Democratic Party of the Left

Democratic Party of the Left
Partito Democratico della Sinistra
Secretary Achille Occhetto (1991–94)
Massimo D'Alema (1994–98)
Founded 3 February 1991
Dissolved 13 February 1998
Preceded by Italian Communist Party
Succeeded by Democrats of the Left
Newspaper L'Unità
Membership max: 989,708 (1991)
min: 613,412 (1998)[1]
Ideology Democratic socialism
Social democracy
Political position Left-wing
National affiliation Alliance of Progressives (1994)
The Olive Tree (1995–98)
European affiliation Party of European Socialists (1993–98)
International affiliation Socialist International (1993–98)
European Parliament group European United Left(1991–93)
Party of European Socialists (1993–98)

The Democratic Party of the Left (Italian: Partito Democratico della Sinistra, PDS) was a democratic socialist and social-democratic[2][3][4][5][6][7] political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, the party was the largest in the Alliance of Progressives and The Olive Tree coalitions. In February 1998, the party merged with minor parties to form Democrats of the Left.

History

The PDS evolved from the Italian Communist Party (PCI), the largest and most powerful communist party in the Western Bloc for most of the Cold War. Since 1946, it had been the second-largest party in Parliament. It had been moving away from orthodox Communism since the late 1960s, when it opposed the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. It had been one of the first parties to embrace Eurocommunism. By the late 1980s, most of the PCI's contacts were with social-democratic and democratic socialist parties, and it was increasingly apparent that it was no longer a Marxist–Leninist party.

With this in mind, in 1991 the PCI dissolved itself and refounded itself as the PDS.[8] Its first leader was Achille Occhetto, the final secretary of the PCI.

Although Ochetto had proclaimed the end of Communism, he tried to trade on the PDS' roots. The new party's logo consisted of an oak tree sprouting from the previous symbol of the PCI in a roundel at the tree's roots. This did not prevent hardliners leaving the party and launching the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC). Thus the logo was also adopted in order to prevent the PRC from making usage of the symbol immediately after the split between the two parties. In 1993 the party was admitted into the Socialist International and Party of European Socialists.[9] In the same year the party's MEPs moved from the European United Left (GUE) to the Socialist Group in the European Parliament.[10]

In the 1994 general election Occhetto was the leader of the Alliance of Progressives coalition, but lost to the Pole of Freedoms and Pole of Good Government coalitions led by Silvio Berlusconi, who became Prime Minister of Italy for the first time. In the aftermath of the election, Massimo D'Alema was elected new party secretary. In the 1996 general election, after the collapse of Berlusconi's coalition, the PDS was part of the winning coalition, The Olive Tree, led by Romano Prodi. In the Prodi I Cabinet, a leading member of the PDS, Giorgio Napolitano, became Minister of the Interior.

In 1997 D'Alema called for the party to become more of a European social-democratic party, and in 1998 merged with Labour Federation, Social Christians, Republican Left, Unitarian Communists, Reformists for Europe and Democratic Federation to form Democrats of the Left. On this occasion, the party decided to replace the hammer and sickle of its emblem with the red rose of European social democracy.

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

Chamber of Deputies
Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Leader
1992 6,321,084 (#2) 16.1
107 / 630
–
Achille Occhetto
1994 7,881,646 (#2) 20.4
109 / 630
 Increase 2
Achille Occhetto
1996 7,894,118 (#1) 21.1
172 / 630
 Increase 63
Massimo D'Alema
Senate of the Republic
Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Leader
1992 5,663,976 (#2) 17.0
64 / 315
–
Achille Occhetto
1994 with Progressives (#1) –
76 / 315
 Increase 12
Achille Occhetto
1996 with Olive Tree (#1) –
102 / 315
 Increase 26
Massimo D'Alema

European Parliament

European Parliament
Election year # of
overall votes		 % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Leader
1994 6,281,354 (#2) 19.1
16 / 87
–
Massimo D'Alema

Leadership

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ "Gli iscritti ai principali partiti politici italiani della Prima Repubblica dal 1945 al 1991". cattaneo.org. Archived from the original (Microsoft Excel) on 2013-11-10.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ Donald F. Busky (2002). Communism in History and Theory: The European Experience. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-275-97734-4. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  4. ↑ Marco Giugni (2004). Social Protest and Policy Change: Ecology, Antinuclear, and Peace Movements in Comparative Perspective. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-7425-1827-8. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  5. ↑ Richard J. Samuels (2005). Machiavelli's Children: Leaders And Their Legacies In Italy And Japan. Cornell University Press. p. 309. ISBN 978-0-8014-8982-2. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  6. ↑ Svante Ersson; Jan-Erik Lane (1998). Politics and Society in Western Europe. SAGE. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-7619-5862-8. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  7. ↑ Simon Parker (1996). The New Italian Republic: New. Taylor & Francis. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-415-12162-0. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  8. ↑ Alan Renwick (2010). The Politics of Electoral Reform: Changing the Rules of Democracy. Cambridge University Press. p. 121–. ISBN 978-1-139-48677-4.
  9. ↑ Dimitri Almeida (2012). The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties: Beyond the Permissive Consensus. Routledge. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-415-69374-5. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  10. ↑ William Heller; Carol Mershon (2009). Political Parties and Legislative Party Switching. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-230-62255-5.
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