ABSTRACT
The basic question of anti-system' opposition has dominated much of the preceding discussion of the role of opposition in Italy. This was the centre of debate on the subject in the 1960s and therefore demanding some updated answer. But also since the evolution of the Communist Party (PCI) as the main opposition party has caused more confusion than clarity, raising problems of definition and questions concerning the Communist Party as a whole. Farneti, who attempted to replace Sartori's thesis of polarised pluralism', offered the alternative model of centripetal pluralism', whereby the social and political centre, as a continuous reference point for any governmental majority, is fed by the heterogeneity. It is also fed by the contradictions and the tensions of the two poles of the system, namely the right and the left that causes them to be feared as non-viable and unacceptable governmental alternatives, by a great majority of the electorate.
