Agrarian Relations and Class Hegemony: A Comparative Analysis of Landlord, Social and Political Power - Italy 1861-1920

Abstract

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Geography, land inequality and regional numeracy in Europe in historical perspective

“…It did not want to decrease land-owners' incomes because they had an important share of the votes until 1911 (Federico 2009). Thus, the policies of the state were marked by an absence of action in the south and an activist aid for commercial land owners in the north (Elazar 1996).…”

Nazareno Strampelli and the first Green Revolution

“…It had a large socio-economic gap between the few large landowners and the much larger groups of small landowners, peasants, tenants and labourers. Italy had three main agrarian regions (Elazar, 1996). In the north, large commercial farmers or agrari employed mainly landless labourers or braccianti under extremely exploitative conditions to produce for domestic and export markets.…”

Democracy and Fascism: Class, Civil Society, and Rational Choice in Italy

“…The "Red Menace" thesis, central to this analysis, stresses that fascism was a reaction of classes threatened by socialism (Linz 1976, 26, 28-29). Rural lower-class radicalism, in particular, provoked an alliance between the rural landlords and the urban bourgeoisie, and this reactive alliance explained fascism's initial appeals (Childers 1983;Elazar 1996;Luebbert 1991, 296ff. ).…”