Italian general election, 1913

Italian general election, 1913

26 October–2 November 1913

All 508 seats to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Giovanni Giolitti Costantino Lazzari Ettore Sacchi Party Liberal Union Socialist Party Radical Party Seats won 270 52 62 Seat change 59 11 14 Popular vote 2,387,947 883,409 522,522 Percentage 47.6% 17.6% 10.4% Swing 6.8% 1.4% 0.5%

Prime Minister before election Giovanni Giolitti Liberal Union Elected Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti Liberal Union

General elections were held in Italy on 26 October 1913, with a second round of voting on 2 November.^[1] The Liberals (the former Ministeriali) narrowly retained an absolute majority in the Chamber of Deputies, while the Radical Party emerged as the largest opposition bloc. Both groupings did particularly well in Southern Italy, while the Italian Socialist Party gained eight seats and was the largest party in Emilia-Romagna.^[2] However, the election marked the beginning of the decline of Liberal establishment.

Electoral reform

Changes made in 1912 widened the voting franchise to include all literate men aged 21 or over who had served in the armed forces. For those over 30 the literacy requirement was abolished.^[3] This raised the number of eligible voters from 2,930,473 in 1909 to 8,443,205.^[4] The electoral system remained single-member constituencies with two-round majority voting.^[3]

Historical background

The two historical parliamentary factions, the liberal and progressive Left and the conservative and monarchist Right, formed a single liberal and centrist group, known as Liberal Union, under the leadership of Giovanni Giolitti. This phenomenon, known in Italian as Trasformismo (roughly translatable in English as "transformism"—in a satirical newspaper, the PM was depicted as a chameleon), effectively removed political differences in Parliament, which was dominated by an undistinguished liberal bloc with a landslide majority until after World War I. Two parliamentary factions alternated in government, one led by Sidney Sonnino and the other, by far the largest of the two, by Giolitti. At that time the Liberals governed in alliance with the Radicals, the Democrats and, eventually, the Reform Socialists.^[5] This alliance governed against two smaller opposition: The Clericals, composed by some Vatican-oriented politicians, The Extreme, formed by the socialist faction which represented a real left in a present-day concept.^[6]

Parties and leaders

Results

← Summary of November 1913 Chamber of Deputies election results →

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	Liberal Union	2,387,947	47.6	270	New
	Italian Socialist Party	883,409	17.6	52	+11
	Radical Party	522,522	10.4	62	+14
	Constitutional Democratic Party	277,251	5.5	29	New
	Catholic Electoral Union	212,319	4.2	20	+2
	Italian Reformist Socialist Party	196,406	3.9	19	New
	Democratic Party	138,967	2.8	11	New
	Italian Republican Party	102,102	2.0	8	−15
	Conservative Catholics	89,630	1.8	9	New
	Dissident Republican	71,564	1.4	9	New
	Independent Socialists	67,133	1.3	8	New
	Dissident Radicals	65,671	1.3	11	New
Invalid/blank votes		85,694	–	–	–
Total		5,100,615	100	508	±0
Registered voters/turnout		8,443,205	60.4	–	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

First party by Region

References

Elections and referendums in Italy
General elections	1861 1865 1867 1870 1874 1876 1880 1882 1886 1890 1892 1895 1897 1900 1904 1909 1913 1919 1921 1924 1929 1934 1946 1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1972 1976 1979 1983 1987 1992 1994 1996 2001 2006 2008 2013 next
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Referendums	1946 1974 1978 1981 1985 1987 1989 1990 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2000 2001 2003 2005 2006 2009 2011 2016 (Apr) 2016 (Dec)
See also: Elections in Abruzzo Aosta Valley Apulia Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Sardinia Sicily Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Tuscany Umbria Veneto