1913 Italian general election

General elections were held in Italy on 26 October 1913, with a second round of voting on 2 November.[1] The Liberals (the former Ministeriali) narrowly retained an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, while the Radical Party emerged as the largest opposition bloc. Both groupings did particularly well in Southern Italy, while the Italian Socialist Party gained eight seats and was the largest party in Emilia-Romagna.[2] However, the election marked the beginning of the decline of Liberal establishment.

1913 Italian general election

← 1909 26 October 1913 (first round)
2 November 1913 (second round)
1919 →

All 508 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
255 seats needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Giovanni Giolitti Costantino Lazzari Ettore Sacchi
Party Liberal Union PSI Radical Party
Seats won 270 52 62
Seat change Decrease59 Increase11 Increase14
Popular vote 2,387,947 883,409 522,522
Percentage 47.62% 17.62% 10.42%
Swing Decrease6.83pp Decrease1.40pp Increase0.50pp

Prime Minister before election

Giovanni Giolitti
Liberal Union

Elected Prime Minister

Giovanni Giolitti
Liberal Union

There were episodes of violence during the election.[3]

Background edit

The two historical parliamentary factions, the liberal and progressive Left and the conservative and monarchist Right, formed a single liberal and centrist group, known as Liberal Union, under the leadership of Giovanni Giolitti. This phenomenon, known in Italian as Trasformismo (roughly translatable in English as "transformism"—in a satirical newspaper, the PM was depicted as a chameleon), effectively removed political differences in Parliament, which was dominated by an undistinguished liberal bloc with a landslide majority until after World War I. Two parliamentary factions alternated in government, one led by Sidney Sonnino and the other, by far the larger of the two, by Giolitti. At that time the Liberals governed in alliance with the Radicals, the Democrats and, eventually, the Reform Socialists.[4] This alliance governed against two smaller opposition: The Clericals, composed by some Vatican-oriented politicians, The Extreme, formed by the socialist faction which represented a real left in a present-day concept.[4]

Electoral reform edit

Changes made in 1912 widened the voting franchise to include literate men aged 21, men who had served in the army or navy (regardless of whether they were 21 years old), and illiterate men over the age of 30.[3][5] This raised the number of eligible voters from 2,930,473 in 1909 to 8,443,205.[6] The electoral system remained single-member constituencies with two-round majority voting.[5]

Parties and leaders edit

Party Ideology Leader Status before election
Liberal Union (UL) Liberalism Giovanni Giolitti Government
Italian Socialist Party (PSI) Socialism Costantino Lazzari Opposition
Italian Radical Party (PR) Radicalism Ettore Sacchi Government
Constitutional Democratic Party (PDC) Social liberalism several Government
Catholic Electoral Union (UECI) Christian democracy Ottorino Gentiloni Government
Italian Reformist Socialist Party (PSRI) Social democracy Leonida Bissolati Opposition
Democratic Party (PD) Social liberalism several Government
Italian Republican Party (PRI) Republicanism Napoleone Colajanni Opposition
Conservative Catholics (CC) Clericalism several Government

Results edit

 
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Liberal Union2,387,94747.62270New
Italian Socialist Party883,40917.6252+11
Italian Radical Party522,52210.4262+14
Constitutional Democratic Party277,2515.5329New
Catholic Electoral Union212,3194.2320+2
Italian Reformist Socialist Party196,4063.9219New
Democratic Party138,9672.7711New
Italian Republican Party102,1022.048−15
Conservative Catholics89,6301.799New
Dissident Republicans71,5641.439New
Independent Socialists67,1331.348New
Dissident Radicals65,6711.3111New
Total5,014,921100.005080
Valid votes5,014,92198.32
Invalid/blank votes85,6941.68
Total votes5,100,615100.00
Registered voters/turnout8,443,20560.41
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Leading party by region edit

Region First party Second party Third party
Abruzzo-Molise UL PSI PR
Apulia UL PSI PR
Basilicata UL PR PSI
Calabria UL PR PSI
Campania UL PR PSI
Emilia-Romagna PSI UL PR
Lazio UL PSI PR
Liguria UL PSI PR
Lombardy PSI UL PR
Marche UL PSI PR
Piedmont UL PSI PR
Sardinia UL PSI PR
Sicily UL PR PSI
Tuscany PSI UL PR
Umbria PSI UL PR
Veneto UL PSI PR

References edit

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ Piergiorgio Corbetta; Maria Serena Piretti, Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia, Zanichelli, Bologna 2009
  3. ^ a b Hershey, Amos S. (1914). "The Recent Italian Elections". American Political Science Review. 8 (1): 50–56. doi:10.2307/1945387. ISSN 0003-0554.
  4. ^ a b Italian Liberal Party Archived 2006-11-21 at the Wayback Machine, Britannica Concise
  5. ^ a b Nohlen & Stöver, p1031
  6. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p1050