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An Analysis of the Italian Agrarian Reform

1960; University of Wisconsin Press; Volume: 36; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3144560

1543-8325

Lorenzo M. Belotti,

Italian Fascism and Post-war Society

to establish equitable social relationships, the law imposes obligations and limitations on private ownership of land, sets limits according to regions and agricultural zones, promotes and imposes land reclamation, the transformation of large estates and the reconstitution of productive units.1 With the above constitutional provision as background, the government formed by Alcide de Gasperi after the election of 1948, presented to Parliament a general land reform scheme. The scheme provided for the expropriation of land from persons, corporations, or other organizations owning more than a certain amount (300 to 500 hectares, depending upon various factors) for payment of the expropriated land in goverment bonds, and for distribution of the land to landless peasants. The plan, as it was originally conceived, was bitterly fought by the Italian political right. They maintained it was going too far. It was fought by the landowners who were opposed to any kind of reforms, and it was also opposed by many members of the ruling Christian Democratic Party, which considered the plan impracticable at the time and likely to have disastrous effects on agricultural production. While the general land reform project was discussed and debated, unrest among the peasant classes was mounting. Land was promised to the peasants during the elections of 1948 and they demanded that land be given to them quickly. At the same time, Communist propaganda and propagators instigated the peasants to action, and action came. During the first month of 1950 at Melissa, in the Calabria region, crowds of wretched, miserable peasants, after having arbitrarily occupied private lands, refused to leave them and opened fire on the police. The resulting battle ended with a few deaths, and many wounded, also other illegal occupations of lands, and an arousal of public opinion. Parliament, confronted with an increasingly difficult situation, decided that prompt action of some kind was essential and, after a few days of debate, on May 12, 1950, passed a law designed to carry out the colonization of the Sila high lands where peasant dissatisfaction was most pronounced.