Italian general election, 1904

Italian general election, 1904
All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy
Prime Minister before election; Giovanni Giolitti ; Historical Left	Elected Prime Minister ; Giovanni Giolitti ; Historical Left

Last updated April 10, 2019

General elections were held in Italy on 6 November 1904, with a second round of voting on 13 November.^[1] The "ministerial" left-wing bloc remained the largest in Parliament, winning 339 of the 508 seats.^[2] The papal ban on Catholics voting was relaxed for the first time, and three Catholics were elected.^[3]

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km² (116,350 sq mi) and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe.

Electoral system

The election was held using 508 single-member constituencies. However, prior to the election the electoral law was amended so that candidates needed only an absolute majority of votes to win their constituency, abolishing the second requirement of receiving the votes of at least one-sixth of registered voters.^[4]

Historical background

After Giuseppe Saracco resignation as Prime Minister, Giuseppe Zanardelli was appointed as new head of the government; but he was unable to achieve much during his last term of office, as his health was greatly impaired. His Divorce Bill, although voted in the Chamber of Deputies, had to be withdrawn on account of the strong opposition of the country. He retired from the administration on 21 November 1903.

Giuseppe Saracco Italian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy (1900-1901)

Giuseppe Saracco was an Italian politician, financier and Knight of the Annunziata.

Giuseppe Zanardelli was an Italian jurisconsult, nationalist and political figure. He was the Prime Minister of Italy from 15 February 1901 to 3 November 1903. He was a distinguished jurist and eloquent orator, and Grand Master freemason. Zanardelli, representing the bourgeoisie from Lombardy, personified the classical 19th-century left liberalism, committed to suffrage expansion, anticlericalism, civil liberties, free trade and laissez-faire economics. Throughout his long political career, he was among the most ardent advocates of freedom of conscience and divorce.

The long-time liberal leader Giovanni Giolitti succeeded to Zanardelli. He courted the left and labour unions with social legislation, including subsidies for low-income housing, preferential government contracts for worker cooperatives, and old age and disability pensions. However, he, too, had to resort to strong measures in repressing some serious disorders in various parts of Italy, and thus he lost the favour of the Socialists.

Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman. He was the Prime Minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. He is the second-longest serving Prime Minister in Italian history, after Benito Mussolini. He was a prominent leader of the Historical Left and the Liberal Union. Giolitti is widely considered one of the most powerful and important politicians in Italian history and, due to his dominant position in Italian politics, he was accused by critics of being a parliamentary dictator.

Parties and leaders

	Ideology	Leader
Historical Left	Liberalism, Centrism	Giovanni Giolitti
Italian Socialist Party	Socialism, Revolutionary socialism	Filippo Turati
Historical Right	Conservatism, Monarchism	Tommaso Tittoni
Italian Radical Party	Radicalism, Republicanism	Ettore Sacchi
Italian Republican Party	Republicanism, Radicalism	Napoleone Colajanni
Catholic Electoral Union	Clericalism, Christian democracy	Ottorino Gentiloni

Results

← Summary of November 1904 Chamber of Deputies election results →
Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/−

	Historical Left	777,345	50.9	339	+43
	Italian Socialist Party	326,016	21.3	29	−4
	Historical Right	212,584	13.9	76	−40
	Italian Radical Party	128,002	8.4	37	+3
	Italian Republican Party	75,225	4.9	24	−5
	Catholic Electoral Union	8,008	0.5	3	New
Invalid/blank votes		66,706	–	–	–
Total		1,593,886	100	508	±0
Registered voters/turnout		2,541,327	62.7	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Popular vote

Left			50.90%
PSI			21.35%
Right			13.92%
PR			8.38%
PRI			4.93%
UECI			0.52%

Parliamentary seats

Left			66.73%
Right			14.96%
PR			7.28%
PSI			5.71%
PRI			4.72%
UECI			0.59%

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References

↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p1083
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p1031
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p1039

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[NS-1] Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

[2] Nohlen & Stöver, p1083

[3] Nohlen & Stöver, p1031

[4] Nohlen & Stöver, p1039

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