Trasformismo

   A key term in Italian politics, trasformismo was born in 1882, when Agostino Depretis, anxious to widen his parliamentary majority and to lessen his dependence on the parliamentary left, invited members of the parliamentary right to “transform themselves” into centrists and join with him in carrying out a specific program of common policies while sharing in the good things of government. Led by Marco Minghetti, a substantial group of former rightists did in fact reinforce Depretis’s cabinet in 1883. Giovanni Giolitti was a flawed master of the same technique. His decision to open the doors of parliamentary respectability to the Fascists in the 1921 election campaign illustrates the dangers of this brand of accommodating, inclusive politics. Amore recent example is the opening to the left in the 1960s, when the Democrazia Cristiana/ Christian Democracy Party (DC) successfully persuaded the Partito Socialista Italiano/Italian Socialist Party (PSI) to join its majority. The word trasformismo is thus commonly used to describe the practice of ruling politicians to seek a stable majority by patronage rather than by ideological solidarity.