Gino Moliterno. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture

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postwar reconstruction

The term ‘postwar reconstruction’ is commonly used to indicate the period from

immediately after the Second World War to the mid-1950s when, especially in the crucial

areas of agriculture and industry, production was restored to prewar levels.

The destructive impact of the Second World War on the European territory was indeed

quite massive, far worse than that of the First World War. As well as the cost in human

lives—around 45 million people—there was extensive damage to the productive and

communications infrastructure, and to housing. Scene of some of the bloodiest battles of

the war for almost two years, Italy was especially affected—the most troubled sector

being transport, where infrastructure was almost completely destroyed—by the fury of

two opposing armies and a ferocious civil war at a time when the Italian peninsula

constituted one of the most strategically important fronts of the entire war.

The agricultural sector, brought to almost a complete standstill in some areas, was also

in deep crisis. Fortunately, much of the industrial infrastructure was located in the

northeastern ‘industrial triangle’ which, as the hostilities ceased almost unexpectedly in

April 1945, was discovered to have sustained less damage than originally feared. Bank of

Italy estimates of war damage to industry suggested around 8 per cent of total value, even

if areas such as metallurgy, iron and steel and heavy industry were more seriously

affected than others.

Nevertheless, the real economy could only be expected to pick up within a reasonable

time if a solution were found to the other overwhelming problem which had been

inherited from the war and from the financial superstructure: inflation. In fact, the

inflation already existing in Italy before the fall of Mussolini was aggravated by the

devastating monetary policies carried out during the rest of the war years. Both

occupying armies, but particularly the Anglo-American one, had financed the upkeep of

their troops by issuing large quantities of banknotes (the so-called AM liras). That

currency was still circulating and, given the extreme shortage of consumer goods, was

pushing inflation to a level which risked bringing down the entire price system.

Identifying the best solution to the serious problem of inflation became the focus of

heated debate among political parties, scholars and economists. The Left was in favour of

changing the currency, as was happening in other countries, while the liberals and

conservatives, led by Luigi Einaudi, were vehemently opposed to the measure. For the

Left, changing the currency seemed the simplest, the most radical but also the most

equitable solution, since the intention was to follow it with a progressive tax on capital

and a state-generated loan aimed at drying up the profits of the war. The

liberalconservatives, however, were especially opposed to this new tax, which they

thought would indiscriminately penalize the middle class which had invested its savings

in public deficit shares. While the different sides argued, inflation became ever more the

central problem of the economy In 1944 inflation had reached 345 per cent, and the

following year it increased by a further 108 per cent. 1938 prices had increased tenfold by

1945 and by 1947 they had increased thirty-two times.

With regard to employment, repatriation from the ex-colonies and the blocking of

overseas migration had created a critical situation. In 1946, despite the opposition of

trade unions, dismissals were de-regulated. By the end of the year more than two million

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people were registered with unemployment offices, although there were many other

unemployed who had not registered. It is also worth noting that in northern Italy alone,

more than one million workers had been employed in companies which were directly or

indirectly linked to the arms industry, and these companies were now inactive and

awaiting conversion.

The gravity of the situation, of which inflation and unemployment were only the two

most obvious facets, forced the ruling politicians to implement a number of temporary

measures in order to face the most pressing priorities although, in so doing, they lost sight

of an overall strategic plan which alone could have ensured a lasting success. Moreover,

as already mentioned with regard to monetary policies, the contrasting ideological

positions of the government coalition members (Christian Democrats, Liberals, Radical

Actionists, Socialists and Communists) led to interminable delays in taking important

decisions. The situation became somewhat clearer between 1946 and 1947, when Italy’s

position within the zone of Western influence was assured.

