Historical studies concerning Italian republican democracy have intensely focused their attention on the role of mass parties as tools for political participation of citizens. Howe¬ver, the deep institutional crisis that followed the collapse of post-WWII political system showed the significant lacks in a widespread culture of democratic rights the habit to parties’ intermediation left. The essay takes in consideration the establishment of the role of main mass parties after 1945 on the field of political pedagogy and citizens’ education to democratic processes, in a com¬parison with a widely forgotten alternative experience of direct democratic education. The tradition of ‘non-party’ democratic participation developed within Italian liberal-socialist intellectual debate had little influence on the country’s democratic development. However, its memory remained among intellectual personnel of liberal-democratic background.
