As World War II was drawing to a close and the fascist dictatorship was on its last legs, Adriano Olivetti - a successful entrepreneur and one of the protagonists of Italy's "economic miracle" of the 1950s - undertook to construct a real and renewed democracy in Italy.
His institutional project, painstakingly prepared, was based on territorial communities - the base unit of democracy - and proposed a completely federal-based constitution.
This commitment resulted in the Political Order of Communities.
Working from this project, Olivetti embarked on intense political activity from 1945 to his death in 1960. He founded the Community Movement, of which the journal of the same name was its mouthpiece, as well as the publishing firm Edizioni di Comunità. His was a great battle of ideas, and he made many attempts at concrete alliances and social initiatives at a local level. He also did not shy away from electoral struggles. This battle is an integral part of the history of reformism in Italy - more reflexive and constructive, founded on an up-to-date culture of social sciences, and rigorous in seeking the real involvement of concrete communities of citizens.
It is a lesson that needs to be meditated and picked up at a time when democracy appears to be spiralling downwards towards a populism that simplifies and delegates.

SERGIO RISTUCCIA, president of Consiglio italiano per le Scienze Sociali, has served as secretary general of the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti. He has had a long professional career, occupying important posts in Italian public institutions. He has written many publications on political and institutional issues. He founded and is director of the journal «queste istituzioni».

 

Download table of contents and introduction of the book.

Read here the article "Adriano Olivetti, an idealist against the parties" (La Stampa, 8 April 2009)