Italian identity

The Italian identity is one of the main debated issues in Italy at present. Created by the historians Gian Enrico Rusconi and Ernesto Galli Della Loggia in the 1990s, the problem is still very discussed nowadays.

Political identity

The Italian Unification happened relatively late compared to other large western European nations.Ater having been the Kingdom of Italy for nearly one century (1860–1946), it became the Italian Republic in 1946. This very recent development of the Italian democracy (only a bit more than half a century) has been regarded as a sign of backwardness. The Italian political identity is therefore very weak and there is not a political system generally accepted. The polemics between monarchists and republicans, fascists and antifascists, Christian democrats and communists reveal a very divided country, with strong political feelings, but without a common background.

Ethnic identity

Many believe that all Italians come from the same ethnic group with a common Italian ethnic identity starting in the Middle Ages starting with Italian speaking élites. However, since unification there have been tensions between northerners and southerners both in diaspora[1] as well as within Italy.[2] Due to a complex history many have instead developed a sense of municipal, regional or linguistic rather than national identity. Italians often may identify themselves more as a citizen of his particular city rather than as a citizen of Italy. Conflicts among the different identities remain very strong, as proved by the strong football rivalries which can be traced from the history of its Medieval city-states.

Religious identity

One of the main principles of national unity has often been considered the Christian religion, because Italy has been Christian since the settlement of the Papal States in Rome. Many Italians, however, would not recognize themselves as Christian. Especially during the Risorgimento, in the 19th Century, the birth of the nation was linked to popular revolutions, such as the American revolution and the French revolution.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Banks, James A. (2012-05-24). Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education. SAGE. ISBN 9781412981521.
  2. ↑ Vellon, Peter G. (2014-10-03). A Great Conspiracy Against Our Race: Italian Immigrant Newspapers and the Construction of Whiteness in the Early 20th Century. NYU Press. ISBN 9780814788486.

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.