ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the Italian party system has undergone a process of unprecedented change during the decade of the 1970s which requires not merely an updated survey of its development but rather a re-interpretation of the nature of that system. While Italian political parties acting as the predominant channel of political communication, policy-making, leadership recruitment and access to public office have been in existence since the Second World War, they did not essentially perform that function before the advent of the Fascist state. Many assumptions long held about the nature of the postwar Italian party system such as the dominance of Democrazia Cristiana (DC) rule not least because socio-economic change has been greater than in any previous decade since the republican system of government. In short, the very capacity of the political parties to respond to, direct and absorb pressures deriving from the changing socio-economic environment was under greater scrutiny than ever before.
