1919 Italian general election

1919 Italian general election
All 508 seats in the Chamber of Deputies; 255 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	56.58%
Prime Minister before election; Francesco Saverio Nitti; Radical Party	Elected Prime Minister ; Francesco Saverio Nitti; Radical Party

General elections were held in Italy on 16 November 1919.^[1] The fragmented Liberal governing coalition lost the absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, due to the success of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian People's Party.

A new election law had expanded the voting rights to a larger section of the population and established a proportional representation system.^[2]

Background

The elections took place in the middle of Biennio Rosso ("Red Biennium") a two-year period, between 1919 and 1920, of intense social conflict in Italy, following the First World War.^[3] The revolutionary period was followed by the violent reaction of the Fascist blackshirts militia and eventually by the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini in 1922.

The Biennio Rosso took place in a context of economic crisis at the end of the war, with high unemployment and political instability. It was characterized by mass strikes, worker manifestations as well as self-management experiments through land and factories occupations.^[3] In Turin and Milan, workers councils were formed and many factory occupations took place under the leadership of anarcho-syndicalists. The agitations also extended to the agricultural areas of the Padan plain and were accompanied by peasant strikes, rural unrests and guerrilla conflicts between left-wing and right-wing militias.

Electoral system

The Italian parliament passed a law on August 15, 1919 that replaced the uninominal-majoritarian system with a proportional representation system that apportioned seats based on the D'Hondt method.^[2]

The new electoral law introduced in 1919 increased the electorate by more than a quarter to 11 million. It gave all those who had fought at the front in the First World War the right to vote, regardless of their age, as well as all other men over the age of 21.^[4] The old system of using single-member constituencies with two-round majority voting was abolished and replaced with proportional representation in 58 constituencies with between 5 and 20 members.^[5] The new system favoured parties such as the socialist PSI, which was able to mobilise voters through trade unions, cooperatives and other mass organisations, and the Catholic PPI, which could rely on the support of church associations.^[4]

Parties and leaders

	Ideology	Leader	Status before election
Italian Socialist Party (PSI)	Socialism	Nicola Bombacci	Opposition
Italian People's Party (PPI)	Christian democracy	Luigi Sturzo	Government
Liberals, Democrats and Radicals (LDR)	Liberalism	Vittorio Emanuele Orlando	Government
Social Democracy (DS)	Social liberalism	Giovanni Antonio Colonna	Government
Liberal Union (UL)	Liberalism	Giovanni Giolitti	Government
Combatants' Party (PdC)	Veteran interests	Several	Opposition
Radical Party (PR)	Radicalism	Francesco Saverio Nitti	Government
Economic Party (PE)	Conservatism	Ferdinando Bocca	Opposition
Reformist Socialist Party (PSRI)	Social democracy	Leonida Bissolati	Government
Italian Republican Party (PRI)	Republicanism	Salvatore Barzilai	Opposition

Voter turnout

Region	Turnout
Abruzzi e Molise	51.3%
Apulia	54.2%
Basilicata	50.9%
Calabria	47.9%
Campania	49.9
Emilia	71.5%
Lazio	47.5%
Liguria	60.5%
Lombardy	67.4%
Marche	47.6%
Piedmont	63.0%
Sardinia	55.5%
Sicily	44.5%
Tuscany	61.3%
Umbria	56.2%
Veneto	51.5%
Total	56.6%
Source: Ministry of the Interior

Results

The fragmented Liberal governing coalition lost the absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, due to the success of the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian People's Party. The Socialists of Nicola Bombacci received the most votes in almost every region and especially in Emilia-Romagna (60.0%), Piedmont (49.7%), Lombardy (45.9%), Tuscany (41.7%) and Umbria (46.5%), while the People's Party were the largest party in Veneto (42.6%) and came second in Lombardy (30.1%) and the Liberal lists were stronger in Southern Italy (over 50% in Abruzzo, Campania, Basilicata, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily).^[6]



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Italian Socialist Party	1,834,792	32.28	156	+104
	Italian People's Party	1,167,354	20.53	100	New
	Liberals, Democrats and Radicals	904,195	15.91	96	New
	Social Democracy	622,310	10.95	60	New
	Liberal Union	490,384	8.63	41	−229
	Combatants' Party	232,923	4.10	20	New
	Italian Radical Party	110,697	1.95	12	−50
	Economic Party	87,450	1.54	7	New
	Italian Reformist Socialist Party	82,157	1.45	6	−13
	Radicals, Republicans, Socialists and Combatants	65,421	1.15	5	New
	Italian Republican Party	53,197	0.94	4	-4
	Independent Socialists	33,938	0.60	1	−7
Total		5,684,818	100.00	508	0

Valid votes		5,684,818	98.12
Invalid/blank votes		108,674	1.88
Total votes		5,793,492	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		10,239,326	56.58
Source: National Institute of Statistics

Popular vote

PSI			32.28%
PPI			20.53%
LDR			15.91%
DS			10.95%
UL			8.63%
PdC			4.10%
PR			1.95%
PE			1.54%
PSRI			1.45%
Others			2.68%

Seats

PSI			30.71%
PPI			19.69%
LDR			18.90%
DS			11.81%
UL			8.07%
PdC			3.94%
PR			2.36%
PE			1.38%
PSRI			1.18%
Others			1.97%

Leading parties by region

Region
Abruzzo-Molise	LDR–UL	PSI	PPI
Apulia	LDR–UL	PSI	PPI
Basilicata	LDR–UL	PSI	PPI
Calabria	LDR–UL	PPI	PSI
Campania	LDR–UL	PPI	PSI
Emilia-Romagna	PSI	LDR–UL	PPI
Lazio	LDR–UL	PPI	PSI
Liguria	LDR–UL	PSI	PPI
Lombardy	PSI	PPI	LDR–UL
Marche	PSI	LDR–UL	PPI
Piedmont	PSI	LDR–UL	PPI
Sardinia	LDR–UL	PPI	PSI
Sicily	LDR–UL	PPI	PSI
Tuscany	PSI	LDR–UL	PPI
Umbria	PSI	LDR–UL	PPI
Veneto	PPI	PSI	LDR–UL

References

^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
^ ^a ^b Palombara, Joseph G. La (1953). "The Italian Elections and the Problem of Representation". American Political Science Review. 47 (3): 676–703. doi:10.2307/1952900. ISSN 1537-5943. JSTOR 1952900.
^ ^a ^b Brunella Dalla Casa, Composizione di classe, rivendicazioni e professionalità nelle lotte del "biennio rosso" a Bologna, in: AA. VV, Bologna 1920; le origini del fascismo, a cura di Luciano Casali, Cappelli, Bologna 1982, p. 179.
^ ^a ^b Duggan, Fascist Voices, p. 30
^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1032
^ Piergiorgio Corbetta; Maria Serena Piretti, Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia, Zanichelli, Bologna 2009