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The Right group ( it, Destra), later called Historical Right ( it, Destra storica) by historians to distinguish it from the
The origins of the Historical Right are in the
In 1861, Italy was united as a Kingdom of Italy, Kingdom under the House of Savoy. Cavour, who was Prime Minister of Sardinia since November 1852 with brief interruptions, became the first Prime Minister of Italy. During the first year after unification, Cavour became more conservative as many Radicalism (historical), radicals and Republicanism, republicans refused to recognize the new government, but instead recognize the Redshirts (Italy), Southern Army led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Fearing a democratic revolution, Cavour became near to the new Right group in the Italian Parliament and led it until his premature death in June 1861. The Cavourian policies were partially continued by his successors aligned with the Right group like Luigi Farini, Bettino Ricasoli and Marco Minghetti. Starting in 1861, the Right's government pursued a policy of a Balanced budget amendment, balanced budget, maintained with austerity and high taxation. The taxes, especially the tax on grains, were unpopular among the rural and middle classes. As a result, the Right progressively lost its support. With that, the Right was split, with the original Northern liberals supporting the taxation and the newly arrived Southern conservatives who opposed the modernization and taxation.
In the 1870s, in a time of rising tensions inside the Right governments, the group split into different factions for specific goals and territorial composition:
* The Emilian clique led by Marco Minghetti representing Emilia (region of Italy), Emilian parochialism, in addition to supporting protectionism, moderate liberalism, and alignment with German Empire, Germany.
* The Piedmontese clique led by Giovanni Lanza and Gustavo Ponza di San Martino representing Piedmontese parochialism, supporting liberalism and a moderate Francophile, Francophilic foreign policy.
* The Tuscan clique led by Ubaldino Peruzzi representing Tuscany, Tuscan parochialism, favourable to liberalism and Modernization theory, modernization. Hostile to Minghetti, but vague toward the Left.
* The Lombardian clique led by Cesare Correnti representing the Lombardy, Lombardian parochialism along with Centrism, centrists and Secularism, secularists and those favourable to cooperation with the Left.
On 25 March 1876, Prime Minister Marco Minghetti was forced to resign after the so-called Parliamentary Revolution. The Historical Left, Left, together with dissident members from the Right, put the government into a minority because of the tax on grains' question, which damaged the rural economy. Ironically, many Right politicians who sided now with Left were from the North. Since this moment, the Right fell into opposition and Agostino Depretis, leader of the Left, was appointed as the new Prime Minister.
After the fall of Minghetti, the Right progressively saw splits and disbanded. On 8 October 1882, some weeks before the 1882 Italian general election, general elections, Depretis proclaimed that anyone who was willing to become a Progressivism, progressive would be accepted into his government. Surprisingly, Minghetti agreed with this, causing various individuals in the Right to join the Left. After this event, the rest of the anti-compromise Right was called the Liberal Constitutional Party (Italy), Liberal Constitutional Party or "Constitutional opposition" led by former Finance Minister Quintino Sella and Interior Minister Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì, Antonio Starabba, Marquess of Rudinì. The Constitutionals were not a structured and organized party, but simply a coalition of both Northern and Southern conservatives like Sidney Sonnino, Luigi Luzzatti and Pasquale Villari who rejected perceived opportunism and Depretis' Protectionism, protectionist policies.
After ten years in opposition, the Constitutionals gained the majority thanks to an agreement with dissident Left Giovanni Nicotera and radical Felice Cavallotti and Rudinì was charged to form a new government in substitution of Francesco Crispi. During his short government, overthrown after one year, Rudinì worked to reduce to public expenditure, limit the rising imperialist sentiment and keep Italy aligned with the Triple Alliance (1882), Triple Alliance. Rudinì was recalled in office after the political fall of Crispi, following the defeat in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. During this second term, Rudinì worked to repress the Fasci Siciliani, Sicilian Fasci, a powerful rising socialist protest in Sicily, but also several nationalist groups. After two years, Rudinì was ousted from office after his unpopular cease of Kassala to the United Kingdom. Constitutional politicians like Luzzatti and Sonnino later formed their own governments, but they were short, and were weakened by the newborn Italian Socialist Party and the first organized political parties. The awareness of that forced the Constitutionals to join in the Liberal Union (Italy), Liberal Union in 1913, a political alliance between various liberal politicians, many of whom were previously opposed to each other.
