Historic Compromise Research Articles

BERLINGUER: THE ITALIAN COMMUNIST AND HIS AGE. ON THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTHDAY

The article examines the personality of the leader of the Italian Communist Party Enrico Berlinguer through the prism of his formation as a communist leader, theorist and practitioner of the communist movement. The authors analyze the four most important stages in the activities of the head of the PCI. The first of these is connected with the development of a special position of the PCI in relation to the CPSU and Soviet actions in Eastern Europe; the second is due to the development of the strategy of «Eurocommunism»; the third is related to the development and implementation of the concept of «historical compromise»; the fourth is characterized by the raising of a «moral question». The authors argue that Berlinguer continued the strategic line of the founders of the ICP A. Gramsci, P. Togliatti to develop the concept of a special «Italian path to socialism». The authors consider the discussions in Italy in connection with the assessment of Berlinguer's heritage. In their opinion, the theoretical legacy and practical actions of Berlinguer played an important role in the democratic transformation of the Communist Party and in the strengthening of democratic institutions in Italy.

The pci: The Communist Giraffe

Abstract This commentary offers an insight into ‘the Gramsci genome’, the concept typically used to underline Gramsci’s influence on the historical experience of the Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano; pci). Drawing on a personal and specific experience of political militancy within the party, this contribution explores how the pci, by assuming the role of a collective subject in Gramscian terms, pursued the Gramscian line of revolution as a protracted process of democratic expansion and conquest of essential forms of power in civil society. The article underlines the pivotal role played in this endeavour by party leadership until the death of Palmiro Togliatti; it assesses the events that led to the end of pci – including Berlinguer’s failed attempt to revive a left alternative after the historic compromise position; and underlines the persistent need for communism (a ‘more robust communism’) in view of the disaster caused by capitalism over the last 40 years.

‘Nobody’s ideal’: Augustine Birrell, William Walsh and the evolution of the Irish Universities Act, 1908

ABSTRACT This paper explores the process of negotiation, lobbying and parliamentary debate that brought the Irish universities legislation into being in the early 1900s against a backdrop of political and religious conflict. The complex interaction between British ministers and Catholic bishops before and throughout the legislative process dictated the terms of the university settlement. The principal decisions on the legislation were taken by Augustine Birrell, the chief secretary, in conjunction with Dr William Walsh, the Catholic archbishop of Dublin. Contrary to the argument that the legislation was a product of successful obstructionism by Trinity College Dublin, the outcome was a triumph for Walsh and a pragmatic majority among the bishops, who accepted a university that was formally non-denominational but would be Catholic in its cultural and ideological orientation. The universities settlement was a limited but historic compromise between British political elites of differing ideological persuasions and a majority of Catholic bishops.

Alienación y nihilismo en la “sociedad opulenta”. La actualidad de Augusto Del Noce

Del Noce’s thought unravels over several decades on the stimulation of the great historical events in the 20th century (Totalitarianism, the Second World War, the Cold War, the Second Vatican Council, the Historic Compromise in Italy, etc.). Del Noce tackles the major philosophers of his time in this long journey of meditation: from Maritain to Gilson, from Gentile to Gramsci, from Löwith to Lukács and from Voegelin to Croce, not forgetting the dialogue with the classics from Descartes to Rosmini, and Marx to Gioberti. In this paper, I will concentrate mainly on his reflections around the so-called “affluent society” where he has gathered together, prophetically, those nihilist and anti-Christian traits which we are now experimenting in all their dramatic power.

How Non-Majoritarian Institutions Make Silent Majorities Vocal: A Political Explanation of Authoritarian Populism

Why did we witness such a strong growth of anti-liberal forces twenty-five years after the triumph of liberalism? The answer is twofold. First, authoritarian populism has not sneaked into a given political space but is co-constitutive of a new cleavage in most modern societies. Authoritarian populists speak to the issues of this cleavage. Second, the rise of this new cleavage and authoritarian populists cannot be reduced to one of the two well-known explanations, namely the economic insecurity perspective and cultural backlash perspective. This current paper develops a political explanation that integrates struggles over policies with a focus on endogenous dynamics of political institutions in and beyond democracies. In this account, it is the historical compromise between labor and capital that has triggered a dynamic in which the rise of so-called non-majoritarian institutions (NMIs)—such as central banks, constitutional courts, and international organizations (IOs)—have locked in liberal policies in most consolidated democracies. This explanation brings together the party cartelization thesis with the observation that NMIs are a major target of contemporary populism. The explanatory model is probed by translating it into descriptive propositions and by showing step by step how the sequence unfolded in electoral democracies.

