Editing Christian Democracy (Italy) (section)

===Factions===
The DC's factions spanned the [[political spectrum]] from [[Left and right in politics|left to right]] and continually evolved over time.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.storiadc.it/correnti.html | title=Democrazia Cristiana - Correnti}}</ref>

In the early years, [[centrism|centrist]]s and [[liberal conservatism|liberal-conservative]]s such as [[Alcide De Gasperi]], [[Giuseppe Pella]], [[Ezio Vanoni]] and [[Mario Scelba]] led the party. After them, progressives led by [[Amintore Fanfani]] were in charge, though opposed by right wing led by [[Antonio Segni]]. The party's left wing, with its roots in the left of the late [[Italian People's Party (1919)|Italian People's Party]] ([[Giovanni Gronchi]], [[Achille Grandi]] and controversial [[Fernando Tambroni]]), was reinforced by new leaders such as [[Giuseppe Dossetti]], [[Giorgio La Pira]], [[Giuseppe Lazzati]] and Fanfani himself. Most of them were social democrats by European standards.

The party was often led by centrist figures unaffiliated to any faction such as [[Aldo Moro]], [[Mariano Rumor]] (both closer to the centre-left) and [[Giulio Andreotti]] (closer to the centre-right). Moreover, it was often the case that if the government was led by a centre-right Christian Democrat, the party was led by a left-winger and vice versa. This was what happened in the 1950s when Fanfani was party secretary and the government was led by centre-right figures such as Scelba and Segni, as well as in the late 1970s when [[Benigno Zaccagnini]], a progressive, led the party and Andreotti the government. This custom, in clear contrast with the principles of a [[Westminster system]], deeply weakened DC-led governments, so that even with broad majorities they were unable to resolve differences between the several factions of the party, and ultimately turning the Italian political system into a de facto [[particracy]] (''partitocrazia'').

From the 1980s the party was divided between the centre-right led by [[Arnaldo Forlani]] (supported also by the party's right wing) and the centre-left led by [[Ciriaco De Mita]] (whose supporters included [[trade union]]ists and the internal left), with Andreotti holding the balance. De Mita, who led the party from 1982 to 1989, tried to transform the party into a mainstream "conservative party" in line with the [[European People's Party]] to preserve party unity. He became prime minister in 1988 but was replaced by Forlani in 1989. Disagreements between de Mita and Forlani brought Andreotti back to the prime-ministership from 1989 to 1992.

With the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] and the end of the great [[Cold War]] ideological conflict, and ultimately the ''Tangentopoli'' scandals, the heterogeneous nature of the party led it to its collapse. The bulk of the DC's membership joined the new [[Italian People's Party (1994)|Italian People's Party]] (PPI), but immediately several centre-right elements led by [[Pier Ferdinando Casini]] joined the [[Christian Democratic Centre]] (CCD), while others directly joined [[Forza Italia]]. A split from the PPI, the [[United Christian Democrats]] (CDU), joined Forza Italia and the CCD in the centre-right [[Pole of Freedoms]] coalition (later becoming the [[Pole for Freedoms]]), while the PPI was a founding member of [[The Olive Tree (Italy)|The Olive Tree]] centre-left coalition in 1996.