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
groups of the 20th century, was an Italian conservative parliamentary group
A parliamentary group, parliamentary party, or parliamentary caucus is a group consisting of some members of the same political party or electoral fusion of parties in a legislative assembly such as a parliament or a city council.
Parliamentar ...
during the second half of the 19th century. After 1876, the Historical Right constituted the Constitutional opposition toward the left governments. It originated in the convergence of the most liberal faction of the moderate right and the moderate wing of the democratic left. The party included men from heterogeneous cultural, class, and ideological backgrounds, ranging from Anglo-Saxon individualist liberalism to Neo-Hegelian liberalism as well as liberal-conservatives, from strict secularists to more religiously-oriented reformists. Few prime ministers after 1852 were party men; instead they accepted support where they could find it, and even the governments of the Historical Right during the 1860s included leftists in some capacity.
The Right represented the interests of the Northern bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
and the Southern aristocracy
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At t ...
. Its members were mostly large landowners
In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...
, industrialists
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
and people related to the military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
. On economic issues, the Right supported free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...
and ''laissez-faire
''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...
'' policies while on social issues it favoured a strong central government
A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...
, obligatory conscription and during the Cavour era the secular Law of Guarantees, causing Pope Pius IX's ''Non Expedit'' policy of abstention. In foreign relations, their goal was the unification of Italy, primarily aiming for an alliance with the British Empire and the Second French Empire, French Empire, but sometimes also with the German Empire against Austria-Hungary. In the last decades of its history, the Right was often referred to as Constitutional Opposition.
History
Origins
The origins of the Historical Right are in the right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
faction of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinian Parliament, established in 1849. The Right was at the time led by Massimo d'Azeglio, who was also a representative of the Moderate Party (Italy), moderate movement that tried to unify Italy as a federation of states. As the Right dominated the Parliament, D'Azeglio was appointed as List of Prime Ministers of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Prime Minister of Sardinia by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, King Victor Emmanuel II. However, there were tensions inside the group caused by D'Azeglio's assertiveness towards the Catholic Church and the King.Romeo, ''Vita di Cavour'', Bari, 2004, p. 213. The tensions caused the group to split into two separate factions:
* The Conservatives, led by D'Azeglio, Luigi, Count Cibrario, Luigi Cibrario, General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora, La Marmora and Carlo Bon Compagni di Mombello, Carlo Bon Compagni, who supported compromises with the Church and a slow Italian unification.
* The Liberals, led by Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Cavour, Luigi Carlo Farini and Giovanni Filippo Galvagno, Giovanni Galvagno, who supported the expropriation of the Church's goods, a Constitutional monarchy, lesser role of the King in government and French intervention to achieve Italian unification.
In May 1852, Cavour and his supporters left the Right group and moved toward the moderate Historical Left, Left led by Urbano Rattazzi. The duo Rattazzi–Cavour made an alliance (pejoratively called "a marriage"), forming a centrist group called the ''Connubio''. D'Azeglio was forced to resign in November 1852 and Cavour was appointed by the King as the new Prime Minister, ending the Sardinian phase of the Right.
Unification and governments
In 1861, Italy was united as a Kingdom of Italy, Kingdom under the House of Savoy. Cavour, who was Prime Minister of Sardinia since November 1852 with brief interruptions, became the first Prime Minister of Italy. During the first year after unification, Cavour became more conservative as many Radicalism (historical), radicals and Republicanism, republicans refused to recognize the new government, but instead recognize the Redshirts (Italy), Southern Army led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Fearing a democratic revolution, Cavour became near to the new Right group in the Italian Parliament and led it until his premature death in June 1861. The Cavourian policies were partially continued by his successors aligned with the Right group like Luigi Farini, Bettino Ricasoli and Marco Minghetti. Starting in 1861, the Right's government pursued a policy of a Balanced budget amendment, balanced budget, maintained with austerity and high taxation. The taxes, especially the tax on grains, were unpopular among the rural and middle classes. As a result, the Right progressively lost its support. With that, the Right was split, with the original Northern liberals supporting the taxation and the newly arrived Southern conservatives who opposed the modernization and taxation.
