Editing Conservatism (section)

==== Italy ====
{{main|Conservatism in Italy}}
{{Conservatism in Italy}}
After the [[unification of Italy]], the country was governed successively by the [[Historical Right]], which represented conservative, liberal-conservative, and conservative-liberal positions, and the [[Historical Left]]. After [[World War I]], the country saw the emergence of its first mass parties, notably including the [[Italian People's Party (1919)|Italian People's Party]] (PPI), a Christian-democratic party that sought to represent the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] majority, which had long refrained from politics. The PPI and the [[Italian Socialist Party]] decisively contributed to the loss of strength and authority of the old liberal ruling class, which had not been able to structure itself into a proper party: the [[Liberal Union (Italy)|Liberal Union]] was not coherent and the [[Italian Liberal Party]] came too late.

In 1921, [[Benito Mussolini]] founded the [[National Fascist Party]] (PNF), and the next year, through the [[March on Rome]], he was appointed [[Prime Minister of Italy|Prime Minister]] by King [[Victor Emmanuel III]]. Fascism originated as a populist, revolutionary, anti-royalist, anti-clerical, anti-capitalist, and anti-conservative ideology,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parlato |first=Giuseppe |title=La sinistra fascista: storia di un progetto mancato |publisher=Il Mulino Ricerca |year=2008 |isbn=978-8815127051 |language=it |trans-title=Fascist left: history of a failed project.}}</ref> viewed by many socialists as a leftist heresy rather than a rightist opponent, but it transformed and became distinctly right-wing when it made compromises with the conservative establishment in order to consolidate authority and suppress communist movements.<ref>{{cite book |last=De Grand |first=Alexander |title=Italian Fascism: its Origins and Development |edition=3rd |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2000 |page=145}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Griffin |editor-first1=Roger |chapter=Fascism |author-last=Sternhill |author-first=Zeev |title=International Fascism: Theories, Causes, and the New Consensus |location=London, England; New York |publisher=Arnold Publishers |date=1998 |pages=32}}</ref> Mussolini commented on the dynamic pragmatism of fascism:

{{blockquote|We do not believe in dogmatic programs. ... We permit ourselves the luxury of being aristocratic and democratic, conservative and progressive, reactionary and revolutionary, legalists and illegalists, according to the circumstances of the moment, the place and the environment.<ref>{{cite book |title=Political Protest and Social Change: Analyzing Politics |author1-first=Charles |author1-last=Andrain |author2-first=David |author2-last=Apter |publisher=Springer |year=1994 |isbn=9780230377004 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eDuJDAAAQBAJ}}</ref>}}

In 1926, all parties were dissolved except the PNF, which remained the only legal party in the [[Kingdom of Italy]] until the fall of the regime in July 1943. By 1945, fascists were discredited, disbanded, and outlawed, while Mussolini was executed in April that year.<ref>{{cite book |author1-first=Stefano |author1-last=Fella |author2-first=Carlo |author2-last=Ruzza |title=Re-inventing the Italian Right: Territorial Politics, Populism and 'Post-Fascism' |publisher=Routledge |year=2009}}</ref> The [[1946 Italian institutional referendum]] concerned the fate of the monarchy. While southern Italy and parts of northern Italy were royalist, other parts, especially in central Italy, were predominantly republican. The outcome was 54–46% in favor of a republic, leading to a collapse of the monarchy.<ref>{{cite book |language=it |first=Giorgio |last=Bocca |title=Storia della Repubblica italiana |publisher=Rizzoli |year=1981 |pages=14–16}}</ref>

After [[World War II]], the center-right was dominated by the centrist party [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]] (DC), which included both conservative and center-left elements.<ref>Pepijn Corduwener, ''The Problem of Democracy in Postwar Europe: Political Actors and the Formation of the Postwar Model of Democracy in France, West Germany and Italy'' (Taylor & Francis, 2016), pp. 15, 17, 27, 40, 42.</ref> With its landslide victory over the [[Italian Socialist Party]] and the [[Italian Communist Party]] in 1948, the political center was in power. In [[Denis Mack Smith]]'s words, it was "moderately conservative, reasonably tolerant of everything which did not touch religion or property, but above all Catholic and sometimes [[Clericalism|clerical]]".<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Mack Smith |author-first=Denis |author-link=Denis Mack Smith |title=Modern Italy: A Political History |year=1997 |pages=491––496}}</ref> DC dominated politics until its dissolution in 1994, having governed for 47 out of 52 years.<ref name=":9" /> Among DC's frequent allies there was the conservative-liberal [[Italian Liberal Party]]. At the right of DC stood parties like the royalist [[Monarchist National Party]] and the post-fascist [[Italian Social Movement]].

In 1994, entrepreneur and media tycoon [[Silvio Berlusconi]] founded the liberal-conservative party {{lang|it|[[Forza Italia]]|italic=no}} (FI). He won three elections in [[1994 Italian general election|1994]], [[2001 Italian general election|2001]], and [[2008 Italian general election|2008]], governing the country for almost ten years as prime minister. FI formed a coalitions with several parties, including the national-conservative [[National Alliance (Italy)|National Alliance]] (AN), heir of the MSI, and the regionalist [[Lega Nord]] (LN). FI was briefly incorporated, along with AN, in [[The People of Freedom]] party and later revived in the new [[Forza Italia (2013)|Forza Italia]].<ref>Daniele Albertazzi, et al., eds. ''Resisting the tide: cultures of opposition under Berlusconi (2001–06)'' (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2009).</ref> After the [[2018 Italian general election|2018 general election]], the LN and the [[Five Star Movement]] formed a populist government, which lasted about a year.<ref>Antonino Castaldo, and Luca Verzichelli. "Technocratic populism in Italy after Berlusconi: The trendsetter and his disciples." ''Politics and Governance'' 8.4 (2020): 485–495.</ref> In the [[2022 Italian general election|2022 general election]], a [[Centre-right coalition (Italy)|center-right coalition]] came to power, this time dominated by [[Brothers of Italy]] (FdI), a new national-conservative party born on the ashes of AN. Consequently, FdI, the re-branded [[Lega (political party)|Lega]], and FI formed a government under FdI leader [[Giorgia Meloni]].