Italian Democratic Socialist Party

Italian Democratic Socialist Party, anticommunist reform party advocating the nationalization of some industries. As a centre party, it was able to join many Italian governments in the decades after World War II.

In early 1947, socialists who opposed the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) for its cooperation with the Italian Communist Party (PCI) seceded to form the Socialist Party of Italian Workers (Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani; PSLI). After the Christian Democratic premier Alcide De Gasperi excluded the Communist and Socialist parties from his government in May 1947, the PSLI’s support added stability to the government’s majority. In 1952 the PSLI and other anticommunist socialist factions merged to form the Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI), which participated in centre governments after 1954.

As the PSI moved away from its communist ally during the 1950s, its platform came to resemble that of the PSDI. In 1963 the PSI took part in the government, and in October 1966 the PSDI rejoined the party under the PSI’s name. The reunion lasted only a short time; after the PCI’s share of the vote rose to 26.9 percent in the 1968 parliamentary election, the question of a government including communists arose. The former Social Democrats who opposed communist participation left the PSI in July 1969 and formed the Unitary Socialist Party (PSU), whose disagreement with the PSI constituted a major stumbling block to forming governments in the late 1960s. The PSU took the name of Social Democrat again in the spring of 1970. It thereafter continued to add support to the Christian Democratic governments.

Throughout the 1980s, the PSDI maintained its position as a small but powerful party, able to control patronage through key government posts. Corruption within the party was exposed after 1992, and its vote collapsed. Party leaders left to form or join other groups, and the PSDI ceased to exist after 1994.