La scelta per la repubblica

At the referendum held on 2 June 1946, the Republic prevailed over the Monarchy. This marked a watershed in Italian history, although the electorate appeared strongly divided along territorial lines, given the majority gained by monarchists in the South and partly in the Center of the country. The author reconstructs the complex decision-making process that brought the new Italian political parties to give the electorate, rather than the contextually elected Constituent Assembly, the opportunity of deciding on the issue. In particular, the essay attempts to explain why such choice, formally enacted with the Lieutenant’s legislative decree of 16 March 1946, n. 98, engendered the risk of a deep division of the country. And how, notwithstanding such risk, the protagonists of the new political system finally reached the awareness that the electors should be trusted with a view to prepare a common constitutional future reached the awareness that the electors should be trusted with a view to prepare a common constitutional future.