Cau on Corporatism in Italian Legal and Political Culture after WW2

Maurizio Cau, Istituto storico italo-germanicoas has posted, auf Deutsch, The Heritage of Corporatism in Second Post-war Legal and Political Italian Culture.  Here is the English abstract:

The day after the fascist regime’s breakdown, the corporatism’s doctrinal heritage was overcome by the “clearing the past” politics carried out by the Italian political and intellectual world, looking for a cultural and institutional breaking with authoritarianism.

Nevertheless, thought on corporatism influenced the public discourse in the newborn republic. In Italy the process of transition between totalitarian and democratic constitutional culture went also through the critical elaboration of corporatism.

In the immediate second post-war not everyone looked at the abandonment of corporatism with relief. Among that season’s protagonists there was also who deplored the treason of original ideals, trying to rebuild those doctrines in a democratic frame.

The research will focus on the permanency of corporative issues during the very first years of the republican experience. The deliberations of the Constituent Assembly themselves show how vivid suggestions on corporative social framework and political obligation still were.

A particularly interesting topic is the reflection that took shape within the catholic political and legal culture, that in late 19th century produced the corporative reflection and during the Fascist period expressed – in its less compromised with fascism components – its discomfort for a statist and not authentically organicist corporatism.

The abandon of the corporative theoretical horizon was a quick but hard experience, that deserves deeper attention by historical research.