This article deals primarily with the nature of Italian citizenship from the time of unification to the present. It is concerned with the civil, political, and social rights and obligations of Italian nationals and addresses how these rights and obligations have been changed or manipulated throughout the last two centuries.
Italian national identity before 1861 In the Middle Ages, the Italian Peninsula was split into five large and small sovereign states that were subsequently subdivided into several smaller, semi-autonomous, mini-states.Roger Absalom, Italy Since 1800 A Nation in the Balance? (Harlow: Longman, 1995), 4. In the early 19th century, Napoleonic conquests resulted in French control over most of Italy.Absalom., 14.
This 14-year period of Napoleonic rule is substantial to Italian self-recognition, because the administration of the French influenced Italians into entertaining the idea of a constituted Italian nation state.Absalom., 17. The repressive nature of this era also acted to engender a new generation of Italian national revolutionaries.Absalom., 21. One of which was Giuseppe Mazzini, known as a founder of the Risorgimento. Mazzini saw Italian nationality as inclusive: “For Mazzini, all Italians, irrespective of class and property, were impoverished and oppressed, and all were therefore included in his notion of 'the people'”Absalom., 23.
The key figure in the independence and initial unification of Italy was Count Camillo Benso di Cavour.Absalom., 24. Cavour wanted to create a modern secular state but without the characteristic social upheaval of revolution. Cavour and his supporters decided this could be done by limiting popular participation and unifying Italy with the consent of the Major Powers. Cavour also wished to limit enfranchisement, within the new Italy, to "men of substance."Absalom., 30. Cavour thought it most practical to control the definition of Italian Nationality, as well as the politics of the Italian Nation, from the top down.
First constitution The first Italian constitution was created through the adaptation of the Piedmontese Statuto Albertino of 1848.John A Hawgood. Modern constitutions since 1787 (Littleton, Colorado: Fred B. Rothman and co, 1987),171. Most of the Statuto were either copied from the French constitutional charter of 1840 or the Spanish constitution of 1812. The Piedmontese Statuto was originally drafted in French.Hawgood.,171. To this day the statute remains officially un-repealed in Italy, though it is not used in present-day practice.Hawgood.,172.
After Italian unification
Storica's The Destra Storica (Historical Right) completed the territorial unification of Italy, centralized its administration, and established an effective system of tax collection. It was repressive of popular movements, but respected the liberties of individuals, to think, speak, and write.Absalom., 55.
The Sinistra Storica (Historical Left) replaced the Destra Storica parliament. This period was characterized by low levels of enfranchisement among nationals. Less than 2% of the population was entitled to vote, until 1882 when the figure rose to 7%. There were only half a million male voters, and these were mostly dominated by a few thousand influential figures.Absalom., 57.
Giovanni Giolitti and voter expansion Following the fall of the Sinistra Storica parliament, Italian national politics were firmly controlled by Giovanni Giolitti; his position in government remained predominant from 1903 to 1914.Emilio Gentile, The Struggle For Modernity Nationalism Futurism and Fascism (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003), 11. Giolitti's regime most notably created a major electoral reform law, which increased voters from 3 million to 8.5 million.Absalom., 70. Previous to Giollitti, in 1882, the number of enfranchised was limited because there was an educational test for voters.Hawgood.,177. Soldiers, sailors, and police officers also were, oddly enough, excluded from enfranchisement. Under Giolitti, however, the Vatican decided to hesitantly support the Italian state; finally making it possible for “good Catholics” to vote in elections, following 1903. This combined with increasing literacy led to 30% of the male adult population becoming eligible to vote in national elections. Universal manhood suffrage followed later, in 1912. In 1919 illiterate voters, who comprised about 50% of the population, were able to take part in elections by depositing unmarked ballot papers bearing their party emblem into the ballot box.Hawgood,178.
Italian fascist conceptualization of nationality
La Voce
The nationalism of la Voce came to fruition under the authoritative Giolitti government. The movement is considered to be influential on, although not directly related to, the development of fascism. The greatest contrast between the thoughts of La Voce and the ideology of fascism occurs in the la voce belief that the myth of regeneration of politics was not associated with the myth of the supremacy of the state, nation, and race. In contrast, the Vociani wanted national regeneration through civic humanism and the faith of a secular religion that could “educate the moral conscience for the modern ‘New Italian’ harmonizing the need for a strong sense of national identity with the aspiration of attaining a higher universal conscience, above and beyond that of nationalism.”Gentile., 22.
