loading . . . The Christian Democracy Era: How One Party Dominated Italian Politics for 50Â Years For nearly half a century, from the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946 to its dramatic collapse in the early 1990s, Italian politics was defined by a single party: Christian Democracy (Democrazia Cristiana, or DC). The DC was not a party in the conventional sense. It was a coalition of factions, a political machine, a patronage network, and a cultural movement all rolled into one. It drew support from the Catholic Church, from the business class, from peasants, from housewives, from civil servants, and from millions of Italians who feared the alternative: the Italian Communist Party (PCI). The DC remained the dominant governing party from 1946 until 1994, leading successive coalition governments and providing nearly every prime minister. Its leaders--Alcide De Gasperi, Amintore Fanfani, Aldo Moro, Giulio Andreotti--were the architects of the republic, the engineers of the economic miracle, and the managers of the Cold War alliance with the United States. https://explaininghistory.org/2026/04/10/the-christian-democracy-era-how-one-party-dominated-italian-politics-for-50-years/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social
