Italian general election, 1946

Last updated
Italian general election, 1946
Flag of Italy.svg
  1934 2 June 1946 1948  

All 556 seats to the Constituent Assembly of Italy
Turnout 89.1%

  Majority party Minority party Third party
  Alcide de Gasperi 2.jpg Pietro Nenni 2.jpg Palmiro Togliatti Official.jpg
Leader Alcide De Gasperi Pietro Nenni Palmiro Togliatti
Party Christian Democracy Socialist Party Communist Party
Leader since 1944 1931 1938
Leader's seat Trentino Whole Italy Whole Italy
Seats won207 115 104
Popular vote8,101,004 4,758,129 4,356,686
Percentage35.2% 20.7% 18.9%

Constituent Assembly Italy, 1946 Province.png

Legislative election results map. Light Blue denotes provinces with a Christian Democratic plurality, Red denotes those with a Communist plurality, Salmon denotes those with a Socialist plurality.

Prime Minister before election

Alcide De Gasperi
Christian Democracy

New Prime Minister

Alcide De Gasperi
Christian Democracy

General elections were held in Italy on Sunday, 2 June 1946. [1] They were the first after World War II and elected 556 deputies to the Constituent Assembly. Theoretically, a total of 573 deputies were to be elected, but the election did not take place in the Julian March and in South Tyrol, which were under military occupation by the United Nations.

Italy republic in Southern Europe

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.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Constituent Assembly of Italy parliamentary chamber tasked with writing a constitution for the Italian Republic

The Italian Constituent Assembly was a parliamentary chamber which existed in Italy from 25 June 1946 until 31 January 1948. It had the task to write a constitution for the Italian Republic, which had replaced the Kingdom of Italy after the Italian civil war.

Contents

For the first time, Italian women were allowed to vote in a national election. Electors had two votes: one to elect the representatives and one to choose the institutional form of the state.

Electoral system

To emphasise the restoration of democracy after the fascist era, a pure party-list proportional representation was chosen. Italian provinces were united in 31 constituencies, each electing a group of candidates. [2] At constituency level, seats were divided between open lists using the largest remainder method with the Imperiali quota. Remaining votes and seats were transferred at national level, where special closed lists of national leaders received the last seats using the Hare quota.

Party-list proportional representation family of voting systems

Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation (PR) in elections in which multiple candidates are elected through allocations to an electoral list. They can also be used as part of mixed additional member systems.

Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, party officials, or consultants to determine the order of its candidates and gives the general voter no influence at all on the position of the candidates placed on the party list. Additionally, an open list system allows voters to select individuals rather than parties. Different systems give voter different amounts of influence. Voter's choice is usually called preference vote.

The largest remainder method is one way of allocating seats proportionally for representative assemblies with party list voting systems. It contrasts with various divisor methods.

Campaign

At the end of World War II, Italy was governed under transitional laws as a result of agreements between the National Liberation Committee (CLN) and the royal Lieutenant General of the Realm Humbert II. As no democratic elections had taken place for more than 20 years, legislative power was given to the government but, after the first election, the Italian Council of Ministers would have to receive a vote of confidence by the new Constituent Assembly.

National Liberation Committee italian umbrella organisation (1943)

The National Liberation Committee was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against the German occupation of Italy in the aftermath of the armistice of Cassibile. It was a multi-party entity, whose members were united by their anti-fascism.

The Italian word luogotenente is an etymological parallel to lieutenant, deriving from the Latin locum tenens "holding a place", i.e. someone who fills a position instead of another, as a substitute, deputy, et cetera.

Umberto II of Italy last king of Italy

Umberto II was the last King of Italy. He reigned for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946, although he had been de facto head of state since 1944, and was nicknamed the May King.

The three main contestants were Christian Democracy and the Italian Socialist Party, which had both received popular support before the fascist era, and the Italian Communist Party, which had strengthened itself with the armed struggle against Nazism and fascism during the war. The Italian Liberal Party, heir of the pre-fascist and conservative ruling class, proposed an alliance called National Democratic Union. Monarchists groups created the National Bloc of Freedom, while the social liberal Action Party and Labour Democratic Party hoped to maximize the positive image of the governments that they ruled in the National Liberation Committee.

Christian Democracy (Italy) Italian political party, founded in 1943 and dissolved in 1994

Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic political party in Italy.

Italian Socialist Party former Italian political party (1892–1994)

The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in Genoa in 1892, the PSI dominated the Italian left until after World War II, when it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party. The Socialists came to special prominence in the 1980s, when their leader Bettino Craxi, who had severed the residual ties with the Soviet Union and re-branded the party as liberal-socialist, served as Prime Minister (1983–1987). The PSI was disbanded in 1994 as a result of the Tangentopoli scandals. Prior to World War I, future dictator Benito Mussolini was a member of the PSI.

