Italy, the Developing World and Aid Policy, 1969-1979: the “Historic Compromise” and Italian foreign policy

On the basis of documentary evidences from PCI archives and from the private papers of leading Christian Democrats, the article suggests that during the dawn of international détente, the advancement of a development aid policy proved a key ground in preparing what PCI Secretary Enrico Berlinguer defined as the “historic compromise”. Whilst the Cold War prevented official PCI participation in government, the period saw new approaches to developing countries, in which the PCI played a semi-official role, that gave Italy a sort of parallel foreign policy addressed to progressive developing countries in particular in the Mediterranean and Africa. This reflected the views of a majority in Italy and in political circles who were losing confidence in US leadership and capitalism and shared a philosophy of “Third-Worldism”. But it also cemented DC-PCI cooperation while serving specific party aims, and advanced national security and economic interests. Still, even at the pinnacle of détente and of DC-PCI political cooperation, no true leap forward in development aid was achieved and Italy delayed the adoption of a proper aid policy, something that points to the structural limits of CD-PCI cooperation.