REGIONALISM AND FEDERALISM IN THE ITALIAN POLITICAL CULTURE
REGIONALISM AND FEDERALISM IN THE ITALIAN POLITICAL CULTURE

Summary/Abstract: The Italian regionalism constantly reported to traditionalism all along the XIXth century, when it appealed to territorial, historical, linguistic or ethnical peculiarities having still a strong liberal-federalist basis. The regional formulas reflected best in the theories of the catholic federalists, moderates, republicans, but also in those of the left wing, the so called radicals. Socialist politics and generally speaking the ecclesiastic liberalism of the catholic church encouraged the federalist thinking towards local autonomy, administrative liberty, territorial decentralization, democracy, modernization. The new Italian regionalism, shaped in the context of intense post-war federalist approaches, had strong political-ideological implications, which developed mainly around the North-South discrepancies. The nowadays tendencies towards federalist structures such as fiscal or even secessionist federalism, extremely evident in the case of Spain, begin to materialize in Italy as well.

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