The crisis of parliamentary systems in Europe: Italy in the interwar period, 1918–38

• Rosamaria R. Alibrandi ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Messina

     University of Messina

     Mesina, Italia

     
• Localización: Parliaments, estates & representation = Parlements, états & représentation, ISSN-e 1947-248X, ISSN 0260-6755, Vol. 41, Nº. 2, 2021 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Glory and misery of the parliamentary concept, 1918-38, II), págs. 226-243
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A deep crisis of parliamentary systems occurred in the storm of political, economic and social instability that resulted from the First World War and culminated in the Second World War. In Italy the war had also produced other potentially destabilizing developments: a more industrialized northern economy, mounting peasant demands for land, and growing criticism of the liberal political system. Italy may have emerged victorious in 1918, but the crisis of democracy and the collapse of the liberal state paved the way for parliamentary deadlock and Benito Mussolini’s seizure of power on 28 October 1922. Could the post-war crisis have been avoided? This article focuses on Europe’s turbulent history between the successive waves of destruction of the First and Second World Wars, paying particular attention to the inter-war European social crisis as a basis for a wider analysis of policy in Italy during the early-twentieth century.