Historical Right

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Historical Right
Destra storica
Leaders
Founded1849
Dissolved1913
Merged intoLiberal Union
IdeologyLiberal conservatism[1][2][3]
Conservative liberalism[4][5]
Conservatism[6][7]
Classical liberalism[8][9]
Monarchism[10]
Political positionCentre[11] to centre-right[11]
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The Right group (Italian: Destra), later called Historical Right (Italian: Destra storica) by historians to distinguish it from the right-wing groups of the 20th century, was an Italian conservative parliamentary group during the second half of the 19th century.[12] After 1876, the Historical Right constituted the Constitutional opposition toward the left governments.[13] It originated in the convergence of the most liberal faction of the moderate right and the moderate wing of the democratic left.[14] The party included men from heterogeneous cultural, class, and ideological backgrounds, ranging from British-American individualist liberalism to Neo-Hegelian liberalism as well as liberal-conservatives, from strict secularists to more religiously-oriented reformists.[14][1][15] Few prime ministers after 1852 were party men; instead they accepted support where they could find it, and even the governments of the Historical Right during the 1860s included leftists in some capacity.[11]

The Right represented the interests of the Northern

foreign relations, their goal was the unification of Italy, primarily aiming for an alliance with the British Empire and the French Empire, but sometimes also with the German Empire against Austria-Hungary.[17]
In the last decades of its history, the Right was often referred to as Constitutional Opposition.

History

Origins

Massimo D'Azeglio

The origins of the Historical Right are in the

King Victor Emmanuel II. However, there were tensions inside the group caused by D'Azeglio's assertiveness towards the Catholic Church and the King.[19][20]
The tensions caused the group to split into two separate factions:

In May 1852, Cavour and his supporters left the Right group and moved toward the moderate

centrist group called the Connubio.[22]
D'Azeglio was forced to resign in November 1852 and Cavour was appointed by the King as the new Prime Minister, ending the Sardinian phase of the Right.

Unification and governments

The Count of Cavour

In 1861, Italy was united as a

radicals and republicans refused to recognize the new government, but instead recognize the Southern Army led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Fearing a democratic revolution, Cavour became near to the new Right group in the Italian Parliament and led it until his premature death in June 1861. The Cavourian policies were partially continued by his successors aligned with the Right group like Luigi Farini, Bettino Ricasoli and Marco Minghetti. Starting in 1861, the Right's government pursued a policy of a balanced budget,[23] maintained with austerity and high taxation. The taxes, especially the tax on grains, were unpopular among the rural and middle classes. As a result, the Right progressively lost its support. With that, the Right was split, with the original Northern liberals supporting the taxation and the newly arrived Southern conservatives who opposed the modernization and taxation.[24]

In the 1870s, in a time of rising tensions inside the Right governments, the group split into different factions for specific goals and territorial composition:[25]

On 25 March 1876, Prime Minister Marco Minghetti was forced to resign after the so-called Parliamentary Revolution. The Left, together with dissident members from the Right, put the government into a minority because of the tax on grains' question, which damaged the rural economy.[14] Ironically, many Right politicians who sided now with Left were from the North. Since this moment, the Right fell into opposition and Agostino Depretis, leader of the Left, was appointed as the new Prime Minister.

Constitutional opposition

Further information: Liberal Constitutional Party (Italy) and Liberal Union (Italy)
Marco Minghetti

After the fall of Minghetti, the Right progressively saw splits and disbanded. On 8 October 1882, some weeks before the general elections, Depretis proclaimed that anyone who was willing to become a progressive would be accepted into his government. Surprisingly, Minghetti agreed with this, causing various individuals in the Right to join the Left.[34] After this event, the rest of the anti-compromise Right was called the Liberal Constitutional Party or "Constitutional opposition"[35] led by former Finance Minister Quintino Sella and Interior Minister Antonio Starabba, Marquess of Rudinì. The Constitutionals were not a structured and organized party, but simply a coalition of both Northern and Southern conservatives like Sidney Sonnino, Luigi Luzzatti and Pasquale Villari who rejected perceived opportunism and Depretis' protectionist policies.

After ten years in opposition, the Constitutionals gained the majority thanks to an agreement with dissident Left

imperialist sentiment and keep Italy aligned with the Triple Alliance.[36] Rudinì was recalled in office after the political fall of Crispi, following the defeat in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. During this second term, Rudinì worked to repress the Sicilian Fasci, a powerful rising socialist protest in Sicily, but also several nationalist groups. After two years, Rudinì was ousted from office after his unpopular ceding of Kassala to the United Kingdom. Constitutional politicians like Luzzatti and Sonnino later formed their own governments, but they were short, and were weakened by the newborn Italian Socialist Party and the first organized political parties. The awareness of that forced the Constitutionals to join in the Liberal Union in 1913, a political alliance between various liberal politicians, many of whom were previously opposed to each other.[37]

