The most striking change in Italian politics before and after Fascism has been the complete reversal of the dominant group. Prior to Mussolini's rise to power the liberal bourgeoisie was ascendant while the Catholics and Marxists had no part in governing. Since 1945 power has been in the hands of Catholics while the rest of the political spectrum has been dominated by the Communists and Socialists. This radical transformation was probably inevitable. The liberal, secular forces of the Risorgimento that united Italy and governed for the next sixty years were always more a political spirit than a solid political entity. Since the country was a late industrial developer with an essentially peasant society, the middle class was small and never put down deep roots. Already in decline after the First World War, bourgeois liberalism was dealt a fatal blow with the triumph of Fascism. Though it revived after the war, time had clearly passed it by.

Any chance that an essentially nonideological formation based on old middle-class, secularist values might secure a firm foothold had depended on the Action party, formed soon after the fall of Mussolini by members of the liberal anti-Fascist resistance. This party epitomized what H. Stuart Hughes has described as “the vague and widespread longing for an Italy that would be ‘purer’ than the Italy of tradition.” Although the party was not without its astute politicians, most Azionisti were high-minded intellectuals with no clear strategy for achieving their lefty ideals.