Why Italian social democracy needs to be reinterpreted beyond the clichés of the post-war period

Abstract

This article reviews Michele Donno’s book, Sulle tracce della Socialdemocrazia. L'altra storia dei socialisti italiani 1925-1964 , which offers a counter-current reinterpretation of the role of democratic socialism in the early decades of the Italian Republic . The author challenges the entrenched "damnatio memoriae" that historically branded the 1947 Palazzo Barberini split as an opportunistic betrayal . Instead, Donno frames it as a conscious attempt to realign Italian socialism with European democratic standards, directly contrasting it with the PSI's anomalous alliance with the PCI and the Soviet Union . By bridging political history and the analysis of public policies (such as the management of the Marshall Plan), the book highlights the "hinge" and democratic guarantee function exercised by Giuseppe Saragat’s party (PSLI/PSDI) . This minority force proved decisive both in securing Italy's adherence to the Western bloc in 1948, and in acting as a political incubator for the first organic center-left governments in the early 1960s . While vindicating the foresight of the social democrats' pro-European, Atlanticist, and reformist choices , the study does not conceal their structural vulnerabilities, including a chronic lack of financial resources, the failure to establish roots as a mass party, and its subsequent decline marked by political patronage . Ultimately, the work restores dignity to an autonomous political culture, inviting scholars to rethink the dynamics of stabilization and modernization in post-war Italy beyond traditional ideological frameworks.