"Dangerous for the democratic order of the State". Public order and political vigilance in Latina 1948-1956

With this territorial case study on the Latina province, south of Rome, the A. investigates the strategies and means adopted in Italy from 1948 to 1956 in response to the supposed menace represented by the Italian Communist Party. His analysis reveals the development of an inner functional connection between continuity and change as regards the heritage of Fascism and pre-Fascist Italy: in a political and institutional context like that of the years of Centrism, with marked elements of break with the past, the continuity of apparatuses and officials charged with controlling public order was all the same judged necessary by the politicians in power for the safeguard of democracy. Well tested instruments such as the Tulps [Unified code of public security laws] and the Cpc [Political criminality central record] knew thus a kind of second youth, adding to the authoritarian twist of the so called "protected democracy": the first acted on the surface so as to restrict the public spaces practicable for the Communist party; the second served covertly as a means for controlling the single leaders and militants of the radical Left, parties and unions alike.

Keywords: Testo unico delle leggi di pubblica sicurezza-Tulps [Unified code of public security laws], Casellario politico centrale-Cpc [Political criminality central record], public order, age of Centrism, Italian Communist Party (pci ), Latina province

Stefano Mangullo, "Pericoloso per l’ordinamento democratico dello Stato" Ordine pubblico e vigilanza politica a Latina 1948-1956 in "ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA" 274/2014, pp 74-102, DOI: 10.3280/IC2014-274003