The Italian ‘Seventies: tracing the origins of Italian modernity

The contributors deal with several ‘facets’ of the Italian seventies. Simona Colarizi provides an overview of the decade, analysing in particular the categories of movements, reforms, democracy, and transition. The article by Eugenio Capozzi focuses on the growing sentiment of hostility towards professional politicians, taking into account its origins and causes. The essay by Lorenzo Benadusi reconstructs the debate on the sexual revolution, examining especially three intellectuals: Renata Pisu and her attempt to educate people on sexual liberation; Augusto Del Noce and his denunciation of the progressive pornograficizing of society; and Pier Paolo Pasolini and his analysis of the link between hedonism and ‘erotomania.’ Paolo Mattera’s article addresses the topic of the welfare state, analysing the real amount of increase spending in the 1970s and assessing whether, and to what extent, the external factors that led to the restructuring of European welfare systems also affected Italy. Andrea Guiso’s essay deals with the tight correlation between the decline of the ‘Republic of Parties’ and the structural transformations of the global economy that occurred between the late sixties and the seventies in the spheres of monetary policy, international finance, and industrial organization. To conclude, Giovanni Mario Ceci explores the relationship between the Christian Democracy, the Italian Catholic world, and the process of secularization, while reconsidering a common interpretation about the existence of a causal relationship between ‘secularization-crisis/end of the DC.’