Italian Communist Party communist political party in Italy (1943–1991)

The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy.

Parties and leaders

PartyIdeologyLeader
Christian Democracy (DC) Christian democracy, Popularism Alcide De Gasperi
Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (PSIUP) Socialism, Democratic socialism Pietro Nenni
Italian Communist Party (PCI) Communism, Marxism-Leninism Palmiro Togliatti
National Democratic Union (UDN) Liberalism, Conservatism Manlio Brosio
Common Man's Front (UQ) Populism, Conservatism Guglielmo Giannini
Italian Republican Party (PRI) Republicanism, Social liberalism Randolfo Pacciardi
National Bloc of Freedom (BNL) Conservatism, Monarchism Alfredo Covelli
Action Party (PdA) Republicanism, Liberal socialism Ugo La Malfa

Results

The election gave a large majority to the government formed by the three leaders of the CLN, which were briefly joined by the Republican Party after the exile of Humbert II. The alliance lasted for a year.

Summary of the 2 June 1946 Constituent Assembly election results
Italian Parliament, 1946.svg
PartyVotes%Seats
Christian Democracy 8,101,00435.21207
Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity 4,758,12920.68115
Italian Communist Party 4,356,68618.93104
National Democratic Union [lower-alpha 1] 1,560,6386.7841
Common Man's Front 1,211,9565.2730
Italian Republican Party 1,003,0074.3623
National Bloc of Freedom 637,3282.7716
Action Party 334,7481.457
Sicilian Independence Movement 171,2010.744
Party of Italian Peasants 102,3930.441
Republican Democratic Concentration 97,6900.422
Sardinian Action Party 78,5540.342
Italian Unionist Movement 71,0210.311
Social Christian Party 51,0880.221
Labour Democratic Party 40,6330.181
Republican Progressive Democratic Front [lower-alpha 2] 21,8530.091
Others412,5501.790
Invalid/blank votes1,936,708
Total24,947,187100556
Registered voters/turnout28,005,44989.08
Source: Ministry of Interior
  1. The Labour Democratic Party ran within the banner of the National Democratic Union in most regions.
  2. PSIPCIPRIPdA for Aosta Valley
Popular vote
DC
35.21%
PSIUP
20.68%
PCI
18.93%
UDN
6.78%
UQ
5.27%
PRI
4.36%
BNL
2.77%
PdA
1.45%
Others
4.53%
Parliamentary seats
DC
37.23%
PSIUP
20.68%
PCI
18.71%
UDN
7.37%
UQ
5.40%
PRI
4.14%
BNL
2.88%
PdA
1.26%
Others
2.34%

Referendum

Together with the election, a constitutional referendum took place. Italian electors had to choose if they wanted to continue the reign of Humbert II of Savoy or to turn Italy into a republic. While all regions of Northern Italy as far as Tuscany and Marches gave a majority to the republic, all regions of Southern Italy to Lazio and Abruzzo voted to maintain the monarchy.

Northern Italy geographic region of Italy

Northern Italy is a geographical region in the northern part of Italy. Non-administrative, it consists of eight administrative Regions in northern Italy: Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. As of 2014, its population was 27,801,460. Rhaeto-Romance and Gallo-Italic languages are spoken in the region, as opposed to the Italo-Dalmatian languages spoken in the rest of Italy.

Tuscany Region of Italy

Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants (2013). The regional capital is Florence (Firenze).

Marche Region of Italy

Marche, or the Marches, is one of the twenty regions of Italy. The name of the region derives from the plural name of marca, originally referring to the medieval March of Ancona and nearby marches of Camerino and Fermo. Marche is well known for its shoemaking tradition, with the finest and most luxurious Italian footwear being manufactured in this region.

ChoiceVotes%
Republic12,717,92354.3
Monarchy10,719,28445.7
Invalid/blank votes1,498,136
Total24,935,343100
Registered voters/turnout28,005,44989.1
Source: Official Gazzette

Related Research Articles

The European Parliament election of 2004 in the Netherlands was the election of MEP representing Netherlands constituency for the 2004–2009 term of the European Parliament. It was part of the wider 2004 European election. It was held on 10 June 2004. Fifteen parties competed in a D'Hondt type election for 27 seats..

Limited voting is a voting system in which electors have fewer votes than there are positions available. The positions are awarded to the candidates who receive the most votes absolutely. In the special case in which the voter may vote for only one candidate and there are two or more posts, this system is called the single non-transferable vote or sometimes the strictly limited vote.

2005 Portuguese legislative election

The Portuguese legislative election of 2005 took place on 20 February. The election renewed all 230 members of the Assembly of the Republic.

