THE CATHOLIC-COMMUNIST DIALOGUE IN ITALY: 1944 TO THE PRESENT.
Item
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Title
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THE CATHOLIC-COMMUNIST DIALOGUE IN ITALY: 1944 TO THE PRESENT.
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Identifier
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AAI8629695
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identifier
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8629695
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Creator
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GIAMMANCO, ROSANNA MULAZZI.
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Contributor
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Bogdan D. Denitch
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Date
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1986
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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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Sociology, General
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Abstract
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The Italian Communist Party and the Italian Roman Catholic Church are universalistic movements having simultaneously and institutional reality. Both realities attempt to influence the "soul," or at least the political allegiance, of a common population. Hence there is a struggle for cultural hegemony as a means of reaching, reinforcing or maintaining political power. This intensified since 1944 when the PCI became a legal, constitutional mass party.;Both institutions are subject to similar dynamics with respect to their need for increased or continued legitimation, for maintenance and expansion of their respective spheres of hegemony, and for their vision of leading Italian society. They are also subject to similar dynamics with respect to their receptivity and flexibility to the population's responses to their initiatives and internal changes, and to changing social realities.;Initiated by the top hierarchy of both institutions, the dialogue can be best understood as an attempt to establish and maintain the reciprocal recognition of the legitimacy of both institutions. The institutions neither envisaged nor welcomed a "fusion" of their respective ideologies. Since an ideology legitimates the existence, role, and function of an institution, fissures in the ideology would weaken their legitimacy.;The dialogue, however, has been found to be a symptom of disintegrating tendencies in the cultural and political hegemony of the Party and the Church. Further, it contributed to hasten and deepen these tendencies. It damaged, rather than aiding, both institutions' quest for hegemony. At the institutional level the dialogue failed, but at the grassroots level it resulted in many believers making a "class choice," i.e. rejecting the traditionally Catholic Christian Democratic Party. This meant that the dialogue loosened the grip of the Church on its followers. Those who made a "class choice" partly gravitated towards the PCI, but mostly helped form new left, anti-institutional and extra-parliamentarian political groups.;The dialogue itself can't be understood apart from dramatic social transformations occurring since 1944 that significantly altered Italian class composition and stratification. These social changes threatened the acquired positions of power of both institutions. An attempt at controlling changing social reality, the dialogue partially succeeded and partially failed.
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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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Sociology
