Globalization

Early Globalization and the Italian Far-Right in the 1960s and 1970s

Why an historical focus?

Timeline to illustrate the historical approach
empty timeline – Google Search

My attraction for the far-right, and more specifically my interest and curiosity to learn about the latter is unmeasurable. Therefore, I decided to tackle this challenge for the academic year. However, considering how broad the rise of the modern far-right is, and acknowledging the multiple ways to approach the latter made it quite hard to settle and focus only on one specific branch of the topic.

For that specific reason, I decided to discuss the roots of the modern far-right. I firstly did so through a literature review that focuses on the rise of neo-fascism in Italy between the 1960s and the 1970s. Indeed, understanding the debut of neo far-right parties in a European country helps understanding the current European tendency that shows the popularity of the far-right. Additionally, analysing the rise of Italian radical right parties between the 1960s and the 1970s helped realizing that there was actually a correlation with the globalization occurring at the time.

How did globalization emerge?

It seems obvious that after the end of the Second World War, European countries were in need to restore their politics and accordingly, also obliged to adopt new political frameworks. The European territory was helped and saved from Nazi Germany by its British and American allies. As powerful as it is, the United States of America additionally offered to help European countries to rebuild themselves. By rebuilding a country, it is mainly referring to the economic recovery of the state. European country’s economies respectively faced a rebirth, notably done through the notorious Marshall Plan.

As countries were therefore progressively recovering, looking more particularly at the at the Italian case, it was noticed that through the 1960s, a remarkable economic advance was occurring. In fact, to use Paul Ginsborg’s words, cited by Richard Drake, ‘Italy ceased to be a peasant country and became one of the major industrial nations of the West’. The European post war society was gradually emerging, and was hardly emulating the American consumerist model. Luxury goods, such as televisions and refrigerators, but also music and fashion trends that were back then only belonging to the American lifestyle, were then promoted and slowly becoming abundant among European countries, including Italy. However, this economic boom that exploded in Italy caused riots, which will be furtherly explained in the next paragraph of this blog article.

As European integration is concerned, the process is traced back to 1951, which shortly follows the Second World War. As a matter of fact, the European Coal and Steel community (ECSC) marks the debut of the European Union era. The years following the Second World War therefore ended up tightening-up European countries, and made them interact together like never before. Ever since then, European countries interrelate and trade together more and more, as well as with the rest of the world. We can even say that in this 21st century, countries are interdependent.

Illustration showing the interaction between EU countries
Illustration showing the interaction between European countries
 © Ivan Kruk | Dreamstime.com

Link between Italian far-right parties and globalization in the 1970s

But the emergence of that intertwinement between all countries, in addition to the North American influence, was not fully appreciated by the Italian citizens. As mentioned earlier, in the previous paragraph of the article, riots were organised due to the sudden increase of the economy. In fact, the labour force was required to work intensively in order to stimulate production of goods in the country. The latter is the result of the result of the American Taylorist model, which seek to maximize profits of a company.

However, even if the working classes had to work more than before, their working conditions were not ameliorated. As a matter of fact, their wages did not increase, and neither health care and house conditions saw an improvement. As a consequence, working classes were protesting and fighting to acquire better wages, as well as health care, that was inexistent in Italy in that time period.

Shoot the Beasts on Sight': The Far Right and Italy's Elections | The Nation
Protest of Forza Nuova supporters in Rome, 2017
Reuters / Stefano Rellandini

Concluding remarks

With the presented arguments, we can conclude that globalization definitely impacted the rise of neo-fascists movements in Italy between the 1960s and the 1970s. As a matter of fact, the economic development that Italy faced in the post war era affected the nation. Indeed, after its economic recovery thanks to the Marshall Plan, also known as the recovery plan, Italy, as other European countries, was enabled to follow the American consumerist model. Nevertheless, that new economic process, which aims to maximize profits and productivity, made the working class work even more. However, the latter saw itself deprived of an increase of wages, as well as working-conditions.

