Slouching Towards Disaster

Abstract

In the parliamentary elections of 1968 the public expressed its displeasure with the center-left governments, dealing a severe blow to the Socialists, who lost a quarter of their support, while rewarding the opposition PCI, which came in at just under 27 per cent of the vote. Unfortunately for the hopes for social reform, the eight governments that followed through October 1974, most of them center-left cabinets, were riven by internal discord and proved to be even less stable and less effective than the coalitions led by Aldo Moro between 1963 and 1968. Eight governments in six years; the lack of an authoritative leader at the helm; the absence of a coalescent political idea; weakness and instability and drift — these could not have come at a worse time. The governments failed to halt the tide of right-wing and left-wing violence. In the areas of education and labor relations the governments followed a policy of appeasement. Action on the grand reforms was neither incisive nor efficacious. The economy sank virtually into a coma. The nation was in a full-scale emergency.