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Politics In Italy Through The Cold War

Jumpei Yamamoto
Italian Contemporary History
Professor: Luca Pes
22/11/2008
Politics in Italy
through the Cold War And its Legacy
It can be characterized that politics in Italy after the WWII, as a national principle, under the eternal regime of anti-fascist democracy and the conservative was so to say polarized democracy. Between 1945 and 1947 the country was ruled by governments of national unity, with the participation of all the antifascist parties, including the Socialist and the Communist Parties. In an atmosphere of compromise and collaboration between the various political forces, a Republic was established in 1946. But the general elections of 18 April 1948 were pointed out by the confrontation of two ideological blocks. It can be said that Italy in those times became a reduction of the Cold War. Communism, dictatorship and democracy dominated the political debate, splitting Italy into two opposing cultural and political standing. From this background the impact of the Cold War upon Italy could be seen. Now we take a deeper look at the details of political order.
In 1947 the Cold War began to influence Italian politics. De Gasperi who is politician and prime minister of Italy (1945–53) contributed to the material and moral rehabilitation of Italy and succeeded in reorganizing the Italian Popular Party(PPI) as the Christian Democratic Party after WWII. He visited the United States in January 1947 and has gained the aid with $150 million. He had excluded the Communists and the Socialists, from his government both to conciliate the Vatican and the conservative south and to ensure the continuance of U.S. aid. As parliamentary elections approached, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall who prepared The European Recovery Program known as Marshall Plan menaced that aid would be cancelled if the Communists and Socialists came to power again. In the campaign for the first parliamentary elections of the new republic in April 1948, the United...