The evolution of European economic institutions during the COVID-19 crisis.

This article argues that the incomplete economic and institutional integration of the euro area has exposed the monetary union to increasing economic divergence, which could be deepened by the COVID‐19 crisis. We discuss how monetary and fiscal measures implemented at the onset of the pandemic have contributed to mitigate the economic consequences of lockdowns, but provided limited insurance to narrow economic gaps across member countries. However, EU countries agreed on July 21, 2020 to develop, for the first time, countercyclical fiscal transfers financed by common debt issuance. We discuss the potential of this instrument to contribute to improve the resilience of the eurozone.

Under Attack? The PCI and the Italian Peace Movement in the 1980s

This article investigates the key role played by the peace movement in re-defining the Italian Communist Party’s (PCI’s) identity, after the failure of the Eurocommunist project and the end of the historical compromise strategy in Italy. The first part of the article is dedicated to the international dimension: the relationship between the PCI and the Kremlin on the issue of peace protests, which was characterized both by growing mutual intolerance and the need to maintain a strong and effective internationalist tie. The second part examines how the PCI struggled domestically to deal with new political actors involved in peace mobilisation and the challenges of maintaining the hegemony within the peace movement. The article argues that the challenge posed by the surge of peace movement represented a genuine, albeit missed opportunity for the PCI to renew its own political identity.

Who Gets Scarce Medical Resources during a COVID-19 Pandemic? Let's not beat about the Bush.

Except for such rare situations where it might be determined absence of physician's imputability, physicians cannot ̳save the most lives while respecting the legal rights of the patient' without violating the overarching principle ̳every human life has equal value'. Arguing to the contrary is a conscious hypocritical attitude, or in other words, a fiction. Medical law and ethics long since carry with its various fictions. Furthermore, in a public health emergency such as the current COVID-19 crisis, medical law and ethics change and shift the focus from the patient-centered model towards the public health-centered model. Under these particular circumstances, this fiction becomes striking, and it can no longer be swept under the rug. As health emergencies can happen anywhere, anytime, the patient prioritization in circumstances of limited resources should be accepted. Medical law and ethics should back away from strict commitment to placing paramount emphasis on the value of human life. It is time for medical law and ethics to leave taboo-related hypocritical attitudes, and venture to make a historic compromise. To do so, three principles should be met: subsidiarity, proportionality, and consensus and social proof.

Historiography of studying the liberal parties and their departments on the territory of Belarus at the beginning of the XX century

An objective and comprehensive analysis of the course, results, significance and prospects of studying the history of liberal parties and their departments in Belarus at the beginning of the 20th century was carried out. When determining periods in the development of historiography of the study of political parties, pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and modern (or newest) historiography is distinguished. It is concluded that Russian and Belarusian historiography thoroughly, from different conceptual and methodological positions, studied the liberal movement of the early 20th century, noting almost all possible points of view on its role and place in the country’s social and political life. Further prospects for a scientific search on this issue lie on different planes: the identification and study of those factors of the socio-political development of Belarus that made impossible a historical compromise between the authorities and liberals; a more detailed study of political biographies and belief systems of representatives of the liberal movement, not only leaders, which has already been partially done, but also “simple” participants, as well as factors that influenced their worldview; a detailed study of the sociocultural environment in Belarus, in which liberal values were formed. The methodological apparatus of historical research requires updating: the use of macro- and micro-approaches of the new social history, psychohistory, semiotics; research problems must be solved by means borrowed from different fields of knowledge.

The unfinished chapter of Hong Kong’s long political transition

In hindsight, that the institutional framework of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ (OCTS), the political and socio-economic blueprint for ensuring the continuity of Hong Kong as a capitalist economy, with guarantees of freedom of speech and a high degree of autonomy from China’s socialist and authoritarian rule after a change of sovereignty in 1997, gets caught in political crossfire is inevitable. OCTS was a historical compromise in the early 1980s when the deadlock of Hong Kong’s uncertain political future was resolved by finding a way to convince all the concerned parties that the colony’s prosperity and stability would be guaranteed after a change in its political status. But the premises and parameters of the pact have significantly changed since the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong by China and Britain in 1984. The storm over the Extradition Bill has its roots in the fissures inherent in the institutional framework of OCTS. This paper is an attempt to analyse social protests arising from the Extradition Bill in Hong Kong in 2019 in the light of the former British colony’s extended political transition.

