 12 del consenso (1929-1936), vol. I, reaching the quorum of 25 per- December 1926, no. 2061, then Torino, Einaudi, 1974, p. 224. See cent of votes. When the Council converted into L. 9 June 1927, no. also Di Nucci, Lo Stato-partito del of Ministers approved the bill and 928, would elevate the fasces to fascismo. Genesi, evoluzione e crisi sent it to the House of Represen- the Italian coat of arms; the R.D. 1919-1943, cit., p. 440. tatives, its President Enrico De 27 March 1927, no. 1048, would 70 Di Nucci, Lo Stato-partito del fasci- Nicola summoned a commission command its adoption to every smo. Genesi, evoluzione e crisi 1919- composed of eighteen members administration; the R.D. 11 April 1943, cit., p. 424. (Ivanoe Bonomi, Antonio Caser- 1929, no. 504, inserted it in the 71 G. Matteotti, Un anno di domi- tano, Giuseppe Chiesa, Alcide De state seal. nazione fascista, Milano, Rizzoli, Gasperi, Alfredo Falcioni, Luigi 59 G. Melis, Fascismo (ordinamento 2019 (orig. 1923), p. 96 (italics Fera, Giovanni Giolitti, Giuseppe costituzionale), in Digesto, vol. VI, added). Grassi, Antonio Graziadei, Pie- Torino, UTET, 1990, p. 266. 72 Scoppola, La Repubblica dei partiti, tro Lanza di Scalea, Costantino 60 Reported in Di Nucci, Lo Stato- cit., p. 529.
189 Ricerche
73 The parliamentary debate can be retrieved in its entirety from
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