SIMONE BERTOLINO

Il modello di  partito nel passaggio dal PCI al PDS

N. 183

Summary — The article deals with organizational transformation of the Italian Communist Party as seen in P. Ignazi "From Pci to Pds" (1992) and C. Baccetti " Pds " (1994). Two questions are the centre of attention: on the one hand the relationship between "internal preconditions" and " external challenge " in the change of parties, and on the other hand the problem of the organizing model originating from the disintegration of the Pci.

As regards the first problem, P. Ignazi emphasises the action of " external challenge" as detonators of change, whereas C. Baccetti paints a picture of change as more " endogenous " and centred on balances of organisational power. Whereas Ignazi underlines the importance of the generation turnover that occurred in the communist machinery in the seventies, Baccetti emphasizes continuity as a prevailing feature of the role played by cadres. It can therefore be said that while Ignazi is more inclined to bring out subjective elements, Baccetti is more inclined to bring out the importance of organizing roles. The weakness of cohesion and stability of the dominant coalition under the spur of external pressures and the increasing difficulty of distributing collective and selective incentives, bring about the possibility of " voices " as well as " exit " among middle cadres.

The second question concerns the new organising model of the Pds. The change of the structure of the dominant coalition and the end of the " democratic centralism " system cause a reduction in the systemic compactness of the organisation as regards both the relation parliamentary group/extra-institutional leadership and the relation centre/periphery and organising control on the external environment. On the whole, the reading of these important books suggests two conclusions. On the one hand, the changes occurred more because of external processes than because of an explicit will; on the other hand, the transformation process destroyed the old structures without creating a new one. The change still maintained its original negative feature.