The indisputable hegemony of the United States in the market economy was signalled

by the retreat of the pound sterling and the rise of the US dollar as an international

currency. In accordance with the principles of economic co-operation and integration

(principles which after the Second World War were followed much more vigorously than

after the First World War), Italy, together with the other major Western European

countries, participated in the creation of international institutions such as the International

Monetary Fund, set up through the Bretton Wood agreements. The establishment of the

Fund was dictated by the need to end monetary devaluation as a tool of trade competition

and to promote a process of trade liberalization by overcoming the clearing system. This

was to some extent facilitated by the political changes which saw the ousting of the

communist and socialist Left from the executive when De Gasperi formed his fourth

government in May 1947, in which liberal politician—and later President of the Republic

Luigi Einaudi figured prominently. At this point, the position of Italy in the international

context became clear, and it was able to benefit from the Marshall Aid Plan (which was

announced in June 1947) and to adopt an unambiguous economic policy. Such choices

appeared appreciated by the electorate when a year later, in the elections of April 1948,

the Left suffered a massive defeat.

Among the first measures to be taken by the De Gasperi—Einaudi government were

those relating to the Italian currency. New rules aimed at regulating compulsory

payments set aside by banks with the issuing institution were established, and the official

discount rate was drastically increased. A credit squeeze and a careful policy of

containing the public deficit allowed the country to defeat inflation and to pave the way

towards the so-called economic miracle of the 1950s.

However, even if the government generally favoured a free market economy, there

was also state intervention. In fact, the most peculiar feature of the Italian case was

probably the combination of free market measures, aimed at gradually removing the few

forms of control introduced by Fascism, with measures aimed at consolidating the

impressive apparatus of public enterprises which had been established after the 1929

economic crisis. The Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI) continued to play an

important role and fully participated in the reconstruction activity, giving the state a

direct presence in the process. The international economic growth ignited by the Korean

war at the beginning of the new decade found the Italian economy with the right

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conditions needed in order to benefit from the international boom and to initiate what

would become known as the ‘economic miracle’.

See also: economy; housing policy; industry; railway system

Further reading

Aldcroft, D.H. (1978) The European Economy: 1914–1970, London: Croom Helm.

Becher, V. and Knipping, F. (eds) (1976) Power in Europe: Great Britain, France, Italy and

Germany in a Postwar World, 1945–1950, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (see especially the essay

by V.Zamagni, ‘Betting on the Future: The Reconstruction of Italian Industry, 1946–1952’).

Mildward, A. (1984) The Reconstruction of Western Europe: 1945–1951, London: Methuen.

Woolf, S.J. (ed.) (1972) The Rebirth of Italy: 1943–1950, New York: Humanities Press.

PIETRO CAFARO

PPI

The PPI (Partito Popolare Italiano, or Italian Popular Party) was officially born in January

1994 as a ‘refoundation’ of the disintegrating Christian Democratic party (see DC). The

attempt by Rosa Russo Jervolino and Mino Martinazzoli to save the DC from the

tempests of the Tangentopoli (‘Bribesville’) scandals by returning to the name and

principles of the original Italian Catholic party, the Partito Popolare Italiano of Don Luigi

Sturzo, failed due to the deep disagreement regarding the future of political Catholicism

in Italy. Despite the strong support of the Church, which was expressed in a letter of

Pope John Paul II calling, once again, for the ‘political unity of Catholics’, there was a

veritable diaspora of the party as elements of the former DC leadership sought to assure

their own futures in a variety of political groupings.

In the national elections of March 1994, against the logic of the recently introduced

first past the post system for three-quarters of the seats, the Popolari insisted on

maintaining an independent, centrist position in alliance with Mario Segni and his Patto

per l’Italia (Pact for Italy) group. The result was that the party won only 11.1 per cent of

the vote and was thus out of government.

In March 1995 there was a split in the party between the supporters of the then

Secretary-General, Rocco Buttiglione, and pretender Gerardo Bianco. Buttiglione set up

the CDU (Cristiani Democratic! Uniti, or United Christian Democrats) and, after a

protracted court battle, the PPI party badge went to the CDU, the newspaper Il popolo

went to the PPI and the traditional headquarters, Palazzo Gesù, was divided evenly

between them.

