Historical Left

The Historical Left (Italian: Sinistra Storica), officially known as The Left (Italian: La Sinistra), was a liberal, constitutional, and reformist parliamentary group in Italy during the second half of the 19th century. The members of The Left were also known as Democrats. It was founded in 1849 as opposition to the right-wing government of Massimo d'Azeglio; it was not a structured party, but simply an opposition formed both by radical politicians and moderate supporters of the existing constitutional monarchy, with no relevant differences with the ruling Historical Right.^[2]

History

From 1849 to 1876, the Historical Left remained the parliamentary opposition, even during the short cabinets of Leftist Urbano Rattazzi which were supported only by Independent politicians.

In 1876, the Left leader Agostino Depretis was appointed Prime Minister after the tradition of some Rightist MPs who changed sides, forcing Prime Minister Marco Minghetti to resign and lately the coalition won the election with a large majority. The overthrown of Minghetti's government was called "Parliamentary Revolution". However, Depretis immediately began to look for support among Rightists MPs, who readily changed their positions, in a context of widespread corruption. This phenomenon, known in Italian as Trasformismo (roughly translatable in English as "transformism"—in a satirical newspaper, the PM was depicted as a chameleon), effectively removed political differences in Parliament, which was dominated by an undistinguished liberal bloc with a landslide majority until after World War I.

Benedetto Cairoli and Francesco Crispi succeeded to Depretis as head of the government. The Left supported protectionism and, in foreign relations, left the alliance with France joining the Triple Alliance with Germany and former archrival Austria.^[3]

In 1892, the new leader of the Left, Giovanni Giolitti, won the election and he was nominated Prime Minister; Giolitti ruled at times up to 1921 with the support of both the coalitions, in a situation of huge parliamentary corruption. Giolitti has been the second-longest-serving Prime Minister of Italy. In the early 20th century, the Left and the Right merged in a single centrist and Liberal coalition which largely dominated the Italian Parliament against two smaller opposition: Conservative Catholics, composed by some Vatican-oriented politicians, and The Extreme, formed by the socialist faction which represented a real left in a present-day concept.

Ideology and factions

The Left was the expression of the progressivism, mimex with the liberalism, and the middle class, like cities' bourgeoisie, small business owners and artisans. The Left also supported a right to vote and the public school for all children. Moreover, the party was against the high taxation's policies promoted by The Right and for this was appreciated by the middle class. The party also launched authoritarian tendecies, with the prohibition of strikes and protests and launched a colonial policy which saw the annexation of Eritrea, Somaliland and Libya.

There were two factions in the Historical Left:

• The Transformism (Italian: Il Traformismo), was a faction formed mainly by moderate liberals like Urbano Rattazzi, Agostino Depretis, Giovanni Giolitti and Antonio Salandra. Expressing the liberal origins of the Left, this group supported free market and half-conservative policies, like an alliance with the Historical Right and the politically Catholic organization. The term "Transformist" is used also for a politician with no-real ideology and centrist views.
• The Pentarchy (Italian: La Pentarchia), was a group formed led by Francesco Crispi and composed also by Giuseppe Zanardelli, Benedetto Cairoli, Giovanni Nicotera, Agostino Magliani, Alfredo Beccarini and Gabriele D'Annunzio. Initially split from the Left in 1880, this group re-merged in to the Left in 1887. This faction supported authoritarian and progressive internal policies, expansionism and Germanophile foreign policies, and protectionist economy policies.

Despite its self-declared leftist ideas, this group was aligned with the current right-wing's goals.

Electoral results

Chamber of Deputies
Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats won	+/–	Leader
1861	unknown (#2)	20.4	62 / 443	–	Urbano Rattazzi
1865	unknown (#2)	35.2	156 / 443	94	Urbano Rattazzi
1867	126,202 (#1)	43.0	225 / 493	69	Urbano Rattazzi
1870	92,499 (#2)	28.8	195 / 493	30	Urbano Rattazzi
1874	150,119 (#2)	46.4	232 / 508	37	Agostino Depretis
1876	243,319 (#1)	70.2	424 / 508	182	Agostino Depretis
1880	146,096 (#1)	40.7	218 / 508	196	Agostino Depretis
1882	unknown (#1)	56.8	289 / 508	71	Agostino Depretis
1886	unknown (#1)	57.5	292 / 508	3	Agostino Depretis
1890	unknown (#1)	78.9	401 / 508	109	Francesco Crispi
1892	unknown (#1)	63.5	323 / 508	78	Giovanni Giolitti
1895	713,812 (#1)	58.6	334 / 508	11	Francesco Crispi
1897	unknown (#1)	64.3	327 / 508	7	Giovanni Giolitti
1900	663,418 (#1)	52.3	296 / 508	31	Giovanni Giolitti
1904	777,345 (#1)	50.9	339 / 508	43	Giovanni Giolitti
1909	995,290 (#1)	54.4	329 / 508	10	Giovanni Giolitti

References

19th-century political groups in Italy
Pre-Unification   Action Party   Moderate Party
Post-Unification   The Extreme   The Pentarchy   Historical Left   Historical Right   Conservative Catholics
Politics of Italy 20th-century Italian parties 21st-century Italian parties