To understand the intricacies of Italian politics, one must understand the politico-ideological groupings or families that structure party-politics in the country. There are currently five political families in Italy: the "Risorgimento", the Catholic, the Marxist, the Fascist and the Green. It has been said that almost all of the political parties to emerge in Italy can be linked with one of these families. None of the parties in this political system have ever been able to work alone, they have had to rely on a coalition to make policy and govern. For all of the post-World War II era and up until 1994, Christian Democracy dominated politics in Italy as the main party in the government, and they were joined by the Italian Communist Party which served as the opposition. As party politics in Italy grew, so too did the evolution of the catch-all party, even though it would assume different names throughout and up to present day. This essay will discuss Christian Democracy and from this it will be shown that even though the name of this party has changed since it disbanded, its replacements still fall under the same politico-ideological grouping or family.
[...] While attempting to be a catch-all centre party like the Christian Democracy, Forza Italia did have one difference, and that was they had a new image, an image of progress and forward-looking, one that sought to distance itself from the problems of the Christian Democracy, but its basic ideology remained in line with that of the Christian Democracy. It was a liberal vision that developed a bridge between Catholics and non-Catholics. As can be seen in this essay, the Christian Democracy are an ideology from one of the politico-ideological groupings or families in Italian politics, and even though the name has changed, its ideologies can still be seen today in The People of Freedom Party. [...]
[...] As such, in the wake of a poor showing in the 1992 general election and two additional years of scandals, the party disbanded in 1994. At this time, the secretary of the Christian Democracy opted to change the name of the party to the Italian People's Party. Another individual, Pierferdinando Casini who was affiliated with the centre-right sect of the party created a new party known as the Christian Democratic Centre and they formed an alliance with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia. [...]
[...] Its attempt to be a catch-all party did not work in practice. The lions-share of the Christian Democracy aligned with the Italian People's Party, but at the same time, many centre-right elements aligned with the Christian Democratic Centre, while others teamed with Forza Italia. With a split from the PPI, the United Christian Democracy aligned with Forza Italia and the CCD in the Pole of Freedom coalition in the centre-right of the spectrum. At this time, the PPI became the founder of the centre-left coalition, the Olive Tree coalition. [...]
[...] As such, the Christian Democracy developed as the biggest party in Italy with heavy support from the Vatican and the Americans who both had anti-communist interests. One of its early notable achievements was making Italy a founding member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949) and the European Union (1957). It possessed an ideology that was mixed and sometimes contradicted itself, but it was certainly opposed to Marxism. It also developed as an extremely conservative party with regard to issues of family and education. [...]
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