ABSTRACT
Political factionalism and ideological polarization have run high in Italian history. They must be taken into account in any attempt to explain the frailty of Italian public institutions – their instability, inefficiency, feeble legitimacy, inability to win citizens’ respect, and subservience to sectional interests. Moreover, Italian politics since the Risorgimento can be interpreted as a 150-year-long attempt to prevent factionalism and polarization from spinning out of control and becoming disruptive for the country. Cavour’s connubio, the oligarchical character of liberal Italy, the trasformismo, Giolitti’s use of the public administration, the Patto Gentiloni, fascist dictatorship and corporatism, the 1948 constitution, the centro sinistra of the early 1960s, the compromesso storico: all these historical phenomena or events, as well as many others, were also more or less successful attempts to limit, discipline, or erase political conflict altogether.
