Applying a Marxist methodology, the Historians' Group has been able to combine the search for a popular revolutionary tradition (source of inspiration also for political militants) with the analysis and explanation of the historical phases that stimulated the birth and development of industrial capitalism in Britain, from an economic, social, and cultural point of view. At the same time, this group of historians combined the rigorous scientific method of Marxist political economy and historical and dialectical materialism (history as science) with a strong anti-mechanistic spirit, that led to study the ""human factor"(history as poetry) and to keep it always in great regard. Keywords: Marxism; People's History; Englishness; Economy; Culture.
Despite its previous growth, at the beginning of the Sixties, Italian economy was burned with the exacerbation of its historical imbalances and the coming of new ones. Economic planning and economic policies become a key issue of the Italian political debate, in order to promote and rule a new wave of development. This essay aims to describe the theoretical reflection inside the Italian Communist Party: as part of a set of "structural reforms" (Togliatti), the idea of planning i salso part of the new strategy of the party, the "Italian way to socialism", adopted during the eighth congress in 1956 Keywords: Economic planning; Socialism; Togliatti; Italian capitalism.
Luxemburg's legacy is customarily reduced to two "errors": crude economic determinism, and blind belief in the spontaneity of the masses. The paper reconstructs Luxemburg's arguments about the tendency to the "final" breakdown of capitalism and her criticism of Lenin, and shows how her economic theory and political perspective are different and much richer than usually recognized. The paper shows that firstly, Luxemburg saw the internal link between value, abstract labour and money; secondly, she emphasized the connection between dynamic competition, relative surplus value extraction, and the "law" of the falling tendency of the "relative wage"; thirdly, her theory of the crisis is not underconsumptionist. The paper also assesses Luxemburg political views: her theory of the party, very different from the one held by the Bolsheviks; and her point of view on the trade unions, with reference to a work by Claudio Sabattini. Thus, in the end, Luxemburg's questions seems to be more interesting than her critics' answers, her defeats more fruitful than her opponents' victories. ; 1 ; riccardo.bellofiore@unibg.it ; open ; Non definito ; open ; Bellofiore, Riccardo ; Bellofiore, Riccardo
United or Disunited? The Regional Question and the issue of Federalism in ItalyThis article deals with Italy's regional crisis arising from the petitions –filed in the country over the last years – in favour of a transformationfrom the Italian centralized unitary system into a Federal form of government.This work reconstructs the origins of the regional question and its political-administrative decentralization since the Unity of Italy. It focuses mainlyon the territorial responses and the high points of the debate developingduring the XIX century between "Unitarians" and "Federalists". In particular,we discuss Carlo Cattaneo's argument over the creation of an actualautonomy of territorial communities generating the construction of theUnited Kingdoms of Italy.Outlining the genesis and the evolution of the Italian regions as space ofgovernment, this paper aims at identifying the practices of distribution,largely spread by cartographic representations. Moreover, it takes into consideration the persistence of such regional designs in Italians' collective imagination.Finally, it reconstructs the basic events of Italian regions – a processdelayed for several years – from the Union to Fascism, to the secondpost-war period, until their actual institution in the Seventies.At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, following the crisis caused by"Tangentopoli" (aka bribesville), Northern League movements and Berlusconi'personal party' began to gain ground powerfully. In 2001, the changing political scene led to the approval of a constitutional amendment, introducing a concurrent legislation between State and Regions. The new legal frameworks resulting from a partial institutional revision in Italy can also be seen as the consequence of a controversial regionalization, opposing the historical "Southern question" to the merging of a new "Northern question". Finally, the work questions some fundamental issues emerging from the difficult transition from a Regional State to a Federal one, in this contemporary late-capitalist critical age.KeywordsRegions, federalism, "Northern question".Une ou divisible? La question régionale et le noeud du fédéralisme en ItalieCet article traite du problème régional en Italie et des instances – misesen oeuvre dans ce pays depuis quelques années – en faveur d'unetransition de l'Etat vers une forme de gouvernement de type fédéral.Ce travail revient sur l'origine de la question régionale et du problème de ladécentralisation politique et administrative, à partir de l'Unité d'Italie, etanalyse leurs effets au niveau territorial ainsi que les moments les plus importants du débat qui s'est développé au cours du XIXe siècle entre les"unionistes" et les "fédéraux". Il analyse notamment la polémique menée par Carlo Cattaneo pour la création d'une autonomie effective des communautés territoriales qui aurait pu donner lieu à la construction des Royaumes Unis d'Italie. Dans cet article on suit la genèse et l'évolution des régions italiennes en tant qu'espace de gouvernement, pour comprendre les modalités de diffusion – véhiculées en particulier par les représentations cartographiques – et la persistence de tels dessins régionaux dans l'imaginaire collectif des Italiens. Cette évolution est analysée au travers de la construction institutionnelle des régions italiennes, de l'Unité d'Italie au fascisme, puis de l'après Deuxième Guerre Mondiale, jusqu'à leur institution effective dans les années 1970. Entre le XXe et XXIe siècles, suite à la crise de "Tangentopoli" (le scandale de l'administration publique dans les années 1990), on assiste à la montée des mouvements de la Ligue du Nord et à la naissance du parti "personnel" de Berlusconi. Ce nouveau climat politique conduit, en 2001, à la modification de la Constitution, qui introduit une législation concurentielle entre l'Etat et ses régions. En Italie, de nouveaux tableaux normatifs, issus d'une révision partielle des institutions, sont également le fruit d'une régionalisation conflictuelle qui a opposé à l'ancienne "question de l'Italie du sud", la constitution d'une "question septentrionale". Dans la phase finale, ce travail pose quelques problématiques qui surgissent de la transition difficile d'un Etat de type régional à un Etat fédéral, dans le contexte actuel de crise du capitalisme à l'échelle mondiale.Mots-clésRégionalité, fédéralisme, "question septentrionale".
