Franco’s Spain and Italy’s Christian Democracy: The Anti-Francoism of the Italian Magazine Politica (1955–1968)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article tackles an issue of foremost historiographical interest - the ambivalent attitudes of Italian Catholics towards Franco's dictatorship in Spain, particularly the attitudes of Italian Christian Democracy, the hegemonic Italian party after WWII. It focuses on Politica, the mouthpiece of those left-leaning groups within the party that were more critical not only of Francoism but also of Italian Conservative Catholic who were too indulgent with Franco's regime.

The article provides an original, well-researched and readable insight into an unknown aspect the history of Italian Christian Democracy.

Although the article may be published in its present form, the author may find useful these suggestions:

1. The purpose of lines 16-23 as the opening paragraph of the article is unclear, as it is unclear its relationship with the next paragraph. Even the meaning of lines 24-27 is not easy to understand - what have to do "the mixed feelings that were aroused by the National Catholic dictatorship etc" with the independence from the political decisions of the US showed by the Italian Christian Democracy? It should be explained.

2. All through the text, the author mentions "conservatives", "Catholic conservatives", "right-wing Catholics", but is not always clear if he/she is talking about conservatives within the Italian Catholicism in general, within the Church or within the party.

3. Line 37, "socialism", shouldn't it be "communism"?

4. Line 165, "The  called “Roman party”, which was prevalent in the Vatican and followed Pope Pius XIII" - Pius XII? Anyway, the use of the verb "to follow" does not seem very informative of the meaning of the sentence.

5.  Line 354, "Gérman" should be "Germán".

6. Line 432, the meaning of the title os this section is not easy to understand: did SPANISH anti-Francosim spread among Christian Democrats?

7. Line 539, "who Opus Dei was" - wouldn't it be better "what Opus Dei was", or even "who the members of Opus Dei were" or something like that.

8. In bibliography, give complete reference of Emanuele Treglia's bookchapter. 

 

 

Author Response

Thank you very much for all the comments, I have rewritten the abstract and the introduction to make it clear that my work analyses the transnational relations between Catholic anti-Francoism and a sector of left-wing Italian Christian Democracy that converged in the journal Política.  In the same way, I have tried to explain the interest aroused by the dissemination of the struggle against Francoism by the same magazine. I hope that the changes will help to better dissect the complex cross-cutting world of conservative Catholicism and its political relations. 

I have also rewritten the second section, adding information on the different currents of Christian Democracy, and I have redefined the structure to make it more coherent with the centrality of the journal Política as the main basis of the work.

I have corrected and expanded the bibliographical references, as suggested.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this article. Even though its scope of infests might appear limited, it is nonetheless an important contribution to a number of different pockets of social sciences. The article clearly demonstrates how journalism played an important role in both domestic and international politics in Italy, by commenting on the political situation in Spain. I also enjoyed how the author noted the different stages of how Politica engaged with the issues.

I have two rather simple requests for revisions. First of all, the author should do a better job explaining how an Italian periodical mattered for the political situation in Spain. The author attempts that in pages 1-3, but it is really from page 4, that the reader clearly understands why Politica was so important. In short, the first several pages need to be re-organized and re-stated more clearly, especially for a non-specialist reader, which in this case will most everyone. 

Secondly, it would be helpful to provide additional context about the reach of Politica. How many people read it? Was the number stable over the years? Etc. This amounts to going beyond engagement with the actual content of the published article, to provide more descriptive/quantitative information, which demonstrates the reach of the periodical.

The overall quality of English language in this article is very strong. My only observation would be about the introduction (pages 1-3), which tend to be confusing for a non-specialist. If the author outlines the goals and context of this article more clearly at the outset, the issue will disappear.

Author Response

Thank you very much for all the comments, which I have tried to incorporate in order to improve my text. I have rewritten the introduction to make it clear that my work analyses the transnational relations between Catholic anti-Francoism and a sector of left-wing Italian Christian Democracy that converged in the journal Política.  In the same way, I have tried to explain the interest aroused by the dissemination of the struggle against Francoism by the same magazine. 
I have also rewritten the second section, adding information on the different currents of Christian Democracy, and redefined the structure to make it more coherent with the centrality of the journal Politica as the main basis of the work. I have not been able to find the exact number of readers in the period studied, so I have not been able to incorporate it.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

 

The article aims to discuss the relationship between Italian Christian Democracy and progressive Catholics in the Franco dictatorship during the time period 1955-1968. The inquiry focuses on Giorgio La Pira, who was mayor of Florence, the magazine, Politica, and various contributors to Politica. The topic is interesting. Scholarship has more frequently focused on Communist resistance to the Franco regime. It is a worthwhile enterprise to consider critiques of Franco coming from within the Catholic milieu, particularly since the Catholic Church has often been viewed as complicit in supporting the Franco dictatorship. The transnational approach is also intriguing. Italy was in a complicated set of relationships at this time with the United States, NATO, Spain and the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, the manuscript suffers from a lack of clarity. Earlier sections discuss La Pira, but soon the focus shifts to Remo Giannelli, one of the writers for Politica. The middle section of the manuscript summaries several articles by Gianelli and provides some context for how these articles impacted how Italian Catholics viewed Franco’s Spain. However, this middle portion of the manuscript tends to jump from topic to topic fairly often without sufficient explanation or context. There are some fascinating stories here, but they do not come together into a cohesive analysis.