The outcome of the by-election in Padua in 1995 caused by the appointment of Forza

Italia MP Emma Bonino as European Fisheries Commissioner prefigured the general

elections of a year later. A centre-left candidate supported by the PPI, the PDS and the

local diocesan curia won against a pro-abortion, Forza Italia politician. In 1996, under

the leadership of Gerardo Bianco, the PPI entered the Ulivo electoral alliance with the

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PDS and other centre-left ‘progressive’ forces. Inevitably, it won a smaller share of the

vote in both the Chamber and the Senate, but three PPI members became ministers in the

government of Romano Prodi in April 1996 and the vice-premiership of the D’Alema

centre-left government of 1998 also went to the PPI.

JOHN POLLARD

The Partito Radicale (PR) or Radical Party was formed in December 1955 when the left

wing of the Liberal Party (see PLI), which included many of the intellectuals and writers

connected with Marco Pannunzio and his weekly magazine Il Mondo, broke away in

protest against what they saw as the PLI’s increasing accommodation to the politics of

the DC. The orientation of the new party, which included, as well as Pannunzio, Ernesto

Rossi, Arrigo Benedetti, Elio Vittorini, Eugenio Scalfari and the young Marco Pannella

amongst others, was strongly secular and liberal democratic, pro-NATO on the

international front and highly critical of the government’s clientelistic policies at home.

In particular, the party supported the immediate implementation of all the democratic

provisions of the constitution and the abrogation of all Fascist laws.

The egalitarian and democratic ideals of the new party were reflected in its non-

hierarchical and decentralized structure which allowed all members of the party to

exercise their own special expertise in various fields in order to competently criticize

governmental decisions. However commendable in intellectual terms, this lack of

centralization and discipline nevertheless proved to be a weakness in political terms and

the party, which presented itself united with the Republicans in the 1958 elections,

performed extremely poorly at the ballot box. The DC’s ‘opening to the Left’ also soon

divided Radical opinion, and in 1962 Pannunzio and his group abandoned the party,

which thereafter remained on the edge of dissolution throughout most of the 1960s.

Neither the party’s third ‘refoundation’ congress held in 1967 nor the explosion of the

student movement in 1968, with its similar libertarian orientation, managed to

significantly revive its fortunes.

Together with a number of other political and feminist groups, the Radicals

campaigned strongly for the divorce legislation which was finally passed by the Italian

Parliament in 1970, but it was ultimately the active and highly visible role which the

Radical Party—and in particular Marco Pannella, who had by then become one of its

most charismatic leaders—played in the defeat of the referendum to abrogate the divorce

law which lifted the party to prominence in the 1970s. Although its success at the ballot

box would remain modest—it received 1.1 per cent of the vote at the 1976 elections, the

first at which it presented itself on its own, 3.4 per cent in 1979 and 2 per cent in 1983—

the Radical Party’s greatest successes from then on would be tied to its effective strategic

use of referenda in order to change Italian society. In 1975, the Radicals took a leading

role in attempting to bring about a referendum to abrogate the Fascist law against

abortion, a measure which ultimately forced the Italian Parliament to pass its own law

legalising abortion in May 1978. In the same year, the Radicals were able to institute a

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referendum against public financing of political parties, a measure which was technically

defeated but which proved that almost 44 per cent of the Italian population were against

parties being financed from the public purse.

During the 1980s, the Party continued to fight for progressive political and social

measures, often using civil disobedience, as in the attempt to decriminalize soft drugs,

and publicity strategies such as hunger strikes to highlight the international problem of

world hunger and to demand some positive response from Italian authorities. At its 1988

Congress, the Party decided to no longer even contest elections as an Italian political

party as such, but to function from then on as a transnational ‘trans-party’ organization

which would fight for human and civil rights everywhere. As such, in the 1990s the

Radicals have remained active and visible in Italian politics, but at election time

individual currents have presented themselves separately in lists under their own name.

