Fascism in the public sphere of post-fascist Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Over the entire post-war period up to the present day, the endurance of fascism has remained a significant subject of Italian politics. The neo-fascist party, Movimento Sociale Italiano (M.S.I.), was born immediately after the Second World War. Furthermore, the transition to the Republic coexisted with structural continuity with the dictatorship: many elements of the fascist state, such as the administrative institutions, the central bureaucracy and the economic ruling class, were maintained. Alongside concrete (both political and institutional) continuities, we can also observe diverse continuities that marked cultures, languages, and political discourses. The shadow of fascism has often invaded the public sphere in ways that condition the political debate and cultural imaginary. Firstly, for all the democratic and progressive parties and movements Mussolini’s dictatorship has been a constant negative reference point from which they openly distance themselves. Secondly, the spectre of fascism has always been evoked in the political debate with respect to the present and to warn against the return of authoritarianism in new forms. Thirdly, many periodicals, novels, films, comics, and television programmes have trivialized the historical experience of Italian fascism, representing it, through recurrent narrative clichés, as a sort of phenomenon only partially corresponding to historical reality.