ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the particular case of Italy and how World War II in the postwar period came to provide the ground for political legitimacy. The postwar interpretation of the Resistance movement as the foundation of nationhood and democracy was not in congruence with WWII memories among larger segments of the Italian population. Underneath the postwar consensus, therefore, one could find antagonistic notions of the foundations of political legitimacy and national identity. The war of the cobelligerent Italy and of partisan Resistance was celebrated by a political and intellectual class that had itself taken a leading part in it, and which drew from it the source of its legitimacy as the country's ruling class. The Italian political system had degenerated over the decades, losing legitimacy within civil society. Depriving the system of its Communist enemy, the end of the Cold War eliminated an important support base.
