Blackwell Reference Online

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(1842–1928), Prime Minister of Italy (1892–3, 1903–6, 1906–9, 1911–14, 1920–1). A native of Piedmont, he trained as a civil servant before entering parliament as a liberal in 1882. The first of the five administrations that he headed as premier collapsed as the result of a financial scandal. Giolitti resumed his cabinet career in 1901 as interior minister, reclaiming the premiership two years later. He showed mastery of the politics of trasformismo , and during the pre-1914 period promoted progressive measures that laid the foundations for welfarism . so as to integrate socialists within the parliamentary system, Giolitti adopted a policy of strict government non-intervention in labor disputes, enabling trade unionism to improve salaries in both the industrial and agricultural sectors. In 1911 he supported the italo-turkish war , resulting in the gain of Libya, as a means of uniting the nation. The troubled conduct of that conflict may have influenced his advocacy of Italian non-intervention at the outbreak of world war i . In 1920, despite his venerable age, he was viewed as the one man with the necessary gravitas to restore order in an Italy convulsed by strikes and nationalist agitation. Though he ousted d'annunzio from Fiume, his political abilities were deserting him. He mistakenly believed that mussolini could be brought to heel, and offered assistance to fascist ... log in or subscribe to read full text