ABSTRACT
The Italian Christian Democratic Party (DC) was always the leading party of government and the Italian Communist Party (PCI) apart from short periods in which it supported governments of 'national unity'-was always in opposition. The working classes were in part disenfranchised and were, by and large, organized by the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), a party which stood, at least ideologically, against most of the fundamental tenets of the Italian Liberal State. Thus, even before fascism, the Italian ruling classes had not been able to produce a strong bourgeois party. The multiplicity and importance of political parties was only one of the features of the Italian party system. Political parties were faced with intermediary organizations better able than they were to channel popular demands. As the Italian communists distanced themselves from Moscow, it became increasingly difficult for DC leaders to describe the PCI as an anti-Western party.
