`From Two into One'

Abstract

This article discusses the nature of Italy's major post-war government party, Christian Democracy (recently collapsed, after almost half a century in power), and its local power structures. Its main thesis is that, for a series of historical and socio-economic reasons, it was constituted initially of two types of party - a notables' party in southern Italy and a mass party in northern Italy - held together by generic anti-communism and state patronage. Moreover, as a result of a succession of crucial developments (party reorganization in the 1950s, Vatican II in the 1960s), it became a sort of catch-all party ante litteram, or more accurately a national `syndicate of political machines'. The second part of the article documents the various mechanisms employed to ensure political consensus in two contrasting regions (Naples and Vicenza) in the two major periods (1950s-1960s and 1970s-1980s). It concludes with an indictment of the party in the current Italian political crisis.