Italian general election, 1870

Italian general election, 1870
All 508 seats to the Italian Chamber of Deputies
Prime Minister before election; Giovanni Lanza ; Historical Right	Elected Prime Minister ; Giovanni Lanza ; Historical Right

Last updated April 10, 2019

General elections were held in Italy on 20 November 1870, with a second round of voting on 27 November.^[1] They were a snap election, called by Prime Minister Giovanni Lanza to take advantage by the Capture of Rome and to give parliamentary representation to the future capital of Italy.^[2]

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.

A snap election is an election called earlier than expected.

Domenico Giovanni Giuseppe Maria Lanza was an Italian politician and the eighth Prime Minister from 1869 to 1873.

Rentier capitalism is a Marxist term currently used to describe the belief in economic practices of monopolization of access to any kind of property, and gaining significant amounts of profit without contribution to society. The origins of the term are unclear; it is often said to be used in Marxism, yet the very combination of words rentier and capitalism was never used by Karl Marx himself.

Electoral campaign

The Historical Right was led by the Prime Minister of Italy, Giovanni Lanza, a conservative politician from Piedmont.

The Right group, later called Historical Right by historians to distinguish it from the right-wing groups of the 20th century, was an Italian parliamentary group during the second half of the 19th century. Since 1876, the Historical Right constituted the Constitutional opposition toward the left governments. Since 1882, its members were usually labeled as Constitutionals or Liberal-Conservatives, especially during the leadership of Rudinì and Sonnino. Few prime ministers after 1852 were party men; instead they accepted support where they could find it, and even the governments of the Historical Right during the 1860s included leftists.

The President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, commonly referred to in Italy as Presidente del Consiglio, or informally as Premier and known in English as the Prime Minister of Italy, is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of Prime Minister is established by Articles 92 through to 96 of the Constitution of Italy. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic after each general election and must have the confidence of the Italian Parliament to stay in office.

Piedmont is a region in northwest Italy, one of the 20 regions of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east and the Aosta Valley region to the northwest; it also borders France to the west and Switzerland to the northeast. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres (9,808 sq mi) and a population of 4 377 941 as of 30 November 2017. The capital of Piedmont is Turin.

The bloc of the Historical Left was led by Urbano Rattazzi, a liberal politician and former Prime Minister, who led the left-wing for more than a decade.

The Left group, later called Historical Left by historians to distinguish it from the left-wing groups of the 20th century, was a liberal and reformist parliamentary group in Italy during the second half of the 19th century. The members of the Left were also known as Democrats or Ministerials. Differently by his Right counterpart, the Left was the result of coalition who represented Northern and Southern middle class, urban bourgeoisie, small businessmen, journalists and academics. It 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. Since the 1890s, the Left showed conservative tendencies, breaking strikes and protests and promoting a colonialist policy in Africa.

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The electoral result was controversial; in terms of percentages, Prime Minister Giovanni Lanza fully exploited the prestige of the Capture of Rome against his parliamentary opponents. However, the turnout further declined after the Non expedit of Pope Pius IX, so that less than 1% of the total population of the country took part to this election.^[4] The newly completed Italian State so revealed itself as a strict oligarchy with a deep fracture with its same population, creating a damage which was never really repaired.

The Capture of Rome, on 20 September 1870 was the final event of the long process of Italian unification known as the Risorgimento, marking both the final defeat of the Papal States under Pope Pius IX and the unification of the Italian peninsula under King Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy.

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. Eligibility varies by country, and the voting-eligible population should not be confused with the total adult population. Age and citizenship status are often among the criteria used to determine eligibility, but some countries further restrict eligibility based on sex, race, or religion.

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After the election, Lanza was confirmed Prime Minister by the King.

Parties and leaders

Party		Ideology	Leader
	Historical Right	Conservatism, Monarchism	Giovanni Lanza
	Historical Left	Liberalism, Centrism	Urbano Rattazzi

Results

← Summary of November 1870 Chamber of Deputies election results →
Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/−

	Historical Right	110,525^{[lower-alpha 1]}	45.9	233	+82
	Historical Left	92,499^{[lower-alpha 1]}	38.4	195	−30
	Independents	37,950^{[lower-alpha 1]}	15.7	56	–
Invalid seats^[5]				24	–
Total		240,974	100	508	+15
Registered voters/turnout		530,018	45.5	–	–
Source: "La Stampa", Monday, December 5, 1870.

1 2 3 Estimate

Parliamentary seats

Historical Right			45.9%
Historical Left			38.4%
Independent			15.7%

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References

↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ La Stampa, Monday, December 5, 1870.
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p1028
↑ The turnout was so low that many candidates that obtained a landslide in the first round, were obliged to the second round because the first one was annulled because the quorum of 50% of registered voters was not accomplished.
↑ The electoral law did not limit the number of constituencies where a candidate could stand, so many political leaders run and won in two or more constituencies, which consequently needed by-elections to fill their seats.

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[fn1-5] 1 2 3 Estimate

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

[2] La Stampa, Monday, December 5, 1870.

[3] Nohlen & Stöver, p1028

[4] The turnout was so low that many candidates that obtained a landslide in the first round, were obliged to the second round because the first one was annulled because the quorum of 50% of registered voters was not accomplished.

[6] The electoral law did not limit the number of constituencies where a candidate could stand, so many political leaders run and won in two or more constituencies, which consequently needed by-elections to fill their seats.

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See also: Elections in Abruzzo Aosta Valley Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Sardinia Sicily Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Tuscany Umbria Veneto