GINO MOLITERNO

Prada

Granddaughter of a high fashion name in Italy since the beginning of the century,

Miuccia Prada revitalized the family’s leather accessories business in 1979. Best known

for her signature nylon backpack of the late 1980s, Prada’s success story is also partially

due to her marriage with Patrizio Bertelli. Prada and Bertelli are the two sides of the

Prada coin: she is the creative soul behind the company and he is the business strategist.

Since the company took off, they have expanded from women’s and men’s wear into a

number of product lines including accessories, shoes and ready-to-wear. Once aspiring to

a high fashion clientele, creations of the Miu Miu youth line and a Prada Sport line are

meant to appeal to a more mass market. There are plans to expand into lingerie, perfume

and functional but optimally designed kitchenware. The Prada philosophy revolves

around her favourite adjective trasversale (transversal) which suggests a way of living

and dressing that crosses the boundaries of age, social class, race and continents.

Confident enough to attempt a Gucci takeover, Prada and Bertelli continue to attribute

their success to their complementarity: her tranquillity versus his aggressiveness; her

passion for art, which results in the sponsoring of art shows and artists worldwide, versus

his for sailing, which has resulted in a 90 billion lire investment in a leading America’s

Cup contender which ‘wears’ the name of the great success story.

BERNADETTE LUCIANO

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Pratolini, Vasco

b. 19 October 1913, Florence; d. 12 January 1991, Rome

Novelist

A self-taught member of the urban proletariat who began his working life at the age of

twelve, Pratolini wrote at all times with a consciousness of class and a direct knowledge

of social struggle. While his early works belong to a vein best defined as that of

affectionate and sometimes overidealized local recollections—the most artistically

successful of these being Il Quartiere (A Tale of Santa Croce) (1945)—Pratolini will be

remembered for Cronaca familiare (Family Chronicle) (1947), an intimate monologue

addressed to his dead brother, and Cronache di poveri amanti (A Tale of Poor Lovers)

(1947), later filmed by Carlo Lizzani. He divided critical debate over neorealism in 1955

with the publication of Metello, the first volume of a historical trilogy which moves away

from local reflections and attempts to paint an affresco of Italian life from the 1870s

onwards.

Further reading

Russo, F. (1989) Vasco Pratolini, Florence: Le Monnier.

DAVE WATSON

Pratt, Hugo

b. 15 June 1927, Rimini; d. 20 August 1995, Lausanne, Switzerland

Cartoonist, painter and writer

Perhaps the most internationally renowned of all Italian cartoonists, Pratt is best

remembered as the creator of Corto Maltese. Italian-born, Pratt nevertheless spent most

of his life outside Italy, travelling the world and visiting exotic locations in a way not

unlike his most famous fictional character. He grew up in Africa in the late 1930s, where

his father had migrated to work for the Italian Colonial Administration. At the end of the

Second World War he returned to Venice, where he began collaborating with a group of

other writers and illustrators on a cartoon magazine published by an Argentinean

company. In its pages he gave life to his first famous character, a masked avenger in

tights in the style of Lee Falk’s Phantom named Asso di Picche (Ace of Spades), which

was soon adopted as the name of the magazine itself. In 1950 he moved to Argentina and

thereafter lived in Brazil and various parts of the Americas and England before returning

to Italy in the early 1960s. Here he contributed to the Corriere dei piccoli, a Milan

weekly for young people, illustrating, amongst other things, several of the classic

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adventure stories by Robert Louis Stevenson and giving birth to the character of Ombra

(Shadow).

In 1967, on the pages of an adventure magazine called Sgt. Kirk (the name of one of

his earlier creations) he first introduced the character of Corto Maltese in a long story

called the Ballad of the Salt Sea. In 1970 he moved to Paris, where he invented numerous

further adventures for Corto Maltese in the pages of the French magazine Pif Gadget. In

1984, widely renowned and having already achieved something of a cult status, he moved

to Lausanne in Switzerland, from where he continued to contribute to a variety of

publications including a cartoon and adventure magazine which had now taken on the

name of his famous adventurer-hero.

