The Failure of the Radical Left Project in Italy: The Case of the Refoundation Communist Party (PRC)

Abstract

In Italy during the last years It’s been possible to observe the structuring and then the partial de-structuring of a close bond between the movement for a global justice (and other local movements) and the Refoundation Communist Party (Prc). Since 1999, Prc started to debate some principles of classic Leninism through a critic re-reading of the communist experiences of the XX century and the consequent consciousness of the communist no-self-sufficiency. After this, the leaders of the party could throw out the new strategy of an horizontal link to social movements. The relationship between Prc and social movements seem to go on without particular problems until the participation of Prc to the center-left govern in a moderate coalition. This paper intend to analyse the dynamics of this relationship by using, on one hand, the data from a survey carried out during the last four European Social Forum regarding the attitude of Italian movement activists on their relationship with traditional political institutions; on the other hand, we will analyse the interior debate of the Refoundation Communist Party by using documents published in occasion of the 7^th National Congress with particular regard to the articles published on the party’s newspaper “Liberazione” for the tribune of the Congress. All the documents will be analysed with a specific computer program for content analysis.