Becoming the 'party of civil rights': the Radical Party, 1962-1979

The article reconstructs how the Italian Radical Party became, from the mid-1960s, the party of 'civil rights', and what its main battles for these rights were between 1967 and 1979. In the Italian political system the Party played a crucial role in the process of re-institutionalization t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of modern Italian studies 2019-08, Vol.24 (4), p.600-617
Main Author: Bonfreschi, Lucia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
abortion
aborto
Christian democracy
Christian democratic parties
Christians
Civil rights
conscientious objection
Democracy
diritti civili
divorce
divorzio
fame nel mondo
Institutionalization
Meaning
obiezione di coscienza
Partito radicale
Political action
Radical Party
Radicalism
world hunger
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Summary:The article reconstructs how the Italian Radical Party became, from the mid-1960s, the party of 'civil rights', and what its main battles for these rights were between 1967 and 1979. In the Italian political system the Party played a crucial role in the process of re-institutionalization that took place in the 1970s, helping to transfer demands formulated in social and cultural terms since the 1960s to the legislative-institutional level. Making the battle for civil rights the object of their own political action had a systemic meaning for the Radicals - namely, to undermine the dominion of the Christian Democrats and redefine the relations between the political sphere and society. This was closely linked to the political strategy of the party and to the organizational form it gave itself from 1967 onwards. These aspects, however, did not remain unchanged between 1967 and 1979; rather, they fed on the Radicals' evolving vision of Italian society (on its social turmoil) on the one hand, and on the other they reacted to the evolution of the Italian political scenario, in particular to the possibility of building a parliamentary alternative to the Christian Democracy.
ISSN:1354-571X
1469-9583
DOI:10.1080/1354571X.2019.1646044