Italian general election, 1913

Italian general election, 1913
All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy
Prime Minister before election; Giovanni Giolitti ; Liberal Union	Elected Prime Minister ; Giovanni Giolitti ; Liberal Union

Last updated April 10, 2019

General elections were held in Italy on 26 October 1913, with a second round of voting on 2 November.^[1] The Liberals (the former Ministeriali) narrowly retained an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, while the Radical Party emerged as the largest opposition bloc. Both groupings did particularly well in Southern Italy, while the Italian Socialist Party gained eight seats and was the largest party in Emilia-Romagna.^[2] However, the election marked the beginning of the decline of Liberal establishment.

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.

Italian Liberal Party Italian political party founded in 1922 and dissolved in 1994

The Italian Liberal Party was a liberal and conservative political party in Italy.

The Italian Radical Party, also known as the Historical Radical Party, was a radical, republican, secularist and social-liberal political party in Italy.

Electoral reform

Changes made in 1912 widened the voting franchise to include all literate men aged 21 or over who had served in the armed forces. For those over 30 the literacy requirement was abolished.^[3] This raised the number of eligible voters from 2,930,473 in 1909 to 8,443,205.^[4] The electoral system remained single-member constituencies with two-round majority voting.^[3]

Historical background

The two historical parliamentary factions, the liberal and progressive Left and the conservative and monarchist Right, formed a single liberal and centrist group, known as Liberal Union, under the leadership of Giovanni Giolitti. 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. Two parliamentary factions alternated in government, one led by Sidney Sonnino and the other, by far the larger of the two, by Giolitti. At that time the Liberals governed in alliance with the Radicals, the Democrats and, eventually, the Reform Socialists.^[5] This alliance governed against two smaller opposition: The Clericals, composed by some Vatican-oriented politicians, The Extreme, formed by the socialist faction which represented a real left in a present-day concept.^[5]

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.

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 Liberal Union, simply and collectively called Liberals, was a political alliance formed in the first years of the 20th century by the Italian Prime Minister and leader of the Historical Left Giovanni Giolitti. The alliance was formed when the Left and the Right merged in a single centrist and liberal coalition which largely dominated the Italian Parliament.

Parties and leaders

	Ideology	Leader
Liberal Union (UL)	Liberalism, Centrism	Giovanni Giolitti
Italian Socialist Party (PSI)	Socialism, Revolutionary socialism	Costantino Lazzari
Italian Radical Party (PR)	Radicalism, Republicanism	Ettore Sacchi
Constitutional Democratic Party (PDC)	Social liberalism, Liberalism	several
Catholic Electoral Union (UECI)	Clericalism, Christian democracy	Ottorino Gentiloni
Italian Reformist Socialist Party (PSRI)	Social democracy, Social liberalism	Leonida Bissolati
Democratic Party (PD)	Social liberalism, Social democracy	several
Italian Republican Party (PRI)	Republicanism, Radicalism	Napoleone Colajanni
Conservative Catholics (CC)	Royalism, Clericalism	several

Coalitions

Coalition		Parties
	Majority		Liberal Union (UL)
			Italian Radical Party (PR)
			Constitutional Democratic Party (PDC)
			Catholic Electoral Union (UECI)
			Democratic Party (PD)
			Conservative Catholics (CC)
	Opposition		Italian Socialist Party (PSI)
			Italian Reformist Socialist Party (PSRI)
			Italian Republican Party (PRI)

Results

← Summary of November 1913 Chamber of Deputies election results →
Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/−

	Liberal Union	2,387,947	47.6	270	New
	Italian Socialist Party	883,409	17.6	52	+11
	Italian Radical Party	522,522	10.4	62	+14
	Constitutional Democratic Party	277,251	5.5	29	New
	Catholic Electoral Union	212,319	4.2	20	+2
	Italian Reformist Socialist Party	196,406	3.9	19	New
	Democratic Party	138,967	2.8	11	New
	Italian Republican Party	102,102	2.0	8	−15
	Conservative Catholics	89,630	1.8	9	New
	Dissident Republican	71,564	1.4	9	New
	Independent Socialists	67,133	1.3	8	New
	Dissident Radicals	65,671	1.3	11	New
Invalid/blank votes		85,694	–	–	–
Total		5,100,615	100	508	±0
Registered voters/turnout		8,443,205	60.4	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Popular vote

UL			47.62%
PSI			17.62%
PR			10.42%
PDC			5.53%
UECI			4.23%
PSRI			3.92%
PD			2.77%
PRI			2.04%
CC			1.79%
Others			4.08%

Parliamentary seats

UL			53.15%
PR			12.20%
PSI			10.24%
PDC			5.71%
UECI			3.94%
PSRI			3.74%
PD			2.17%
CC			1.77%
PRI			1.57%
Others			5.51%

First party by Region

Region
Abruzzo-Molise	UL	PSI	PR
Apulia	UL	PSI	PR
Basilicata	UL	PR	PSI
Calabria	UL	PR	PSI
Campania	UL	PR	PSI
Emilia-Romagna	PSI	UL	PR
Lazio	UL	PSI	PR
Liguria	UL	PSI	PR
Lombardy	PSI	UL	PR
Marche	UL	PSI	PR
Piedmont	UL	PSI	PR
Sardinia	UL	PSI	PR
Sicily	UL	PR	PSI
Tuscany	PSI	UL	PR
Umbria	PSI	UL	PR
Veneto	UL	PSI	PR

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References

↑ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
↑ Piergiorgio Corbetta; Maria Serena Piretti, Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia, Zanichelli, Bologna 2009
1 2 Nohlen & Stöver, p1031
↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p1050
1 2 Italian Liberal Party Archived 2006-11-21 at the Wayback Machine ., Britannica Concise

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

[Corbetta-2] Piergiorgio Corbetta; Maria Serena Piretti, Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia, Zanichelli, Bologna 2009

[NS2-3] 1 2 Nohlen & Stöver, p1031

[4] Nohlen & Stöver, p1050

[Italian_Liberal_Party-5] 1 2 Italian Liberal Party Archived 2006-11-21 at the Wayback Machine ., Britannica Concise

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