Italian Democratic Liberal Party

The Italian Democratic Liberal Party (Italian: Partito Liberale Democratico Italiano, PLDI) was a liberal and radical political party in Italy during the earlier decades of the 20th century. Initially, the party was an alliance between progressive liberals, called Liberals, Democrats and Radicals.

History

The Liberals, Democrats and Radicals' alliance was formed for the 1919 Italian general election. It came third after the Italian Socialist Party and the Italian People's Party, with 15.9% and 96 seats, doing particularly well in Piedmont and Southern Italy, especially in Sicily, the home-region of party's leader and former Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando.^[1]

The party was formed for the 1921 Italian general election by the union of the individual politicians, most of whom had taken part to the joint electoral lists between the Italian Radical Party and the Italian Liberal Party in many single-seat constituencies of the country in 1919, gaining 16.0% of the vote and 96 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In 1921, it gained 10.5% of the vote and 68 seats, doing particularly well in Piedmont and Southern Italy.^[2] The party suffered a strong setback in the 1924 Italian general election, which were held under strong intimidation from the fascist Blackshirts, and saw its share of votes decrease to 2.2%, electing 14 seats.^[3]

The party was banned by the Italian fascist regime on 6 November 1926, when the National Fascist Party was proclaimed to be the only legal party in Italy. After World War II, former Radicals and Democrats led by Francesco Saverio Nitti joined the National Democratic Union alongside Liberals and other elements of the old Liberal elite that governed Italy from the years of Giovanni Giolitti until the rise of Benito Mussolini and the instauration of the Fascist regime.

Ideology

The party was the expression of the liberalism and radicalism in Italy and the middle class, including cities' bourgeoisie, small business owners, and artisans among its supporters. There was also a main group of Radicals, who supported universal suffrage and universal public schooling for all children.

Electoral results

Chamber of Deputies
Election year	Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Leader
1919	904,195 (3rd)	15.9	96 / 535	–	Vittorio Emanuele Orlando
1921	684,855 (4th)	10.4	68 / 535	28	Francesco Saverio Nitti
1924	157,932 (8th)	2.2	14 / 508	54	Vittorio Emanuele Orlando

References

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Historical political parties in Italy

Communist

• Proletarian Unity Party (1972–1984)
• Italian Communist Party (1921–1991)
• Proletarian Democracy (1978–1991)
• Party of Italian Communists (1998–2014)

Democratic socialist

• Italian Revolutionary Socialist Party (1881–1893)
• Italian Workers' Party (1882–1892)
• Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (1964–1972)
• Democratic Party of the Left (1991–1998)
• Democratic Left (2007–2010)
• Left Ecology Freedom (2010-2016)

Social-democratic

• Italian Reformist Socialist Party (1912–1926)
• Unitary Socialist Party (1922–1930)
• Action Party (1929–1947)
• Unitary Socialist Party (1949–1951)
• Unified Socialist Party (1966–1969)
• Italian Socialist Party (1892–1994)
• Italian Democratic Socialist Party (1947–1998)
• Democrats of the Left (1998–2007)
• Italian Democratic Socialists (1998–2007)
• Article One (2017–2023)

Green

• Rainbow Greens (1989–1990)
• Federation of Green Lists (1986–1990)
• Federation of the Greens (1990–2021)

Radical and social-liberal

• Action Party (1853–1867)
• Italian Radical Party (1904–1922)
• Democratic Party (1913–1919)
• Constitutional Democratic Party (1913–1919)
• Italian Democratic Liberal Party (1919–1926)
• Social Democracy (1922–1926)
• Labour Democratic Party (1943–1948)
• Republican Democratic Concentration (1946)
• Radical Party (1955–1989)
• Democratic Alliance (1993–1997)
• The Network (1991–1999)

Centrist and liberal

• Liberal Union (1913–1922)
• Democratic Union for the Republic (1998–1999)
• Union for the Republic
• Italian Renewal (1996–2002)
• The Democrats (1999–2002)
• Segni Pact (1993–2003)
• Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (2002–2007)
• Civic Choice (2013–2019)
• Liberal Popular Alliance (2015–2018)

Regionalist and federalist

• Movement for the Independence of Sicily (1943–1951)
• Federalists and Liberal Democrats (1994–1996)
• Federalist Italian League (1995–1996)
• Great South (2011–2013)

Christian-democratic

• Italian Catholic Electoral Union (1906–1919)
• Conservative Catholics (1913–1919)
• Italian People's Party (1919–1926)
• Christian Democracy (1943–1994)
• Italian People's Party (1994–2002)
• Christian Democrats for the Republic (1998)
• Christian Democratic Centre (1994–2002)
• United Christian Democrats (1995–2002)
• European Democracy (2001–2002)
• Christian Democracy for Autonomies (2005–2009)
• Union of Democrats for Europe (1999–2013)

Liberal-conservative

• Economic Party (1919–1924)
• National Democratic Alliance (1953–1954)
• Italian Liberal Party (1922–1994)
• Forza Italia (1994–2009)
• The People of Freedom (2009–2013)
• Future and Freedom (2010–2014)
• New Centre-Right (2013–2017)
• Conservatives and Reformists (2015–2017)
• Direction Italy (2017–2019)
• Cambiamo! (2019–2022)

National-conservative

• Common Man's Front (1946–1949)
• Monarchist National Party (1946–1959)
• People's Monarchist Party (1954–1959)
• Italian Democratic Party of Monarchist Unity (1959–1972)
• National Democracy (1977–1979)
• National Alliance (1995–2009)

Nationalist

• Italian Nationalist Association (1910–1923)
• Combatants' Party (1919–1923)
• National Fascist Party (1921–1943)
• Republican Fascist Party (1943–1945)
• Italian Social Movement (1946–1995)

• List of political parties in Italy
• 19th-century Italian political groups
• Early 20th-century Italian political parties
• 1950s–1990s Italian political parties
• Current Italian political parties