Capitalist Development, Class Struggle, and Crisis in Italy, 1945-1975

Abstract

Italy emerged from the Second World War a semi-industrialized nation with low industrial and agricultural productivity. Once the Italian Communist Party (PCI) decided that a socialist revolution at that time was not possible, the question in Italy became how to rebuild under capitalism. Any attempt to expand production was bound to come up against the problem of low internal demand (wages and per capita income were low, and unemployment was high). The situation was further aggravated by a scarcity of raw materials and foreign currency reserves, and by the disequilibrium between the North and the poor, less developed South.

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