elicited the support of all of the more important party groups.
The composition of the new government differed but slightly from that
of the former one, but the fact was undisguised that Giolitti relied
for support principally upon the more radical elements of the nation,
and that, furthermore, he did so with the full assent of the king. A
striking evidence of this was the invitation which was extended the
socialist leader Bissolati to assume a post in the ministry. Certain
obstacles arose which prevented acceptance of the offered position,
but when the Government's programme was being given shape Bissolati
was called repeatedly into counsel, and it is understood that the
ministry's pronouncement in behalf of universal suffrage and the
reduction of military and naval expenditures was inspired immediately
by socialist influence. Socialism in Italy, it may be observed, is not
entirely anti-monarchical, as it is in France and Spain; on the (p. 398)
contrary, it tends constantly to subordinate political to social
questions and ends. Bissolati is himself an exponent of the
evolutionary type of socialism, as is Briand in France. The first vote
of confidence accorded the Giolitti government was participated in by
the Giolitti Liberals, the Democratic Left, the Radicals, and a
section of the Socialists--by, in short, a general coalition of the
Left. The shift of political gravity toward the Left, of which the
vote was symptomatic, is the most fundamental aspect of the political
situation in Italy to-day, even as it is in that of France. During
more than a generation the grouping of parties and factions has been
such as to preclude the formation of a compact and disciplined
majority able and willing to grapple with the great social questions
which successive ministries have inscribed in their programmes. But it
seems not impossible that a working _entente_ among the groups of the
Left may in time produce the legislative stability requisite for
systematic and fruitful legislation.

IV. PHASES OF PARTY POLITICS

*441. Lack of a Conservative Party: Effects.*--"From the beginning,"
says an Italian writer, "the constitution of our parties has been
determined, not at all by great historical or political
considerations, but by considerations of a purely personal nature, and
this aspect has been accentuated more and more as we have progressed
in constitutional development. The natural conditions surrounding the
birth and growth