1995 Portuguese legislative election election

The Portuguese legislative election of 1995 took place on 1 October. The Socialist Party defeated the Social Democratic Party under the lead of António Guterres, elected three years before, but missed the absolute majority by 4 MPs.

1987 Portuguese legislative election election

The Portuguese legislative election of 1987 took place on 19 July. In the previous election, in 1985, the Social Democratic Party had won a minority government managing to survive in coalition with the Democratic and Social Center and the Democratic Renewal Party, and after the approval of a no-confidence motion from the left-wing parties, with the aid of the Democratic Renewal Party, the government fell and Mário Soares, the President at the time, called for a new election.

1976 Portuguese legislative election

The Portuguese legislative election of 1976 took place on 25 April, exactly one year after the previous election, and two years after the Carnation Revolution. With a new Constitution approved, the country's main aim was the economical recovery and the strengthen of the democratic conquests.

1985 Portuguese legislative election election

The Portuguese legislative election of 1985 took place on 6 October. In June of the same year, the former Prime-Minister, Mário Soares, had resigned from the job due to the lack of parliamentary support, the government was composed by a coalition of the two major parties, the center-right Social Democratic and the center-left Socialist, in what was called the Central Bloc, however this was an unstable balance of forces and several members of each party opposed such alliance.

1980 Portuguese legislative election election

The Portuguese legislative election of 1980 took place on 5 October. In January 1980, the Democratic Alliance, which had won the previous election, on 2 December 1979, entered office with Francisco Sá Carneiro leading the government. However, this election was an extraordinary election, and so, in 1980, another election was held.

1948 Italian general election

General elections were held in Italy on Sunday 18 April 1948 to elect the First Republican Parliament. They were heavily influenced by the Cold War confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, and are now best known for the covert political warfare waged by the US State Department and Central Intelligence Agency on behalf of the Christian Democratic Party (DC).

1963 Italian general election

General elections were held in Italy on 28 April 1963, to select the Fourth Republican Parliament. It was the first election with a fixed number of MPs to be elected, as decided by the second Constitutional Reform in February 1963. It was also the first election which saw the Secretary of Christian Democracy to refuse the office of Prime Minister after the vote, at least for six months, preferring to provisionally maintain his more influent post at the head of the party: this fact confirmed the transformation of Italian political system into a particracy, the secretaries of the parties having become more powerful than the Parliament and the Government.

1983 Italian general election

General elections were held in Italy on 26 June 1983, to select the Ninth Republican Parliament. The Pentaparty formula, the governative alliance between five centrist parties, caused unexpected problems to Christian Democracy. The alliance was fixed and universal, extended both to the national government and to the local administrations. Considering that the election result did not longer depend by the strength of the DC, but by the strength of the entire Pentapartito, centrist electors began to look at the Christian Democratic vote as not necessary to prevent a Communist success. More, voting for one of the four minor parties of the alliance was seen as a form of moderate protest against the government without giving advantages to the PCI. Other minor effects of this election were a reduction of the referendarian Radical Party and the appearance of some regional forces.

Common Mans Front Italian political party

The Common Man's Front was a short-lived right-wing populist, monarchist and anti-communist political party in Italy. It was formed shortly after the end of the Second World War and participated in the first post-war election for the constituent assembly in 1946. Its leader was the Roman writer Guglielmo Giannini, and its symbol was the banner of Giannini's newspaper L'Uomo qualunque.

1979 European Parliament election in Italy

The first elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 10 June 1979.

1984 European Parliament election in Italy 1984 European Parliament election

The second elections for the European Parliament in Italy were held on 17 June 1984.

1994 European Parliament election in Italy 1994 European Parliament election

The European Parliament election of 1994 in Italy was the election of the delegation from Italy to the European Parliament in 1994.

Politics of Lombardy

The Politics of Lombardy, Italy, takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democracy, whereby the President of the Region is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in the Regional Council of Lombardy, while executive power is exercised by the Regional Government led by the President, who is directly elected by the people. The current Statute, which regulates the functioning of the regional institutions, has been in force since 2008.

Politics of Marche

The Politics of Marche, Italy takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democracy, whereby the President of the Region is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in the Regional Council, while executive power is exercised by the Regional Government led by the President, who is directly elected by the people. The current Statute, which regulates the functioning of the regional institutions, has been in force since 2004.

2000 Hong Kong legislative election

The 2000 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 10 September 2000 for members of the 2nd Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). The election returned 24 members from directly elected geographical constituencies, 6 seats from the Election Committee constituency and 30 members from functional constituencies, of which 9 uncontested.

1990 Italian regional elections

The Italian regional elections of 1990 were held on May 16. The fifteen ordinary regions, created in 1970, elected their fifth assemblies.

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. The number of seats for each constituency ranged from 1 for Aosta Valley to 36 for Milan.