The Liminal Origins of Italian Democracy

This chapter conceptualizes the end of Fascism and the beginning of the civil war, after the armistice of September 8, 1943, as the collapse of the markers of certainty and the beginning of a liminal period of chaos and political, as well as existential, uncertainty. It takes the reader for a ride in what was a confusing and bewildering scenario that followed the removal of the Duce, the collapse of the nation, the dissolution of the structure of power, and the disintegration of national unity. A situation of pure liminality and radical uncertainty, pulling and pushing, imbued with a deep sense of disorientation and confusion pervaded all sectors of Italian society: the governmental level, the army units inside and outside the country, as well as people in the cities and in the countryside. Yet, it was precisely this situation of uncertainty that paved the way for passage to democracy.