Religion, Rurality and Voting: Secularisation, Landownership and Italian Electoral Behaviour, 1953–2008

This paper analyses the impact of socioeconomic and religious factors in explaining the long-run electoral decay of the dominant party in Italy’s so-called “First Republic” (the Catholic Dc), and the emergence of the regional autonomous Lega Nord-Northern League on the Dc’s debris. On the basis of a unique data set collected by the authors this paper examines: a) the effects of modernization and secularization of the Dc electoral dénouement with particular reference to the change over time of the religious and rural constituencies, the two main DC reservoir of votes; b) the attraction of former Dc voters by the Lega Nord particularly in the old DC territorial bastion of support, characterized by high religiosity and concentration of direct cultivators. The research demonstrates the relevance and persistence of structures profondes such as religion and rural property in the electoral behaviour over a long span of time ranging from 1953 to 2008.