Electoral results

Chamber of Deputies
Election year Votes % Seats +/– Leader
1861 110,400 (1st) 46.1
342 / 443
–
Camillo Benso di Cavour
1865 114,208 (1st) 41.2
183 / 443
Decrease 159
Alfonso La Marmora
1867 84,685 (2nd) 39.2
151 / 493
Decrease 32
Bettino Ricasoli
1870 110,525 (1st) 37.2
233 / 508
Increase 82
Giovanni Lanza
1874 156,784 (1st) 53.6
276 / 508
Increase 43
Marco Minghetti
1876 97,726 (2nd) 28.2
94 / 508
Decrease 182
Marco Minghetti
1880 135,797 (2nd) 37.9
171 / 508
Increase 77
Marco Minghetti
1882 353,693 (2nd) 28.9
147 / 508
Decrease 24
Marco Minghetti
1886 399,295 (2nd) 27.9
145 / 508
Decrease 2
Silvio Spaventa
1890 138,854 (2nd) 9.4
48 / 508
Decrease 97
Antonio Starabba di Rudinì
1892 309,873 (2nd) 18.3
93 / 508
Increase 45
Antonio Starabba di Rudinì
1895 263,315 (2nd) 21.6
104 / 508
Increase 11
Antonio Starabba di Rudinì
1897 242,090 (2nd) 19.4
99 / 508
Decrease 5
Antonio Starabba di Rudinì
1900 271,698 (2nd) 21.4
116 / 508
Increase 17
Antonio Starabba di Rudinì
1904 212,584 (3rd) 13.9
76 / 508
Decrease 20
Tommaso Tittoni
1909 108,029 (4th) 5.9
44 / 508
Decrease 32
Sidney Sonnino

References

  1. ^ a b Mario Belardinelli (1976). ELIA (ed.). Un esperimento liberal-conservatore: i governi di Rudinì (1896-1898).
  2. ^ Umberto Gentiloni Silveri (2000). Stadium (ed.). Conservatori senza partito. Un tentativo fallito nell'Italia giolittiana.
  3. ^ Di Mauro, Luca. "La Destra storica". Oilproject.
  4. ISBN 9780816074747
    .
  5. ISBN 9780191023477
    .
  6. ^ Gramsci, Antonio (1966). Gramsci Institute (ed.). Studi storici. p. 703.
  7. ISBN 9788834847916
    .
  8. ^ Baglioni, Guido (1973). L'Ideologia della borghesia industriale nell'Italia liberale. Einaudi. p. 191.
  9. ^ Treccani, ed. (2010). "Destra storica italiana". Dizionario di Storia.
  10. ISBN 9788858121498
    .
  11. ^
    S2CID 144016171
    .
  12. ISBN 9781851099085
    .
  13. ^ Pirett (October 1999). Una voce per l'Opposizione Costituzionale di Sua Maestà: Alle origini del "Giornale d'Italia" (in Italian). Contemporanea. pp. 699–712.
  14. ^ a b c "Destra storica italiana". Treccani (in Italian). 2010.
  15. ISBN 9788858118290
    .
  16. ^ Montanelli, Indro (1977). Rizzoli (ed.). Storia d'Italia: Gli anni della destra (1861-1876). Vol. 32.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  17. ISBN 9780816074747
    .
  18. ^ "Partito Moderato". Encilopedia Treccani.
  19. ^ a b Romeo, Vita di Cavour, Bari, 2004, p. 213.
  20. ^ Hearder, Cavour, Bari, 2000, p. 74.
  21. ^ Cavour (1865). "Discorsi parlamentari del conte Camillo di Cavour". Chamber of Deputies of Italy. p. 355. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  22. ^ "La politica del "connubio"; Cavour primo ministro - MuseoTorino".
  23. ^ XII/elenco "Camera dei deputati".
  24. ^ Indro Montanelli (1977). Storia d'Italia: Gli anni della destra, (1861-1876) (in Italian). Vol. 32. Rizzoli.
  25. ISBN 9788892105478
    .
  26. ^ Gherardi, Raffaella (2010). Treccani (ed.). "Marco Minghetti". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 74.
  27. S2CID 151209326
    .
  28. ISBN 9781596054486
    .
  29. ^ Montaldo, Silvano (2004). Treccani (ed.). "Giovanni Lanza". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 63.
  30. ^ Tavallini, Enrico (1887). L. Roux & Co. (ed.). La vita e i tempi di Giovanni Lanza. Vol. 2.
  31. ^ Manfredi, Marco (2015). Treccani (ed.). "Ubaldino Peruzzi". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 82.
  32. ^
    ISBN 9788871884950
    .
  33. ^ Ambrosoli, Luigi (1983). Treccani (ed.). "Cesare Correnti". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 3.
  34. ISBN 9788842095996
    .
  35. ^ La Stampa historical archive.
  36. ^ "Antonio Starrabba marchese di Rudinì". Treccani.
  37. ISBN 9788871884950
    .
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