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cvanloo

16 thoughts on “Early Globalization and the Italian Far-Right in the 1960s and 1970s

  1. This blog post looks visually good, and we found that your use of photos is effective. Additionally, the title is intriguing. However, we find that there is still some clarifications needed. Firstly, the link between the first and second paragraph is rather vague. Secondly, the last part makes strong statements without referring to sources. We hope that within the next few weeks you have time to get back to us and tell us what you think of these suggestions.

    1. First of all, thanks a lot for the feedback! I did not realize that the connexion between the first and the second paragraphs was unclear for the readers, so thank you for pointing it out. Additionally, there is indeed a lack of referencing (hyperlinks) since it is only the first draft. I only brought up some arguments, which I obviously will have to back up with the help of my sources.

      Thank you again for your advice,
      Charlène

      1. Thank you for getting back to us! We saw you added some hyperlinks so we are glad that you took our feedback into account. We are excited to see you update it so we can read the final version.

        1. The final version version is finally uploaded, and I hope the latter meets your expectations are met!

          Best regards,

          Charlène

          1. Thank you for your response! We have read the final version and are really impressed with the result, it definitely met our expectations! Very good job!

  2. Title and the introduction are very well written and intriguing, you really want to read further after the introduction. Furthermore, the format is very structured and appealing. However, the correlation between globalization and the Italian far-right movement in the 1970s as mentioned in the title, is not (yet) elucidated sufficiently. Therefore it is hard to grasp the argument of the blog. If that correlation is made clear, this is a very well-written and visually appealing blog post.

    1. Thank you for your input on my draft of this blog post. Your suggestions will definitely be taken into account while I’ll review and polish my article. It is true that the correlation between globalization and the Italian far-right from the 1960s and 1970s is not shown yet, but soon enough it will be.

      Best regards,
      Charlène

      1. Hi Charlène, I see that now you have made the correlation very clear by adding the subheading. Very well done!

  3. As the previous comments also mentioned, we miss a strong link between the first and second parts of the entry. The topic is undoubtedly relevant and intriguing, but a clear message is missing. This could potentially be tackled by adding a final section at the end of the entry that summarizes the findings in a concise way. If the word count doesn’t provide for this, maybe the best would be to shorten the introductory section. With all that being said, we still want to point out that this is a really good entry in progress, one that is worthy of reading.

    1. Your comment is really appreciated! As answered previously, I did not realize that the link between the first two paragraphs was not coherent. I will therefore adjust it. You also pointed out at the fact that a message was missing. It is indeed true. However, it is for the simple reason that this is my first draft and consequently I did not have time to include all the necessary information, yet. Nevertheless, this missing message will soon be added to the article.

      Thanks again,
      Charlène

      1. Dear Charlene,

        Thank you for the quick response! We are looking forward to reading your final entry. We are positive that it will be a great contribution to the discussion on the topic!

        Márton

  4. I first want to start by saying we really liked the use of your sub headings. The topic you are exploring is very intriguing. We do have some recommendations. The link between the second and third paragraph is missing a correlation. Thus, the overall message is still rather vague. maybe including another paragraph or some more hyperlinks could help this. Nonetheless, the potential the blog has is very exciting, and we can’t wait to read it when you finish.

    1. Thanks a lot for discussing both the good and the bad elements of my article! This will certianly help me to finalize the latter!

      Best regards,

      Charlène

  5. Hi there, what we really like about your blog entry is the visuals you used as well as the structure you followed. The introduction is well written but between the paragraphs, a smooth connection is still a bit missing. Overall we think that you name the most important facts and are looking forward to reading the finished blog entry.

    1. Hello,
      Thank you for noticing that I tried to make the article as visually appealing as possible. In fact, the article needs some additional explanations, which I am currently working on! I can’t wait to have your opinion when the post will be completely finished!

      Sincerely yours,

      Charlène

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