The Italian Liberal Party and the crisis of the First Republic. A long-term analysis (1968-1994)

ABSTRACT The relationship between P.L.I. and the collapse of the party system in Italy presents elements of interest. Unlike the mass parties, the Pli perceived some crisis factors: the ever-increasing distance of the ruling class from citizens, the increase in public debt, the spread of bad practices in politics, the need for a big institutional reform, the growth of new political subjects (Leagues) they were issues widely addressed in the internal debate. What you notice is a very difficult situation of a party that is where it doesn’t want to be, that participates in the government but would like to stay out of it. 1 Despite a timid growth of consensus at the beginning of the crisis, just as a result of an effort to differentiate itself from the other government forces, the Pli was unable to escape the “Grande Slavina”. Factors related to its nature and its ideological-cultural identity, but also to its particular history, played a role on the “end” of the Pli, in spite of a favorable international situation (collapse of the Soviet system, Thatcherism, Reaganism). The essay proposes a reconstruction of the political parabola of the P.L.I. starting from the period following Malagodi’s opposition to the center-left governments. It is believed that this may serve to identify the reasons for the inability to impose itself as a valid political proposal in a completely changed scenario.