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The Referendum Experience in Europe pp 106–125Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Italy: referendums and initiatives from the origins to the crisis of a democratic regime

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Abstract

During the process of state unification between 1848 and 1860, some referendums were called to ratify the annexation of Italian regions and provinces to the Kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia. These votes were generally called plebiscites: all males who were already 21 years old could vote even though the franchise was then much more restricted on various grounds of age and education. Many communal referendums took place in the first two decades of the twentieth century (Basile, 1994). However, the first two national popular votes were promoted by the fascist regime in 1929 and 1934 to compel and make visible a popular consensus in favour of the authoritarian regime. Those two votes were neither fair nor competitive.

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Authors
  1. Pier Vincenzo Uleri
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Trinity College, Dublin University, Ireland

    Michael Gallagher (Lecturer in Political Science) (Lecturer in Political Science)

  2. University of Florence, Italy

    Pier Vincenzo Uleri (Lecturer in Political Science) (Lecturer in Political Science)

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© 1996 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Uleri, P.V. (1996). Italy: referendums and initiatives from the origins to the crisis of a democratic regime. In: Gallagher, M., Uleri, P.V. (eds) The Referendum Experience in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24796-7_7

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