Submission on the Proposed 'Unified Approach' to Pillar One

As a matter of policy, there is a sound theoretical basis (namely the benefits theory) which justifies source taxation when non-residents conduct business with consumers in the market jurisdiction. This justification has long been recognised from the earliest days of tax theories but more recently in the 1923 Report, the early work from the League of Nations and more recent work in the OECD (paragraphs 3-6 of the submission). This policy-based conclusion can be extended logically to the digital age with equal force and evidence of this is found in a recent decision of the US Supreme Court (paragraph 7-14 of the submission). The current international tax settings were an historical compromise (the 1920s compromise). There is no reason, apart from certainty and history, not to revisit these original settings if certain assumptions (for example, that there will be sufficient a quantity of properly rewarded intermediate entities located in the source jurisdiction) no longer exist (paragraphs 15-18). The current international tax settings did not largely allocate profits to the market, but only to factors of production located in the residence jurisdiction. This can be viewed as part of the historical 1920s compromise and whilst pragmatic and convenient it is difficult to justify this from a theoretical perspective. Accordingly, a new compromise could sensibly allocate profits to the market and, with appropriate safeguards to ensure genuine economic activity, not require a physical presence in the marketplace to establish a taxing right (paragraphs 19-24). The increasing ability, efficiency, competitive advantage, and profitability of digitalised businesses result in substantial consumer-orientated businesses being able to trade remotely. As a result of the current international tax settings, the consequence of this dis-intermediation (the removal of a tax-paying intermediary) means a substantial erosion to sourced base corporate income tax (paragraphs 25-26). From a policy perspective, the conclusions reached above support the approach (or something along similar lines) taken by the OECD Secretariat in their Proposal.

Italy, the developing world, and aid policy, 1969–1979: the ‘historic compromise’ and Italian foreign policy

ABSTRACTPolitical support and economic cooperation with progressive developing countries was a key factor in the ‘historic compromise’, the cooperation between the Communist Party and the Christian Democrats that dominated Italy in the 1970s. Circumventing the so-called ‘conventio ad excludendum’, the Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI) gained a voice in Italian foreign policy which reached beyond the pro-Soviet camp, in particular in the Mediterranean, in the Horn, and in South-Eastern Africa. The real nature and the ultimate aim of this cooperation, in a country in which the borders between domestic and foreign policy were often blurred, remains a matter for historical debate.

Reconstructing Labour Law Actors beyond Employment

This article argues that the nature of precarious work can be grasped as the disintegration of the employment relationship which was a historical compromise concerning the distribution of cost and risks between capital and labour, in particular, along Fordist corporate boundaries, while analysing how the formal-and-informal division of labour has changed, corresponding to the change of power relations between labour and capital, focusing on Korean cases. Many legal systems fail to identify who should take responsibility for workers’ rights, by viewing individual corporate entities separately. However, labour law actors – the ‘worker’ and the ‘employer’- should be identified not in a single workplace but with reference to the whole value chain and labour market. In conclusion, it is argued that it is essential to enlarge collective labour rights, and in particular, to secure freedom of association for precarious workers beyondemployment boundaries.

Understanding the divergent development of the ministerial office in Australia and the UK

ABSTRACTLarge, politicised and separate ministerial offices are a feature of Australian government, while the UK ministerial office remains a hybrid unit which is part of the civil service. Using an historical institutionalist lens, and focusing on institutional factors, the article analyses why the separate partisan model evolved in Australia. It argues the Australian innovation was an historical compromise made in an unsuccessful attempt to move towards US-style political-administrative institutions. By contrast, the UK ministerial office has remained unified and hybrid, and, despite experimentation, resilient to structural and ideational change. There is ongoing pressure for more committed support for British ministers but strong forces have prevented moves towards larger offices, seen in the collapse of Extended Ministerial Offices. The article argues explanations for these divergent paths can be found in concepts such as critical junctures, path dependency and institutional resistance. The article contributes to an emerging comparative literature on advisory institutions.

Service integration through medical leadership in England’s NHS

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the current interest in leadership within the National Health Service (NHS), especially within medicine, as a solution to the slow rate of integration of health and social care services.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a conceptual analysis of policy documents and professional statements about leadership.FindingsLeadership is a new common sense, promoted despite the limited evidence that it actually delivers. Leaders take risks, develop organisational vision and involve others in change using influence rather than hierarchic authority. They work together in ad hoc local networks, and, because leaders experience the work first hand, they are trusted by fellow professionals and bring to the organisation of work a flexible, immediate, policy-oriented dynamism and pragmatic adaptability.Practical implicationsThis paper argues that the leadership movement represents a historic compromise between professionals (mostly medical) who want to shape decision making about service reconfiguration, and managers and politicians seeking ways to integrate health and social care services.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge this conceptual analysis is the first to be applied to leadership within the NHS.

