The Political Elaboration on Science and Technology of the Italian Communist Party Between the 1960s and the 1980s

In spite of their centrality in modern democracies, the role of political parties in science and technology has been poorly investigated. By focusing on the Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI), the Italian Communist Party, between the 1960s and the 1980s, this essay argues that, in spite of its hierarchical structure, the PCI became a place where senior scientists, young nontenured scientists, politicians and policymakers, technicians, and workers freely debated. The essay argues for the centrality of science and technology in the party’s political reflection. Indeed, it interprets Enrico Berlinguer’s proposal of austerity policy and sustainable development in light of the party’s collective reflection on the nonneutrality of science, the decolonization process, and the assumption that the contrast between the North and the South of the world was paralleling if not replacing that between the East and the West.