Una democrazia eccentrica. Partitocrazia, antifascismo, antipolitica

After the end of the Second World War, the newly formed Italian Republic made a clear Western choice, which it would confirm over the years by integrating ever more deeply into the European and Atlantic system. From a historical and cultural point of view, however, the country remained eccentric with respect to the West: it was part of it, but it was also a borderland. This eccentricity was revealed in republican political life, which failed to take root in a univocal and shared definition of democracy, was crossed by deep ideological fault lines and marked by processes of mutual delegitimization, wanted to be different from what it was and did not stop chasing improbable palingenetic dreams. Republican politics thus proved poorly suited to managing the process of integration of the country within the West. The book observes how the political system centered on parties and subjected to growing tensions from the profound transformations of the international context finally turned against itself and fueled the country's dream of being able to do without politics altogether.