La parabola del compromesso storico in Campania. Le élite politiche locali dal confronto ideologico alla prassi consociativa

Relations between the Christian Democrats (DC) and the Communists (PCI) constituted one of the most important political issues throughout the Italian republican era. The novelty of the "historic compromise" might have initially represented a strong discontinuity for local political elites - particularly in Campania - who were expected to take an untrodden path to approach political figures to whom they had previously been hostile. The article will focus on the evolution of that relationship in Campania, investigating the local leading groups’ doubts and opposition to its coming about, how it is still active in a turbulent political framework and in a particularly complex social environment, and finally in what way it has managed to persist despite the changes in strategy by the respective national secretariats, in a never-for-granted relationship between "center" and "periphery".