ABSTRACT
The Tuscan PCI established itself as a mass party rapidly after the Second World War. By and large, the PCI in Tuscany emerged after the Fascist period as a mass-structured party, albeit with varying degrees of intensity at the local level. This variation illustrated the important interplay of organisational with socio-economic and political factors, which went some way towards supporting the thesis of Apter that political parties are dependent factors of their environments. Reflecting its mass character in region since Second World War, the Tuscan PCI has traditionally featured numerically as having the second largest total of membership after the other Red' region of Emilia-Romagna. A year after the 1976 Election, the organisational conference of the Tuscan FGCI pinpointed new contradictions' in the PCI's relations with youth since the party's abstention in favour of the Andreotti government. Rapid urbanisation and the consequent disequilibrium between town and country have in Tuscany forced the PCI to consider new forms of structural articulation.
