ABSTRACT

The Italian Communist Party (PCI)/Democratic Party of The Left (PDS) organization have undergone a substantial change in 1989. This chapter discusses the nature of this party transformation. At the leadership level, PDS presents itself to public as a party committed to programmatic reforms, ones aimed especially at changing the inefficient and corrupt aspects of Italian government. The PCI/PDS offers an intriguing case of a mass party organization being systematically dismantled and made over by its own leadership. Instead of pursuing a strategy of penetrating Italian society, Achille Occhetto and the other party leaders have sought to disengage from it. The organizational changes that accompanied the end of the PCI and the beginning of PDS are intriguing for two reasons. First, they offer a study in the deliberate dismantling of a mass party organization. The second reason, the organizational changes associated with the PCI to PDS transformation appears so intriguing has to do with the impact of external or international practices.