Fascist conception of nationality Futurism and the La Voce movement eventually would come together to lay a foundation for the creation of Italian Fascism; in which the status of the national would be redefined yet again.Gentile.,41. The Fascist’s ideal citizen was a “new man” devoid of any individual autonomy and responsibility who was taught to see himself merely as an instrument of the state. This “new man” also had to be prepared to sacrifice his life for his nation.Gentile., 87. The Italian National Fascist Party, or PNF, achieved this through sanctifying politics, “integrating the masses into the nation through the use of faith based rituals and symbols centered on a new fascist religion.”Gentile., 62.
The Italian Fascists also claimed a monopoly over the representation of “Italianness”; an Italian national was defined by his participation in the PNF.Gentile., 146. As a result, the liberal nationalist ideal which incorporated all Italians into the state; despite religion, ethnicity or ideology, was swept away by the totalitarian state ideal. Only Fascists were considered "True Italians" and only these individuals were granted a "Complete Citizenship." Those who did not swear allegiance to the Fascist party were banned from public life.Gentile., 81. The PNF also initiated a large propaganda program engendering Italian identity to Italian emigrants and nationals abroad; in the hopes of promoting the fascist cause among former nationals through the promotion of a fascist version of Italian nationalism.
Fascist syndicate system The Fascist party, between 1926 and 1928, created a corporative system of representation and negotiation where equality between citizens was rejected (made official in the Charter of Labor of 1927) and citizens were arranged based on economic categorization within syndicates.Hawgood.,420. The rights of individuals were, therefore, superseded by the rights of the syndicate. Each employer and employee were merged to form a labor syndicate that was placed into one of six larger national categories; for national representation. Intellectual workers were placed in a special category.Hawgood.,421. It was within the syndicates that requests for improved working conditions and higher wages were petitioned and decided upon with the state acting only as the final judge. In order to join a work syndicate one had to pay dues to the syndicate and become a member of the Fascist Party. The national electorate was adapted to this new system so all voters were now, under fascism, male Italian citizens over the age of twenty one who belonged to a syndicate and were members of the fascist party.Hawgood.,422. A citizen's power to vote, therefore, was granted based on the fulfillment of a social function. Belonging to a syndicate provided evidence of an individual's contribution to the state while simultaneously, through obligation in membership, made sure that all voting citizens were members of the Fascist Party.
Fascist discrimination
Julian March As a result of First World War peace process, Italy was forced to incorporate Slovene and Croatian-speaking sections of the Habsburg Empire into Italy. This new region was referred to as “Venezia Giulia.” Under fascist rule this north eastern border was specifically targeted for the violent enforcement of an Italian national identity.Haddock, Bruce ed. and Bedani, Gino Ed. The Politics of Italian a Multidisciplinary Perspective (Gwenyth Street, Cardiff, 2000)163.
However, harsh assimilatory treatment of minorities in the area existed months before fascists marched on parliament.Haddock., 164. Previous to fascist control Slavs in the area were treated as an alien group and this categorization translated into specific anti-Slav policies prohibiting the use of Slovene in government institutions and law courts.Haddock., 166.
Following the Fascist takeover the legislative integration of Julian March into Italy began, which formally occurred in 1922.Haddock., 169. By 1923 Topnomy laws reinvented the identities of these provinces; Slavic street names and monuments were changed to celebrate and promote Italian contemporary persons. By 1924 the integration of the Slavic community of Julian March was further intensified as all foreign language newspapers were required to publish Italian translations and schools were prohibited from teaching in foreign languages. Assimilating policies, however, were most aggressive between the years 1924–1927. It was during these years that policies were formally put in place discriminating against Slavic Minorities. Examples include the transformation of 500 Slovene and Croatian primary schools into Italian language schools, as well as the deportation of one thousand Slavic teachers to other parts of Italy, and the formal closure of 500 Slav societies and a number of Slavic libraries. Slav surnames were also replaced by Italianized versions. Eventually all evidence of non-Italian names, even on old gravestones, were destroyed. Houses were searched for foreign language literature and alien cultural and athletic organizations were purged of non-Italian content. Finally land and property were confiscated from Slovene peasant farmers and redistributed to new Italian settlers.Haddock., 170.
Jewish exclusion under fascism In November 1938 the Italian fascist government introduced laws aimed specifically against the Italian Jewish community. These laws prohibited all Jews, regardless of their political loyalty to fascism, from participating in schools, commerce, professions or politics. This exclusion was also actively used, during the last five years of the fascist government, in a propaganda program to educate the Italian population to the biological understanding of Italian national identity.Haddock., 178. This propaganda campaign detailed the biological threat of Jews and other non-Europeans such as Africans to the purity of the Italian race.
Italy after fascism