The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a social democratic and democratic socialist political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-surviving parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892, the PSI was from the beginning a big tent of Italy's political left and socialism, ranging from the revolutionary socialism of Andrea Costa to the Marxist-inspired reformist socialism of Filippo Turati and the anarchism of Anna Kuliscioff. Under Turati's leadership, the party was a frequent ally of the Italian Republican Party and the Italian Radical Party at the parliamentary level, while later it entered into dialogue with the remnants of the Historical Left and the Liberal Union during Giovanni Giolitti's governments to ensure representation for the labour movement and the working class. In the 1900s and 1910s, the PSI achieved significant electoral success, becoming Italy's first party in 1919 and during the country's Biennio Rosso in 1921, when it was the target of violent paramilitary activities from the far right, and was not able to move the country in the revolutionary direction it wanted.
A split with what became known as the Communist Party of Italy and the rise to power of former party member and Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who was expelled from the party, class struggle and internationalism in favour of corporatism and ultranationalism, and his National Fascist Party led to the PSI's collapse in the controversial 1924 Italian general election and eventual ban in 1925. This forced the party and its remaining leaders underground or in exile. The PSI dominated the Italian left until after World War II, when it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party (PCI). The two parties formed an alliance lasting until 1956 and governed together at the local level, particularly in some big cities and the so-called red regions until the 1990s. The PSI suffered the right-wing split of the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, whose members opposed the alliance with the PCI and favoured joining the Centrism coalition, in 1947 and the left-wing split of the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity, whose members wanted to continue the cooperation with the PCI, in 1964. Starting from the 1960s, the PSI frequently participated in coalition governments led by Christian Democracy, from the Organic centre-left to the Pentapartito in the 1980s.
The PSI, which always remained the country's third-largest party, came to special prominence in the 1980s when its leader Bettino Craxi served as Prime Minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. Under Craxi, the PSI severed the residual ties with Marxism and dropped the hammer and sickle in favour of a carnation, a symbol popularly associated with democratic socialism and social democracy, which the party was by then fully embracing, and re-branded it as liberal-socialist—some observers compared this to the Third Way developments of social democracy and described these events as being twenty years ahead of New Labour in the United Kingdom. By that time, the party was aligned with European social democracy and like-minded reformist socialist parties and leaders, including François Mitterrand, Felipe González, Andreas Papandreou and Mário Soares, and was one of the main representatives of Mediterranean or South European socialism. During this period, Italy underwent il sorpasso and became the world's sixth largest economy but also saw a rise of its public debt. While associated with neoliberal policies, as the post-war consensus around social democracy was on the defensive amid the crisis of the 1970s, others argue that the PSI and Craxi, along with the DC's left-wing when they governed, maintained dirigisme in contrast to the neoliberal and privatisation trends.
The PSI was disbanded in 1994 as a result of the Tangentopoli scandals. A series of legal successors followed, including the Italian Socialists (1994–1998), the Italian Democratic Socialists (1998–2007) and the Socialist Party (formed in 2007, it took the PSI name in October 2009) within the centre-left coalition, and a string of minor parties and the New Italian Socialist Party (formed in 2001) within the centre-right coalition. These parties have never reached the popularity of the old PSI. Former PSI leading members and voters have joined quite different parties, from the centre-right, such as Forza Italia, The People of Freedom and the new Forza Italia, to the centre-left, such as the Democratic Party.
History Early years
The PSI was founded on 14 August 1892 as the Party of Italian Workers (Partito dei Lavoratori Italiani) by delegates of several workers' associations and parties, notably including the Italian Workers' Party and the Milanese Socialist League."Italian Socialist Party". Encyclopædia Britannica. It was part of a wave of new socialist parties at the end of the 19th century and had to endure persecution by the Italian government during its early years. It modelled on the Social Democratic Party of Germany. While in Sicily the Fasci Siciliani were spreading as a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration, the party celebrated its second congress in Reggio Emilia on 8 September 1893 and changed its name to the Socialist Party of Italian Workers (Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani). During the third congress on 13 January 1895 in Parma, it decided to adopt the name of Italian Socialist Party and Filippo Turati was elected its secretary.
