The Center of the Center-Left Coalition

Abstract

<section class="abstract"> In the year 2000, Center leaning political parties and groups played a major role in the crowded scene of Italian politics. This is especially true in the case of parties which occupied the center space of the Center-Left, the focus of this analysis. Their political visibility notwithstanding, they persistently displayed confused tactics and contradictory goals. Leading protagonists and supporting actors disagreed over key questions including the very definition of “Center” and the political subjects it encompasses, and, with that, the meaning of the bloc’s left flank. In fact, the groups of the Center- Left even debated the hyphen linking the two components of its name. In turn, a political force – the Democrats – was even created with the strategic goal of bypassing the Left/Right cleavage. The Democrats sought to unify the various forces that had joined the Ulivo’s (Olive Tree) electoral cartel into a “democratic party,” that was inspired by the American Democrats, down to the choice of a donkey as its symbol – hence their nickname “Asinello.” Another element that makes it difficult to assign clear boundaries to the political center was that these groups of the center and Center- Left repeatedly took the “reformist” label. As a result, it is quite difficult to trace the boundaries of the semantic universes to which they refer and, in the end, it is often impossible to assess the true nature of the issues dividing political forces and of the stakes involved in particular choices or outcomes. The Center of the Center- Left is not easily analyzed. </section>