De la centralisation autoritaire à la naissance du « pouvoir local » : transition politique et recompositions institutionnelles en Tunisie (2011–2014)

The weakening of local power structures in Tunisia, whether linked to the authoritarian centralization of the country or to the erosion of the mechanisms for coopting local elites, strongly contributed to upset the political equilibrium of fallen President Ben Ali’s regime. The weakened position created conditions favorable to an ongoing negotiation over power-sharing among social groups and their access to resources. The adoption of a new Constitution in 2014 attests to this redefinition of power relations between local elites and the central State inasmuch as it established, for the first time in modern Tunisian history, the principle of an elected, decentralized ‘local power’ with financial and administrative autonomy. The aim of this article is to answer the question of whether the adoption of a new Constitution, brought in on the basis of a historical compromise between the representatives of the country’s different political tendencies, would enable an orderly changeover from authoritarian government to long-term power-sharing arrangements.

Alle origini del "compromesso storico". "Crisi" e "sviluppo" nella cultura politica del Partito comunista italiano

The paper provides an insight into the history of Italian communist party (pci) by focusing on its reaction to the oil crisis of 1973. The hike in oil prices caused the internal debate of the Communist Party to focus on the limits of capitalist development. This debate took place in the weeks following the launch of the historic compromise strategy, which Pci’s General Secretary Enrico Berlinguer made public after the Chilean coup of 11 September 1973. The essay will thus analyse the connection between the oil crisis and the new strategy of the Communist Party, and reflect from this perspective on the political culture of the historic compromise.

Lega democratica and the making of Italy’s center-left

This article analyzes the history of the Lega democratica, a group of Catholic intellectuals active between 1975 and 1987, and its impact on Catholic debates in Italy’s Second Republic. Despite its small membership, the group’s heritage influenced Italy’s post-1994 center-left and shaped its leadership. Such relevance is explained by describing the Lega democratica’s legacy on four issues. First, on Catholic pluralism: the group was central to a decade-long failed attempt to reconcile different souls of the Italian Catholic laity, which anticipated the end of the Christian Democratic party. Second, after Aldo Moro’s murder the Lega democratica theorized the impossibility of a ‘historic compromise’ between Communists and Christian Democrats: such a development framed their post-1994 attitude. Third, the group’s history reveals a growing generational split on how to achieve political reform (mediation vs. rupture). Finally, the emerging idea of a ‘primacy of civil society’ in the political sphere partly defined the Ulivo coalition’s ideology.

Legal Systemology and the Geopolitics of Roman Law: A Response to Stuart Elden’s Critique of Carl Schmitt’s Spatial Ontology

Abstract This paper explores the production, destruction, and reproduction of the geopolitical spaces of Roman law in order to offer an analysis of Schmitt’s (selective) notion of Jus Publicum Europaeum and its relevance to the current “depoliticization” and “dejuridification” of the world. By adopting a historical and geopolitical approach that reaches the boundaries of legal systemology and political theology, the present contribution investigates the manipulative and instrumentalist use of the material object of Rome’s (universalist) competence, namely the “territory” as dominium of its political intervention, which was ultimately (and idealistically) aimed at avoiding the natural destiny of any living being: birth, maturity, and death. Attention is therefore paid to the Roman strategy of (ontological?) contamination of its mythical identity through the legal and sociopolitical administration and regulation of its geographical spaces in terms of (non-)cultural signification. Through the analysis of such concepts as “nomos,” “Großraum,” “Ortung,” and “Ordnung,” it is claimed that Schmitt voluntarily chose to identify the Jus Publicum Europaeum with the geopolitical order produced during the Age of Discovery and not with the “comprehensive” Roman spatial order. The reason for this choice may be identified in the distortive use of Rome’s social relations and political allegiances that lay at the core of its genealogical expansionism (and subsequent inevitable dissolution) since the conquest of Veius in 396 BC and the historical compromise between patrician nobility and plebeians in 367 BC.

La religione cattolica e il Pci. Un problema di continuità (1944-1954)

The article analyses the attention and the interest the Italian Communist Party showed towards the Catholic religion, from 1944 to 1954. The considered diachronic development - intentionally widened to a ten years period - enabled an overall view of the Communist attitude towards the Catholics and let interruptions and continuities appear. Among them, the last ones prevailed. The Turning Point inaugurated by Togliatti in Salerno, in fact - although conditioned by the Cold War national and International changes, that accelerated or slowed it according to the occasions - could be considered irrevocable, laying the basis for the following years Communist politics, culminating, after two decades, in the Historic compromise.