Political system

Question 1

Who were the Italians who predominantly made up Parliament?

Answer 1

Northern, professional, middle class

Question 2

What did these politicians tend to do?

Answer 2

Represent the interests of their own class at the expense of the wider population

Question 3

What else hampered Italy’s political development?

Answer 3

The attitude of the Catholic Church and the Roman Question

Question 4

What is the Roman Question?

Answer 4

The split between the Italian state and the Catholic Church

Question 5

Why did Pope Pius XI refuse to recognise the new Italian state?

Answer 5

He was angered at the capture of Rome in 1870 and the loss of papal territory

Question 6

What did Leo XIII forbade Catholics from doing in 1886?

Answer 6

He formally forbade Catholics from either running for office or voting in national elections

Question 7

What did this rob Italy of? What did it question?

Answer 7

Robbed Italy of a potentially unifying symbol and questioned the legitimacy of the new nation

Question 8

What did politicians fear would happen if they challenged the Church?

Answer 8

Would only further alienate the population

Question 9

What did it prevent the creation of?

Answer 9

Prevented the creation of a national conservative party based on Catholic values, which some Italian aristocrats had wanted to pursue

Question 10

What did it mean to the liberal middle classes? Why?

Answer 10

This meant that there was no parliamentary challenge to the liberal middle classes who ruled Italy due to the lack of popular political opposition and the fact that less than 25% of Italian men had the vote

Question 11

What did politicians share? What was there few of?

Answer 11

Politicians shared the same liberal ideology and there were very few formal political parties

Question 12

How were governments formed?

Answer 12

By offering key positions to other deputies, who would then agree to support them as PM

Question 13

What happened to these governments? Why?

Answer 13

Governments tended to be short lived, as politicians could simply withdraw their support for the PM if they were offered a better deal by another deputy

Question 14

What was success as a politician due to?

Answer 14

Success as a politician was therefore not due to the ability to attract voted through popular or successful policies, but instead rested on the skill in forming political alliances by knowing how to buy the support of other deputies

Question 15

What was this political manoeuvring known as?

Answer 15

Trasformismo

Question 16

What was trasformismo characterised by?

Answer 16

By corruption, frequent changes in government (29 changes of PM 1870-1922) and an inability to pass legislation that might improve the lives of Italian citizens

Question 17

What were the majority of population seen as?

Answer 17

The majority of the Italian population were disenfranchised and were seen as by the liberal politicians as lacking in political education required for electoral participation

Question 18

What happened to protests against the government?

Answer 18

Any protests against the government tended to be met with violent repression from the military

Question 19

What did this repression from the government and military reinforce?

Answer 19

The divide between ‘real Italy’ - the Italian people - and ‘legal Italy’ - the ruling classes

Question 20

What fuelled popular protest?

Answer 20

The inability of most Italians to voice their anger at Italy’s politicians through the ballot box fuelled popular protests and the growing the strength of more revolutionary ideologies, such as anarchism