ABSTRACT
The strength and nature of Italian liberalism is an immensely complex topic. For one thing, both Catholicism and socialism were deeply influenced by it. Indeed, the DCs 50-year history was partly about Catholicism’s rapprochement with liberalism. Something similar can be said with regard to Italian socialism, with the PSDI’s roots lying in the break-away of liberal socialists from the socialist mainstream. Liberalism, then, was not confined to the lay parties. Furthermore, the consolidation of democracy in post-Fascist Italy went hand-in-hand with a consolidation of liberalism, both politically and economically. At the same time, the ideological origins of the lay parties became less relevant as they became mere power-brokers, representatives of special interests. A reaffirmation
of the party-organisational expression of liberalism, or better of Thatcherite neoliberalism, was witnessed in the 1994 election. But this was expressed by Silvio Berlusconi’s brand new Forza Italia (see McCarthy, Chapter 8), and by Umberto Bossi’s still evolving Northern League (see Diamanti, Chapter 7).