Uscito a pezzi dalla pesante crisi finanziaria e industriale del 1907, che aveva messo a nudo i limiti della struttura economica del Paese, il capitalismo industriale italiano elaborò un programma, portato avanti fino al primo dopoguerra, che prevedeva l'instaurazione di un governo di tecnocrati. Questo avrebbe dovuto trainare il Paese fuori dalla crisi, pianificarne l'economia e trasformarlo in una grande potenza industriale, con forti connotazioni imperialistiche. Segnali in tale direzione si erano registrati anche nei decenni precedenti, tra fine Ottocento e inizi Novecento, quando ebbe inizio un processo di concentrazione nel settore siderurgico e meccanico. Un percorso peraltro stimolato dalle commesse statali sempre più consistenti (Galli Della Loggia, 1970; Battilossi, 1999; Amatori e Colli, 1999; Bolchini, 2002). La crisi industriale e finanziaria del 1907 e la recessione a livello mondiale che ne seguì, accelerarono la soluzione tecnocratica, che prevedeva un'alleanza, più o meno stretta, con una parte della classe politica e l'entrata in guerra. Negli anni immediatamente seguenti il conflitto, il potere dei tecnocrati sulla scena politica italiana sembrò accrescersi notevolmente, soprattutto quando il governo progettò un programma di espansione economica nelle regioni del Caucaso, nei Balcani e nel Levante ex ottomano, territori in grado di fornire materie prime e di assorbire la produzione italiana in eccesso rispetto alle richieste di un mercato interno asfittico. La collaborazione tra mondo imprenditoriale, bancario e politico non produsse il risultato sperato. La caduta del governo Nitti e il ruolo destabilizzante e filotedesco della Banca Commerciale Italiana nell'Est europeo e nel Caucaso furono tra le cause principali che impedirono il decollo del progetto tecnocratico, provocando una dura reazione da parte dei fratelli Perrone alla guida del gruppo Ansaldo.Heavily Weakened by the financial and industrial crisis of 1907, which showed all the limits of the economic structure of Italy, the Italian industrial capitalism developed a program that continued until the early after World War, which was taking into account the establishment of a government of technocrats. This should had to take the country out of crisis, establish an economical plan and turn it into a major industrial power, with strong imperialist characteristics. Signals in this direction were also recorded in the previous decades, from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when a process of concentration of the main groups of entrepreneurs and capitalists began in the steel and mechanical industry. A path anyway enhanced by more and more orders from the government (Galli Della Loggia, 1970; Battilossi, 1999; Amatori and Colli, 1999; Boldrini, 2002). The industrial and financial crisis of 1907 and the global recession that followed, accelerated the technocratic solution, which were looking for a more or less closer alliance, with a part of the political class and going into war. Soon after the war, the political power of the technocrats in Italy seemed to grow significantly, especially when the Government developed a program of economic expansion in the regions of the Caucasus, Balkans and on the countries of the ex East Ottoman, these territories could provide raw materials and, with respect of an internal market completely saturated, to absorb the exceeding Italian production. The collaboration within the world of business, banking and politics did not produce the desired result. The fall of the Nitti´s Government and the pro German and destabilizing role of the Italian Commercial Bank in Eastern Europe and on the Caucasus were the major drivers against the launch of the technocratic project, inducing a though reaction by the Perrone brothers leading the group Ansaldo. ; L'obiettivo del saggio è di accertare se l'intervento dello Stato fascista nell'economia del paese sia stato effettuato, oltre che dai ministeri deputati a tale funzione e dai vertici del partito fascista, in primis da Mussolini, anche dalle strutture centrali e periferiche del sistema corporativistico.Il potere contrattuale della classe operaia, già del tutto esautorato dalla riforma sindacale del fascismo, dalla creazione cioè di un unico sindacato, fu eliminato definitivamente in seguito all'autonomia della Confindustria nei confronti del Consiglio Nazionale delle Corporazioni e delle Corporazioni, ad eccezione della breve e timida parentesi collaborazionistica avviata dopo il 1936. Tra i motivi di questo cambiamento nell'atteggiamento degli industriali bisogna ricordare che nella seconda metà degli anni Trenta l'economia italiana registrava un deciso orientamento bellico per cui si avvertì l'esigenza di un maggiore impegno della classe operaia per rispondere alle esigenze di una parziale riconversione degli impianti e di una maggiore produttività. Si trattava comunque di aperture molto timide. Nella sostanza, la Confindustria restò arroccata sulle sue posizioni. Del resto era impensabile che tecnocrati e industriali potessero chiedere una partecipazione molto allargata delle Corporazioni al piano industriale varato dal governo.The objective of the test is to determine whether the intervention of the fascist state in the economy of the country has been made, not only by prosecutors appointed to this function and the heads of the fascist party, first by Mussolini, also from the central and peripheral structures corporatist system.The contractual power of the working class, already completely ousted from the union reform of fascism, namely the creation of a single trade union, was permanently deleted after the autonomy of the Confederation against the National Council of Corporations and the Corporations, except for short and timid brackets started after 1936. Among the reasons for this change in the attitude of the industrialists have to remember that in the second half of the thirties the Italian economy registered a strong orientation war that came the need for greater commitment working class to meet the needs of a partial conversion of the plants and increased productivity. It was still very timid openings. In essence, the Confederation remained entrenched in their positions. Moreover it was unthinkable that technocrats and industrial might ask a very enlarged participation of the guilds to plan launched by the government