Although best known for his cartoons and illustrated adventure stories, Pratt was also

a fine painter and writer. Two novels featuring Corto Maltese were published shortly

after Pratt’s death, and an exhibition of his splendid watercolours was held at the Galleria

Nuages in Milan in 1996.

Further reading

Hugo Pratt: il disegno dell’avventura (Hugo Pratt: Drawing the Adventure), CD-Rom,

Profile Multimedia (a comprehensive multimedia presentation of Pratt through a detailed

biography and reproductions of his work).

GINO MOLITERNO

presepe

Although many European countries have a long tradition of staged Nativity scenes,

Italians are especially devoted to it and both assembled presepi (representations of

Christ’s Nativity), made of models and statues, and real-life re-enactments of the birth of

Christ can be seen everywhere throughout Italy at Christmas time. Not only large cities

such as Rome and Milan but also most small towns and provincial churches will display

at least one presepe, often ingenious constructions with miniature running brooks and

twinkling starry skies surrounding the hut where the Christ-child lies in a manger, flanked

by his parents and adored by the three wise men and shepherds with their assembled

flocks.

Said to have originated with Saint Francis of Assisi—though the custom is probably

older—the tradition was carried on by master craftsmen throughout the centuries and

many presepi, such as the one made of fine red coral, now in the Museum of San Martino

in Naples, are magnificent works of art of the highest calibre.

Further reading

Wills, G. (1996) ‘The Art and Politics of the Nativity’, The New York Review of Books, 19

December: 75–82 (an extensive, in-depth survey with a highly informative bibliography).

GINO MOLITERNO

President of the Council of Ministers

The President of the Council of Ministers is the Italian equivalent of the Prime Minister

in the Westminster system. In theory, he is nominated by the President of the Republic,

although in practice, especially during the ‘First’ Republic, his name only emerged after

often long and exhaustive consultations between the President and party secretaries and

faction leaders.

Rather than being the effective leader of the executive, or even the co-ordinator of the

cabinet, the President of the Council was usually the representative of the most powerful

party factions at the time and as such was in fact controlled by them (see political

parties). Since the other ministers were appointed in the same way, their ministries were

more independent fiefs rather than departments co-ordinated by the prime minister. In

fact, the underlying function of the system was actually to maintain the weakness of the

prime minister’s position.

Following the general collapse of the major parties in 1992, the President of the

Republic exercised considerable power and influence though after the change of electoral

system in 1994, the leaders of the winning coalition (Berlusconi and Prodi) were

automatically elevated to premier. At one point during this period, because of the return

of uncertainty and a power vacuum, the prime minister (Lamberto Dini) was chosen by

the President of the Republic but the choice was supported by a majority in the

Parliament. Both Prodi and Berlusconi had declared their intentions to be prime ministers

who led and co-ordinated their cabinets and policies and, given their legitimization by the

ballot box rather than party secretariat, they largely succeeded although clearly the

continuing influence of party leaders, such as D’Alema in the case of Prodi’s Prime

Ministership, was considerable.

In the ‘First’ Republic (from 1946 to 1992), there were 48 governments in 46 years, or

an average of 350 days each, although the apparent instability is belied by the continual

return of certain powerful individual leaders to the post. Seven prime ministers governed

for more than half the period, and De Gasperi was prime minister for almost eight years

without a break. Given the power of the parties, it is not surprising that the prime

ministers who lasted longest and contributed most were or had been party secretaries,

such as De Gasperi, Fanfani, Moro and Craxi. At about a year, the average prime

ministerial life from 1992 to 1998 was only slightly longer than had been the case in the

‘First’ Republic.

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Further reading

Hine, D. and Finocchi, R. (1998) ‘The Italian Prime Minister’, in M.Donovan (ed.), Italy, vol. 1,

Aldershot: Ashgate.

JAMES WALSTON

President of the Republic

The President is the head of state who, as well as representing the country generally, also

nominates the prime minister (see President of the Council of Ministers), is chief of the

armed forces and chairs the High Council of the Magistrature (Consiglio Superiore della

Magistratura). In theory the presidency is non-political; in practice, the President is

elected by a political assembly and reflects its balances and divisions.

