Political Enemies in Republican Italy

Political factionalism and ideological polarization have run high in Italian history. They must be taken into account in any attempt to explain the frailty of Italian public institutions – their instability, inefficiency, feeble legitimacy, inability to win citizens’ respect, and subservience to sectional interests. Moreover, Italian politics since the Risorgimento can be interpreted as a 150 year-long attempt to prevent factionalism and polarization from spinning out of control and becoming dis