Giovanni Giolitti was a prominent Italian politician born on October 27, 1842, in Mondovì, and he passed away on July 17, 1928, in Cavour. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy five times and is the second-longest-serving in Italian history, following Benito Mussolini. Giolitti played a crucial role in the political landscape of Italy, initially associated with the Historical Left and later with the Liberal Union.
One of Giolitti’s notable political strategies was the art of “trasformismo,” a method to create a flexible and centrist government coalition that could isolate extreme left and right factions in Italian politics after unification. Under his influence, Italian liberals did not form a structured party but rather informal personal groupings without formal ties to political constituencies.
The period between the early 20th century and the outbreak of World War I, during which Giolitti served as Prime Minister and/or Minister of the Interior from 1901 to 1914 with brief interruptions, is referred to as the “Giolittian era.” He was also associated with the neutralist faction during Italy’s neutrality and, after intervention, remained on the sidelines until the end of the conflict. Upon returning to power in 1920, Giolitti put an end to the Fiume Expedition but struggled to control the new social and political turbulence that arose in the post-war period. In November 1922, he voted confidence in Mussolini’s government, but from 1924 onwards, he remained in opposition to fascism.
Giolitti, a centrist liberal with strong ethical concerns, implemented a wide range of social reforms during his terms in office, aimed at improving the living standards of the common Italians. He also pursued interventionist government policies, including nationalizing private telephone and railway operators, actions criticized by liberal supporters of free trade as the “Giolittian system.” His time in office witnessed significant economic expansion, marking the beginning of the first “Italian economic miracle” and the rise of the large industry.
The main goal of Giolitti’s political approach was to govern prudently from the center, with controlled oscillations between conservatism and progressivism, aiming to preserve existing institutions and social order while isolating extreme reactionary and revolutionary forces. Right-wing critics labeled him a socialist for his courtship of socialist votes in exchange for political favors, while left-wing critics accused him of being a corrupt politician, especially in the conduct of elections in Southern Italy, where he allegedly exploited the support of criminal groups.
Despite the complexity of his legacy, Giovanni Giolitti’s impact on Italian politics and society remains a subject of intense debate among writers and historians.
La mia vita is his autobiography.