The President is elected for a seven-year term by members of both houses of

Parliament and representatives of the regions, and has his offices in the Quirinale Palace

(often used as a synonym for the Presidency). A President may serve a second term,

although none have to date. Leone and Cossiga resigned before the end of their terms, the

first due to private and family matters and because he was accused of involvement in the

Lockheed bribery scandal, while the second was formally accused (by the PDS) of not

being impartial and of ‘interference with other state powers’ but resigned before either

Parliament or the Constitutional Court could pronounce on the matter.

The President’s power is closely circumscribed by the constitution and only becomes

apparent when there is a vacuum in one of the other powers of the state. He appoints the

prime ministers which, for most of the postwar period, has meant mediating between

party secretaries and faction leaders and then registering their conclusions. Sandro

Pertini had a much more hands-on approach and pushed for non-DC prime ministers,

although this was made possible at the time by the DC’s internal dissension. The

President is also supposed to nominate the other ministers in the Council on the prime

minister’s recommendation, although here again, a President like Scalfaro has sometimes

been able to exercise a determining influence. The President signs legislation into law.

This is normally a formality, although he may return bills to Parliament when financial

cover is not guaranteed or if they are deemed unconstitutional: Cossiga returned twenty-

one bills, Pertini seven. The President also appoints senators for life. The constitution

allows five, but Pertini and Cossiga both interpreted this as meaning five per president

not five in total. This was of slight importance until the majority system was introduced

in 1993; in 1994, the life senators held the balance of power, and their number became

crucial again in 1996.

Until Cossiga’s presidency, the President’s role as chair of the High Council of the

Magistrature (CSM) was purely formal, but for a time Cossiga really did take charge of

the Council. He was severely criticized for doing so, and his successor, Scalfaro, did not

continue the practice.

Since Pertini, presidents have increasingly developed a commentating and advisory

role; in Cossiga’s case, this became a veritable potere di esternazione, or a capacity for

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‘externalizing’ on all manner of subjects. This development was due partly to the

personalities of individual presidents, but also to the growing intrusiveness of the media

and the confusion of the other state powers. As Parliament and government lost

credibility in the 1990s corruption scandals (see Mani pulite; Tangentopoli), so the

office of the President gained in influence and power.

The 1997 Bicameral Commission proposed a change to a popularly-elected presidency

with responsibility for foreign affairs and defence but, in the continued absence of

political unanimity, no move has yet been made to bring this to effect.

Further reading

Hine, D. and Poli, E. (1997) ‘The Scalfaro Presidency in 1996: The Difficult Return to Normality’,

in R.D’Alimonte and D.Nelken (eds), Italian Politics: The Center-Left in Power, Oxford:

Westview Press (a discussion of the changing role of the Presidency in the crisis of the 1990s).

Pasquino, G. (1993) ‘Electing the President’, in G. Pasquino and P.McCarthy (eds), The End of

Postwar Politics: The Landmark 1992 Elections, Oxford: Westview Press (a discussion of the

office and powers of the President through a specific analysis of the election of Francesco

Cossiga).

JAMES WALSTON

Pressburger, Giorgio

b. 1937, Budapest

Novelist, playwright and director

After an early career as a playwright, Pressburger made his debut as a novelist in 1986

with the short story collection Storie dell’ottavo distretto (translated as Homage to the

Eighth District: Tales from Budapest) and the novel L’elefante verde (The Green

Elephant), both written in collaboration with his twin brother Nicola who died in 1985

(they had both emigrated to Italy in 1956 after the Russian invasion of Hungary). In these

and in subsequent works, Pressburger balances the humanistic values of European

literature and the Jewish tradition with an acute sense of the tragic grotesque of everyday

life. He has continued to publish novels—most recently La neve e la colpa (The Snow

and the Guilt) (1998)—but also works as a theatrical producer in Italy.

ANDREA RICCI

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