Post-totalitarian societies in Western Europe : a comparative case study analysis of Italy and Germany

This chapter analyses the process of the systemic transformation in Italy and in Germany after the end of World War II. After having compared the experiences of classic post-totalitarian countries in Western Europe, we will then consider the factors that played a pivotal role in the reconstruction of civil society and the democratic rule of law, namely 1) the nature of the fall of the dictatorships of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, 2) the division of Germany into West Germany and the GDR in 1949 and constitutional referendum in Italy in 1946 3) the policy of reckoning with the previous system legacy and 4) Alcide De Gasperi’s and Konrad Adenauer’s Atlantic and pro-European policy.