POLITICS OF AGRARIAN ASSISTANCE IN ITALY: THE CASE OF THE CONTADINO-OPERAIO IN FRIULI-VENEZIA GIULIA.
Item
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Title
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POLITICS OF AGRARIAN ASSISTANCE IN ITALY: THE CASE OF THE CONTADINO-OPERAIO IN FRIULI-VENEZIA GIULIA.
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Identifier
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AAI8508743
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identifier
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8508743
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Creator
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WATSON, CHARLOTTE BUSHNELL.
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Contributor
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Patrick Peppe
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Date
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1985
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General
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Abstract
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This thesis focuses on the relationship of the depolarization of politics between the Christian Democrats and the Communist party in the northeastern Italian Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia since World War II to the process of development that has taken place there.;The governing coalition headed by the DC and The Church sought to maintain divisions between Italy's rural and urban sectors through a broad assistance network and political polarization as a vehicle for mass mobilization, which were to further their chosen model of urban-based industrial development. Though the gap between the two sectors and the parties remains strong, recent depolarization is the result of changes in both the base of the parties' power and in the leadership.;In Friuli, this change taking place in both urban and rural zones, but it is coming about more rapidly and differently in the former than in the latter. The unit of analysis in the study is the contadino-operaio family, whose history is presented from the era before Italian rule, through fascism to the present. The experience of accelerated and partially autonomous decentralized industrial development in a rural setting has allowed the adaptation of rural norms to a new economic situation rather than replacing them with urban values.;In a Region such as Friuli, many parties have claimed responsibility for the area's new well-being, though they have followed more than initiated it. Italian politics continue to be based on regional, sub-national, and cultural divisions. With a gradual decline in polarization, increased fragmentation of the system seems the most likely result.;There is a distinct parallel between the social structure, land tenure, and the process of decentralizing industrial production, between Friuli and other zones of the Italian countryside. There is little research on the political behavior of the contadino-operaio, but the unit is being recognized as a widely spread phenomenon in Italy. The study of the contadino-operaio may have some comparative value for other areas of Italy as well as for developing countries with large rural populations which depend on fragmented land holdings, and where there is a weak urban industrial sector. The conclusion that political development does not necessarily follow economic development, and that polarized mobilization as a substitute for mass participation can ultimately retard balanced development, has a broader application than to Friuli and Italy alone. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Political Science
