Alliance of Progressives
Alleanza dei Progressisti
Leader
Founded
  • February 1994 (first iteration)
  • 1996 (second iteration)
Dissolved
  • March 1995 (first iteration)
  • 1996 (second iteration)
Succeeded byThe Olive Tree
Political positionLeft-wing[1][2]

The Alliance of Progressives (Italian: Alleanza dei Progressisti) was a left-wing[1][2] political alliance of parties in Italy formed in 1994, with relevant predecessors at local level in 1993.[3][4] The leader of the alliance was Achille Occhetto.[5] The alliance was a predecessor of the modern-day centre-left coalition.

History

The Alliance of Progressives was formed in the wake of Tangentopoli and the end of the so-called First Republic, when the once-dominant Christian Democrats (DC) and four other establishment parties collapsed and were replaced by new political formations during 1992–1994, while the Italian Communist Party had earlier in 1991 abandoned communism and reformed itself as the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS).[3][6]

The PDS was the core party of the Alliance, which also included the Communist Refoundation Party, the Federation of the Greens, the remnant Italian Socialist Party and Socialist Rebirth, DC splinter Social Christians, the anti-Mafia Network and Democratic Alliance, the latter formed by former Republicans and Socialists.[3][7] The Alliance was formed in part as a response to the Italian electoral system moving to a more majoritarian system.[8]

The Alliance suffered a decisive defeat in the 1994 general election by the centre-right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi, which was organised as the Pole of Freedoms in northern Italy and Pole of Good Government in southern Italy.[3] In the election both left-wing and centre-right coalitions also competed with the Pact for Italy, a centrist alliance formed by DC successor the Italian People's Party (PPI) and the Segni Pact.[1][9]

For the 1995 regional election and 1996 general election the Alliance was succeeded by a broader centre-left coalition led by Romano Prodi known as The Olive Tree, which included the PPI (diminished by the split of the United Christian Democrats in 1995), Segni Pact and Italian Renewal, but excluding the Communist Refoundation Party, which was an external ally and presented its candidates under the "Progressives" banner in some single-seat constituencies.[5][8]

Composition

The alliance was composed of:[4][10]

Party Ideology Leader
Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) Democratic socialism Achille Occhetto
Social Christians[a] Christian left Pierre Carniti
Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) Communism Fausto Bertinotti
Federation of the Greens (FdV) Green politics Carlo Ripa di Meana
Italian Socialist Party (PSI) Social democracy Ottaviano Del Turco
Socialist Rebirth (RS)[b] Social democracy Giorgio Benvenuto
The Network (LR) Anti-corruption Leoluca Orlando
Democratic Alliance (AD) Social liberalism Willer Bordon
  1. ^ Contested elections under the PDS electoral lists.
  2. ^ Contested elections under the PSI electoral lists.

Election results

Election Leader Chamber of Deputies Senate of the Republic
Votes % Seats -/+ Position Votes % Seats -/+ Position
1994 Achille Occhetto 12,632,680 32.81
213 / 630
 New 2nd 10,881,320 32.90
123 / 315
 New 2nd
1996 Fausto Bertinotti 982,505 2.62
15 / 630
 Decrease 198 5th 934,974 2.87
10 / 315
 Decrease 113 4th

References

  1. ^ a b c Ram Mudambi; Pietro Navarra; Giuseppe Sobbrio, eds. (2001). Rules, Choice and Strategy: The Political Economy of Italian Electoral Reform. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-78195-082-1.
  2. ^ a b Daniela Giannetti; Rose Mulé (2007). "The Democratici di Sinistra: In Search of a New Identity". In Anna Bosco; Leonardo Morlino (eds.). Party Change in Southern Europe. Routledge. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-136-76777-7.
  3. ^ a b c d Christina Holtz-Bacha; Gianpietro Mazzoleni (2004). The Politics of Representation: Election Campaigning and Proportional Representation. Peter Lang. pp. 57–60. ISBN 978-0-8204-6148-9.
  4. ^ a b Stefan Köppl (2007). Das politische System Italiens: Eine Einführung. Springer-Verlag. p. 98. ISBN 978-3-531-14068-1.
  5. ^ a b Gino Moliterno, ed. (2002). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture. Routledge. p. 852. ISBN 978-1-134-75877-7.
  6. ^ Carol Diane St Louis (2011). Negotiating Change: Approaches to and the Distributional Implications of Social Welfare and Economic Reform. Stanford University. p. 119. STANFORD:RW793BX2256. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  7. ^ Nikiforos Diamandouros; Richard Gunther, eds. (2001). "Notes to Pages 346–380". Parties, Politics, and Democracy in the New Southern Europe. JHU Press. p. 424. ISBN 978-0-8018-6518-3.
  8. ^ a b Roberto Biorcio (2002). "Italy". In Ferdinand Muller-Rommel; Thomas Poguntke (eds.). Green Parties in National Governments. Routledge. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-135-28826-6.
  9. ^ Roberto D'Alimonte (2005). "Italy: A Case of Fragmented Bipolarism". In Michael Gallagher; Paul Mitchell (eds.). The Politics of Electoral Systems. OUP Oxford. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-19-153151-4.
  10. ^ Sona Nadenichek Golder (2006). The Logic of Pre-electoral Coalition Formation. Ohio State University Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-8142-1029-1.
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