Uomo Qualunque: The Transnational Making of Italian Post-War Populism

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article argues that the ideology and the sudden success of Guglielmo Giannini’s Uomo Qualunque movement cannot be fully understood without considering cross-cultural contexts. These comprise the Allied occupation, the American discourse on the post-Depression-era common man, and the developments of this discourse in Anglo-American World War II propaganda, including Vice President Wallace’s speech (1942), Frank Capra’s films, and the BBC Radio Londra broadcasts. In comparing Giannini’s ideology with these Anglo-American sources, the article highlights Giannini’s libertarian and anti-statist stance, which distinguished his political programme from the Fascist cult of the state and the agendas of all other Italian post-war parties as well, prompting Confindustria to finance his political movement, the Fronte dell’Uomo Qualunque (1946–47). At the same time, comparison with the Anglo-American sources shows that Giannini’s singular inflection of the idea of the ‘common man’ ultimately fostered a state of passivity that threatened the very freedoms which he promoted.