Democratisation of Education in Italian Post-war Era. The italian Communist Party and the School Reform (1943–1962)

Abstract The aim of this article is, first of all, to reconstruct, some aspects of relationship between education and democracy in Italy at the end of World War II. The main topic is devoted to exploring the extensive dilemmas and political difficulties that affected the new mass political forces after the collapse of fascist propaganda: Christian Democrat Party (Democrazia Cristiana: DC) and Italian Communist Party (Partito Comunista Italiano: PCI). Populism and ideological controversies most pronouncedly persisted between these parties from 1948 to 1960s. PCI fluctuated between pedagogical beliefs, on the one hand, inspired by the restoration of the liberal secular education and, on the other hand, more often by the Marxist-Leninist myth of radical change of society. In this article, based upon qualitative research of books and articles, as well as subjective sources like diaries and interviews, the author presents the different obstacles that delayed the proposal for a democratic reform of the schools in Italy. He argues that one of the main obstacles for communist leaders in defining the PCI’s school policy was caused by late discovery of Gramsci’s thought and its implications in the field of education.