Italian Reformist Socialist Party Explained

Secretary:Pompeo Ciotti
Italian Reformist Socialist Party
Native Name:Partito Socialista Riformista Italiano
Leader1 Title:Leaders
Leader1 Name:Leonida Bissolati
Ivanoe Bonomi
Arturo Labriola
Alberto Beneduce
Split:Italian Socialist Party
Successor:Labour Democratic Party (not legal successor)
Headquarters:Rome
Ideology:Social democracy
Position:Centre-left
Country:Italy

The Italian Reformist Socialist Party (Italian: Partito Socialista Riformista Italiano, PSRI) was a social-democratic political party in Italy.

History

It was formed in 1912 by those leading reformist socialists who had been expelled from the Italian Socialist Party because of their desire of entering in the majority supporting Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti. Leading members of the PSRI were Leonida Bissolati, Ivanoe Bonomi, and Meuccio Ruini.[1] In the 1913 Italian general election, the party won 2.6% of the vote and 21 seats in single-seat constituencies spread in almost all the Italian regions; some others, such as Ruini, were elected for the Italian Radical Party.[2] In the 1919 Italian general election, they won 1.5% of the vote and gained 15 seats under the new proportional representation system.[3]

The party was dissolved by the Italian fascist regime on 6 November 1926, together with all opposition parties. After World War II, Bonomi and Ruini launched the Labour Democratic Party as the continuation of the PSRI and positioned it within the National Democratic Union, which comprised the Italian Liberal Party and some former Radicals.

Electoral results

Italian Parliament

Chamber of Deputies
ElectionVotes% Seats+/–LeaderGovernment
1913196,406 (6th)3.9
191982,157 (9th)1.4

Notes and References

  1. Massimo L. Salvadori, Enciclopedia storica, Zanichelli, Bologna 2000
  2. David Busato, Il Partito Radicale in Italia da Mario Pannunzio a Marco Pannella, 1996
  3. Piergiorgio Corbetta; Maria Serena Piretti, Atlante storico-elettorale d'Italia, Zanichelli, Bologna 2009