Упрощенная HTML-версия
Author : S. Gavrilova
Post-Graduate Student at the State Academic University of Humanities
RUSSIA AND ITALY, two countries joined by a long
history of relations, are continuing to move toward
closer political, economic, and cultural cooperation. The
changes in Italy's political system that started at the be-
ginning of the 1990s and are still going on today present
a unique political situation for the country.
In Russia, academic historians are paying keen attention
to the problems created by the transition from one type
of democracy to another that began in Italy in the 1990s.
Their works offer a comprehensive and complete picture of the political life of the Italian Re-
public at the current stage. It is precisely the absence of similar historical experience in other
European countries that is arousing the historians' interest in the events going on in Italy. The
works of Soviet and Russian academic experts on the history of Italy of the second half of the
20th century and beginning of the 21st century present detailed coverage of this unique political
process.
This article aims to set forth in detail the main issues relating to the political development of
contemporary Italy that Russian historiography has been focusing on in recent years. All of the
researchers are primarily examining the collapse of Italy's traditional political parties and the for-
mation of new types of parties.
Most of the academics are inclined to think that the former system under which the Christian
Democratic Party had immense advantages could quite well be restored, only this time with
Berlusconi's party in the center. On the whole, Italy's party system over the past 20 years can be
characterized by a quotation from LB. Levin's article, "The opposition between the left wing and
right wing seems to have been preserved, but it has acquired an entirely different dimension, be-
ginning with the fact that there is no longer a taboo on the ruling bloc and leftist opposition
taking turns in power."
We will note that the works of the Russian experts in Italian studies focus particular attention
on the transition period in the history of the Italian Republic. In recent years, several articles
have come out by well-known researchers that are entirely devoted to this problem. The few
monographs published in our country also note the transition from the First to the Second Re-
public in Italy as the main milestone in the country's entire postwar history.
We agree with this viewpoint, since the domestic political situation in the country still differs
significantly from that in the classical Western democracies. Italy's experience is in fact unique
and, as of today, the problems of the transition period in Italian history remain controversial
and have not been fully studied.
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The Political Situation in Italy Today: A View from Russia