User:MissOOQQ/sandbox

=Socialism in Italy=

Titles of Sections
- History- Political parties

- The relationship between Christianity and Socialism

- Influences on Italy

Description
Socialism in Italy is a political trend that was born and developed in the period of industrial revolution, and it has more than 120 years history.At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were a great amount of economic and social changes, which may lead to the awake of personal consciousness .In that case, a group of pioneers began to explore the socialism world.Although Italy is commonly regarded as a Catholic country, Socialist Party has taken a significant role in its political history. Italian Socialist Party( PSI), is one of the first modern democratic organizations in Italy. As a main political party in twentieth century, the PSI not only influenced Italy’s development significantly, but also contributed democratic process on a national scale.

History
Due to economic and social changes in the beginning of twentieth centuries, socialism had chance to root in Italy during this period. A series of measures were taken to eliminate the negative effects of the industrial revolution in Italy. Therefore, compared to other European countries, Italy had fairer conditions for the spread of socialism, people here had more willingness to know and accept the spirit core of socialism.

Biennio Rosso
Biennio Rosso was a two-year period following the First World War, between 1919 and 1920, and there were a great number of intense social conflicts in Italy in this period .During this period, several numbers of fierce conflicts between reformists and communist wings of the Italian Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI) happened .By the late 1920, there were a great numbers of divisions in Italian socialism between revolutionaries and reformists. The PSI also divided into three main groups---reformist, communist and maximalist.

Peasant strike
Another important event in Italy socialism history is the peasant strike in the south Italy .To fight for their rights, peasants formed an union to defend the government’s army.This union attacked every sign and symbol of the government.Peasants wanted to voice their grievances, so they turned help to “State”socialists and labor leaders to gain fair treatment. At the end, the government gave up the original plan and had reconciliation with peasants. This peasant strike was considered as a noticeable improvement because it made people realize the possibilities of direct action.

Development
After previous political movements, socialists paid more and more attention to different types of manifestation.By having continuous education and working, socialists tried to bring out social revolution whether through direct action or indirect action. They took great efforts to establish nation-wide political organizations, with the assistance of local people.However, although after a long period development, socialism in Italy still had to solve several long- standing difficulties that existed in poor social conditions since World War II.

Political parties
In the long-term development，Italian Socialism had divided into two major parties, the Partito Socialista Italiano (PSI), led by Pietro Nenni, and Democratico Italiano, led by Giuseppe Saragat. Both of them faced a series of problems for democratic Socialism, especially the absence of a powerful and independent socialist movement since World War II.

Italian Socialist Party( PSI)
Italian Socialist Party( PSI) primarily named Italian Workers’ Party which was founded in 1892 in Genoa and then was introduced to the socialist world as the brand of Italian Socialist Party in 1893.In 1994, the PSI was transformed into the Italian Socialists (Socialisti Italiani, SI),and in 1988, it became the Italian Democratic Socialists (Socialisti Democratici Italiani, SDI). As a modern democratic organization, PSI used different ways such as trade unions, socialist circles and cooperative organizations to broaden its national influence.

During the 1900~1920 period, the party’s left wing (maximalists) fought for the leadership with its reformists (led by Filippo Turati) .However,In 1934, the PSI established an alliance with the communists and it gradually had corporations with conservative reformists. revolutionaries, and syndicalists.

In 1983, Bettino Craxi took an significant role in Italian socialism history.His first government (1983–86) was active in the political arena for a long time, and he cooperated with the PSI to stabilize the political situation.Before the early 1990s,the PSI had a long term partnership with centrist coalition governments .However, due to several political corruption and financial scandals, in the 1994 elections, the PSI lost the control position in government and turned to a minor party.

Christianity and Socialism
Since World War II, two parties dominated the political stage until the end of twentieth century, the Christian Democratic Party (Partito della Democrazia Cristiana; DC) and the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano; PCI) .During the period of industrial revolution, there were various commons between Catholics and socialists, they even had a share goal that related to workers right. [6]Christianity and Socialism both have huge influences in Italy, so the relationship between them deeply connected to the development of the society. Traditionally, in Italy, the Christian Democrats held a dominant role, which produced significant barriers for their connection. Moreover, because of slow economic development, the time of Italian Catholic and socialist ‘s connection was later than other European countries. Father Carlo Maria Curcie, who was the first man tried to tackle the challenges caused by socialism as a Catholic,did great contribution to the peaceful communication of Christian and socialism.

In mid-1950s, the PSI had a desire to collaborate with the Christian Democrats and the communists. A growing number of socialists understood the necessity of communications with Catholics, and tried to find an appropriate track to have an league with them. They reached a consensus on the opinion that establish an alliance between two authoritarian organizations is an effective solution to improve the dilapidated social conditions .Then in 1963, the PSI joined a Christian Democratic government.

Influences on Italy
Bakunin, who is the first man in Italy to explore socialism. Bakuin is regarded as one of the greatest prophets of the world-movement of to-day.His work deeply influences Italy and the rest of the world, especially his teaching correctly help Italian understand Anarchism, which was learned from Germany and Marx.His activities also motivated other people to fight for rights, especially working classes.They had a strong desire to form a open, free, and democratic socialist organization, which contributed to the development of democratic processes in Italy.Moreover, his activities carried out a much more effective challenge to the capitalist system than ever before.

Following previous pioneers’ action, a great number of socialists break social barriers to reform societies into a better future. They used trades onion, co-operative societies, parties to progressed the Labor movement .The socialist parties produced radical political and economic reform, and achieved their goals of a radical transformation of society .These effective democratic movements not only developed socialism in Italy, but also stimulated the political efficiency of Italisn democratic process.

Modern Italian socialists party
The modern Italian socialists party was founded in 2007–2008. It is consisted of six minor social-democratic parties and groups: the Italian Democratic Socialists, the Socialist Party, The Italian Socialists, Democracy and Socialism .At the 2008 general election, the leader of the modern PSI participated in the election of the Prime Minister.[4] However, the party received less than 1% of the vote, and got no entry to positions in the Italian Parliament.