of the new nation did not permit the formation of a
true conservative party which could stand in opposition to a liberal
party. The liberal party, therefore, occupying the entire field,
divided empirically into groups, denominated not less empirically
Right and Left, in accordance with simple distinctions of degrees and
forms, and perchance also of personal disposition."[574]

[Footnote 574: Cardon, Del governo nella monarchia
costituzionale, 125.]

The preponderating facts, in short, relative to political parties in
Italy are two: (1) the absence of any genuine conservative party such
as in virtually every other European state plays a role of greater or
lesser importance, and (2) the splitting of the liberal forces, which
elsewhere are bound to co-operate against the conservatives, into a
number of factional groups, dominated largely by factional leaders,
and unwilling to unite save in occasional coalitions for momentary
advantage. The lack of a genuine conservative party is to be explained
largely by the anomalous situation which has existed since 1870 in
respect to church and state. Until late years that important element,
the clericals, which normally would have constituted, as does its
counterpart in France, the backbone of a conservative party has (p. 399)
persisted in the purely passive policy of abstention from national
politics. In the evolution of party groupings it has had no part, and
in Parliament it has been totally unrepresented. Until recently all
active party groups were essentially "liberal," and rarely did any one
of them put forward a programme which served to impart to it any vital
distinction from its rivals. Each was little more than a faction,
united by personal ties, fluctuating in membership and in leadership,
fighting with such means as for the moment appeared dependable for the
perquisites of office. Of broadly national political issues there were
none, just as indeed there were no truly national parties.

*442. The Groups of the Extreme Left.*--More recently there has begun to
be a certain development in the direction of national parties and of
stable party programmes. This is coming about primarily through the
growth of the Extreme Left, and especially of the Socialists. Although
the effects are as yet scarcely perceptible, so that the politics of
the country exhibit still all of the changeableness, ineffectiveness,
and chaos characteristic of the