“New Liberalism” the Italian way: 1918–1947

Abstract

As an established historical category, “New Liberalism” (NL) is typically British. Here, I am using the term analogically to characterize an epoch in Italian history in which classical economic liberalism was no longer perceived as a reliable guide either in political debate or in economic thought, and various attempts at defining new features for a still “liberal” doctrine were made. The boundaries of the period to which my research refers take the phase of social and political unrest immediately after the end of WWI as the starting point; and the final breakdown of a political formation called Partito d’Azione, into which different strands of Italian NL had converged, as the end point. The whole “ventennio” of the Fascist regime is of course included in this time span, and contrary to what one might think the Fascist regime itself is not extraneous to the main story.