In the 1870s, in a time of rising tensions inside the Right governments, the group split into different factions for specific goals and territorial composition:
* The Emilian clique led by Marco Minghetti representing Emilia (region of Italy), Emilian parochialism, in addition to supporting protectionism, moderate liberalism, and alignment with German Empire, Germany.
* The Piedmontese clique led by Giovanni Lanza and Gustavo Ponza di San Martino representing Piedmontese parochialism, supporting liberalism and a moderate Francophile, Francophilic foreign policy.
* The Tuscan clique led by Ubaldino Peruzzi representing Tuscany, Tuscan parochialism, favourable to liberalism and Modernization theory, modernization. Hostile to Minghetti, but vague toward the Left.
* The Lombardian clique led by Cesare Correnti representing the Lombardy, Lombardian parochialism along with Centrism, centrists and Secularism, secularists and those favourable to cooperation with the Left.
On 25 March 1876, Prime Minister Marco Minghetti was forced to resign after the so-called Parliamentary Revolution. The Historical Left, Left, together with dissident members from the Right, put the government into a minority because of the tax on grains' question, which damaged the rural economy. Ironically, many Right politicians who sided now with Left were from the North. Since this moment, the Right fell into opposition and Agostino Depretis, leader of the Left, was appointed as the new Prime Minister.
Constitutional opposition
After the fall of Minghetti, the Right progressively saw splits and disbanded. On 8 October 1882, some weeks before the 1882 Italian general election, general elections, Depretis proclaimed that anyone who was willing to become a Progressivism, progressive would be accepted into his government. Surprisingly, Minghetti agreed with this, causing various individuals in the Right to join the Left. After this event, the rest of the anti-compromise Right was called the Liberal Constitutional Party (Italy), Liberal Constitutional Party or "Constitutional opposition" led by former Finance Minister Quintino Sella and Interior Minister Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì, Antonio Starabba, Marquess of Rudinì. The Constitutionals were not a structured and organized party, but simply a coalition of both Northern and Southern conservatives like Sidney Sonnino, Luigi Luzzatti and Pasquale Villari who rejected perceived opportunism and Depretis' Protectionism, protectionist policies.
After ten years in opposition, the Constitutionals gained the majority thanks to an agreement with dissident Left Giovanni Nicotera and radical Felice Cavallotti and Rudinì was charged to form a new government in substitution of Francesco Crispi. During his short government, overthrown after one year, Rudinì worked to reduce to public expenditure, limit the rising imperialist sentiment and keep Italy aligned with the Triple Alliance (1882), Triple Alliance. Rudinì was recalled in office after the political fall of Crispi, following the defeat in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. During this second term, Rudinì worked to repress the Fasci Siciliani, Sicilian Fasci, a powerful rising socialist protest in Sicily, but also several nationalist groups. After two years, Rudinì was ousted from office after his unpopular cease of Kassala to the United Kingdom. Constitutional politicians like Luzzatti and Sonnino later formed their own governments, but they were short, and were weakened by the newborn Italian Socialist Party and the first organized political parties. The awareness of that forced the Constitutionals to join in the Liberal Union (Italy), Liberal Union in 1913, a political alliance between various liberal politicians, many of whom were previously opposed to each other.
Electoral results
References
{{Authority control Conservative parties in Italy Conservatism in Italy Conservative liberal parties Liberal conservative parties Liberal parties in Italy Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) Defunct political parties in Italy 1849 establishments in Italy 1913 disestablishments in Italy Centre-right parties in Europe Monarchist organizations Political parties established in 1849 Political parties disestablished in 1913 Right-wing parties in Europe