La via italiana: Togliatti's legacy to the Italian Communist Party

Abstract

This thesis argues that Palmiro Togliatti's strategy of transforming and developing the Communist Party of Italy (PCI) as a mass party which would progress to government by a process of compromise, adaptation and the seeking of alliances, did not come to fruition in the manner intended, because of social, economic and political influences which Togliatti had never envisaged. The strategy was flawed also because of the authoritarian, hierarchical and (in practice) undemocratic nature of the party - largely Togliatti's legacy - which reduced its capacity for the rapid adaptation and flexibility necessary to bring the strategy to fulfilment.