The manuscript is organized chronologically, but it needs much greater internal coherence. For example, a section beginning on page 4 starts by noting that Politica criticized the Franco regime, but also criticized Peron in Argentina. Subsequent paragraphs note that the magazine also criticized de Gaulle and European imperialism more generally. This section sometimes reads like a summary of articles that appeared in Politica during this time period. What is lacking is a clear argument about why these articles are being discussed together.

 

The author might try is something I call a retrospective outline. Look at each paragraph and consider how it is contributing to the overall argument of the manuscript. Sometimes this exercise facilitates the emergence of the overarching narrative of a piece. The topic of how Italian Christian Democracy, and especially progressive Italian Christian Democrats, managed its relationship to Franco’s Spain is a good one, but the manuscript needs much greater focus and clarity.

Author Response

Thank you very much for all the comments, which I have sought to incorporate in order to improve my text. I have rewritten the introduction to make it clear that my work analyses the transnational relations between Catholic anti-Francoism and a sector of Italian left-wing Christian Democracy that came together at the magazine Politica.  In the same way, I have tried to explain the interest generated by the diffusion of the struggle against the Franco regime by the same magazine.

I have also rewritten the second section, adding information on the different currents of Christian Democracy, and redefined the structure to make it more coherent with the centrality of the magazine Politica as the main basis of the paper.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

I really appreciated the paper. Just one suggestion: I would underline the attitude of the "all" DC towards Franco's regime and not just the "Politica" group (i.e. Moro, Andreotti, Taviani, Rumor, ecc.). Just a little reference.

Author Response

Thank you very much for all the comments, which I have sought to incorporate in order to improve my text. I have rewritten the introduction to make it clear that my work analyses the transnational relations between Catholic anti-Francoism and a sector of Italian left-wing Christian Democracy that came together at the magazine Politica.  In the same way, I have tried to explain the interest generated by the diffusion of the struggle against the Franco regime by the same magazine.

I have also rewritten the second section, adding information on the different currents of Christian Democracy, and redefined the structure to make it more coherent with the centrality of the magazine Politica as the main basis of the paper.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 5 Report

The article is well structured and the general topic is potentially very interesting. 

General comments:

- for international readers could be very useful to better describe the Italian CD party. Namely, the relation of the Prospettive's group with other wings ("correnti"), considering that Prospettive was very important for "La Base", a CD left-wing. It is quite surprising that this is not mentioned at all. 

- Regarding the Italian CD positions on Franco's Spain, a comparison with Sturzo's view would be very significant to understand the attitude of CD political culture towards Franco's regime and the Spanish civil war (see Alfonso Botti's works). This is a crucial precedent on the topic.

Specific comments: 

- line 165, the reference to Riccardi's book on "Roman party" is missing. The book is cited in the list of references but not in the text. 

- lines 202-205, see some works on De Gaulle viewed by CD party. For instance, Andrea Argenio, La DC e l'avvento al potere di De Gaulle, "Italia contemporanea" (2013) / L'ultimo dei gallicani. La Dc e De Gaulle (2021)

- line 645, see on IPS the book by P. Acanfora, L'IPS e il nuovo ordine interazionale (2019)

- lines 727-728, the Author wrote about the Vatican's attitude towards Franco but nothing about the right wings in CD party. So, the sentence needs to be clearly explained. 

Author Response

Thank you very much for all the comments, which I have sought to incorporate in order to improve my text. I have rewritten the introduction to make it clear that my work analyses the transnational relations between Catholic anti-Francoism and a sector of Italian left-wing Christian Democracy that came together at the magazine Politica.  In the same way, I have tried to explain the interest generated by the diffusion of the struggle against the Franco regime by the same magazine.

I have also rewritten the second section, adding information on the different currents of Christian Democracy, and redefined the structure to make it more coherent with the centrality of the magazine Politica as the main basis of the paper.

I have corrected and added to the bibliographical references, as suggested.

With reference to lines 759-762 ,  I have changed the phrase as follows: “The struggle for democracy in Spain was thus becoming an important field in which to pursue the struggle for reformist ideas in an effort to marginalise more conservative sectors, and further studies are therefore needed to better visualise the debate within the different currents of Christian Democracy.”

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript is MUCH better with the revisions. The clarity has improved enormously. Well done!

So much better! I would still recommend an editor do a careful reading of the final manuscript, but this is a remarkable improvement. This is now a high quality text.