Social Structure and Political Competition: The Italian Case
With the end of the Fourth French Republic and the apparently effective performance of the Fifth Republic, France no longer provides an obvious touchstone for studies of “unstable” democracies. Perhaps as a result of the search for another such example, there has been an increase in American scholarly interest in Italy. Recent research—when combined with the studies of LaPalombara, Barnes, and Zariski, and with the studies conducted by Italian political scientists—provides a fund of organized and readily available information which may be used to test both general hypotheses and specific ones about Italian politics.
Intra-Party Conflict in a Dominant Party: The Experience of Italian Christian Democracy
A N INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT in postwar Italian politics has -been the emergence of a dominant party. According to Duverger's definition of the term, a dominant party possesses three distinctive traits. First of all, it is "a party larger than any other,, which heads the list and out-distances its rivals over a certain period of time." Secondly, "a party is dominant when it is identified with an epoch; when its doctrines, ideas, methods, its style, so to speak, coincide with those of the epoch." And finally, "a dominant party is that which public opinion believes to be dominant."' The Italian Christian Democratic Party (hereafter to be designated as the DC) appears to satisfy these standards. It has had a plurality of the votes in every general election held in Italy since the Liberation. As a natural consequence of this remarkable string of electoral victories, the DC has held the Premiership and the lion's share of Cabinet portfolios for the past 18 years. Most Italian government agencies, public corporations, and mixed enterprises are headed by Christian Democrats. Moreover, in the process of frustrating Communist expansion, the DC has also been able to contain its own democratic allies-the so-called minor Center parties-which at times appear to be condemned to subsist indefinitely as virtual splinter groups commanding relatively few votes. For these reasons, the DC has generally been regarded as the dominant party in postwar Italy, and the political history of Italy since 1946 is often referred to as the era of Christian Democracy.2 While accomplishing this radical transformation of the Italian
The Mound on the Mount: A Possible Solution to the Problem with Jerusalem
Following Knauf's suggestion (2000), the article raises the possibility that in most periods in the second and first millennia BCE the main built-up area of Jerusalem was limited to a mound on the Temple Mount. This mound, which may have covered an area of five hectares and more, was boxed-in under the Herodian platform. At these periods activity in the City of David ridge was restricted to the area near the Gihon spring. In the Iron IIB and late Hellenistic Periods the fortified settlement expanded simultaneously to both the City of David ridge and the southwestern hill. In these two periods there was no need to fortify the western side of the City of David, as this line ran in the middle of the city.