Neo-fascist or revolutionary leftist: Family politics and social movement choice in postwar Italy

Abstract

This article examines the relations between parental politics and the choice of activists entering radical movements of the communist left or neo-fascist right between the late 1960s and early 1980s in Italy. Analysis reveals a dominant pattern of parent–child continuity that reproduced the main sociopolitical cleavage but also some discontinuity (with activists from non-partisan households over-represented). Overall the findings confirm the importance of primary social networks while also suggesting claims about generational revolt in the postwar West neglect the patterned complexity of intra-family political relations; overstate the importance of discontinuity; and underestimate the resilience of established cleavages.