Liberalism and liberals

Post-1945 Italian political liberalism is a complicated creature. From the downfall of fascism until the early 1990s there lived a small liberal party. However, liberalism cannot be reduced to the PLI: other parties must be considered -- partito d’azione, republicans and radicals at least --, and liberal political culture more generally. The elusive nature of liberalism and the seldom innocent debates on its definition and boundaries do not help. Finally, postwar Italian liberalism cannot be understood other than in a long-term perspective, the Risorgimento and pre-fascist Italy being inextricably intertwined with the national liberal tradition. This essay will try to provide a map of the territory -- a map that the reader should not expect to be overly detailed, given the amount of territory it aims to chart. The first section will sketch the essential features of Italian political liberalism from the Risorgimento to the downfall of fascism. Sections two to four will confront the years 1943-1992 in a chronological order. The epilogue will briefly deal with the last decade of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first.