At the start of the 20th century, the PSI chose not to strongly oppose the governments led by five-time prime minister Giovanni Giolitti. This conciliation with the existing governments and its improving electoral fortunes helped to establish the PSI as a mainstream Italian political party by the 1910s. Despite the party's improving electoral results, the PSI remained divided into two major branches, the Reformists and the Maximalists. The Reformists, led by Filippo Turati, were strong mostly in the unions and the parliamentary group. The Maximalists, led by Costantino Lazzari, were affiliated with the London Bureau of socialist groups, an international association of left-wing socialist parties. In 1912, the Maximalists led by Benito Mussolini prevailed at the party convention, which led to the split of the Italian Reformist Socialist Party. In 1914, the party obtained good success in local elections, especially in the industrialised northern Italy, and Mussolini became leader of the City Council of Milan. During the First World War, Italian Socialists found themselves in positions enabling them to influence economic and social legislation.Modern Italy, 1871 to the Present By Martin Clark, 2014 From 1912 to 1914, Mussolini headed up the pro-Bolshevik wing of the PSI who purged moderate or reformist socialists.Mack Smith, Denis (1983). Mussolini. New York: Vintage Books. p. 96.
Rise of fascism
World War I tore the party apart. The orthodox socialists were challenged by advocates of national syndicalism, who called for revolutionary war to liberate Italian-speaking territories from authoritarian Austrian Empire control and force the government by threat of violence to create a corporatist state. The national syndicalists intended to support Italian republicans in overthrowing the monarchy if such reforms were not made and if Italy did not enter the war together with the Allied Powers and their struggle against the Central Empires, seen as the final fight for the worldwide triumph of freedom and democracy. The dominant internationalist and pacifist wing of the party remained committed to avoiding what it called a bourgeois war. The PSI's refusal to support the war led to its national syndicalist faction either leaving or being purged from the party, such as Mussolini who had begun to show sympathy to the national syndicalist cause. A number of the national syndicalists expelled from the PSI later joined Mussolini's Italian fascist revolutionary movement in 1914, including the Fasces of Revolutionary Action in 1915 (later Italian Fasces of Combat). During the Third Fascist Congress in late 1921, Mussolini turned the Fasces of Combat into the National Fascist Party.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the PSI quickly aligned itself in support of the Bolshevik movement in Russia and supported its call for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. In its party congress held in Bologna, the party voted to join the Communist International, becoming the first party outside of the former Russian Empire to do so. In the 1919 Italian general election, the PSI, led by Nicola Bombacci, reached its highest result ever: 32.0% and 156 seats in the country's Chamber of Deputies. From 1919 to the 1920s, Socialists and Fascists emerged as prominent rival movements in Italy's urban centres, often resorting to political violence in their clashes. In 1919, the Socialist Party of Turin formed the Red Army of Turin, which was accompanied by a proposal to organise a national confederation of Red Scouts and Cyclists."The Red Army of Turin" (25 October 1919). Workers' Dreadnought. Vol. VI. No. 31. p. 1122. At the 1921 Livorno Congress, the party got expelled from the Comintern after its left wing broke away in 1921 to form the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I), a division from which the PSI never recovered and that had enormous consequences on Italian politics. In 1922, another split occurred when the reformist wing of the party, headed by Turati and Giacomo Matteotti, was expelled and formed the Unitary Socialist Party (PSU).
Matteotti was assassinated by Fascists in 1924 and shortly afterwards a Fascist one-party dictatorship was established in Italy. The PSI and all other political parties except the Fascist party were banned in 1926. The party's leadership remained in exile during the Fascist years; in 1930, the PSU was re-integrated into the PSI. The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1930 and 1940.Kowalski, Werner (1985). Geschichte der sozialistis chen arbeiter-internationale: 1923 – 19. Berlin. Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften.
Post-World War II
In the 1946 Italian general election, the first after World War II, the PSI obtained 20.7% of the vote, narrowly ahead of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) that gained 18.9%. In the 1948 Italian general election, the United States secretly convinced Britain's Labour Party to pressure Socialists to end all coalitions with Communists, which fostered a split in PSI. Socialists led by Pietro Nenni chose to take part in the Popular Democratic Front along with the PCI, while Giuseppe Saragat launched the Italian Workers' Socialist Party. The PSI was weakened by the split and was far less organised than the PCI, so Communist candidates were far more competitive. As a result, the PSI parliamentary delegation was cut by a half. Nonetheless, the PSI continued its alliance with the PCI until 1956, when the Soviet repression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 caused a major split between the two parties.
Between 1947 and throughout the 1950s, the national political office of the young socialists was rebuilt, including Dario Valori, Giorgio Ruffolo, Vincenzo Balsamo, Emo Egoli, Erasmo Boiardi, and many of whom were trained by Rodolfo Morandi.Le indicazioni del compagno Morandi alle attività dei giovani socialisti. Conclusi i lavori dell'ufficio nazionale giovanile. In l'Avanti, 27 novembre, 1953.
Starting from 1963, Socialists participated in the Organic centre-left governments in alliance with Christian Democracy (DC), the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) and the Italian Republican Party (PRI). These governments acceded to many of the demands of the PSI for social reform and laid the foundations for Italy's modern welfare state.Stille, Alexander (1996). Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic.