L-evoluzzjoni ta' partiti politici fil-gzejjer maltin (1880-1926)

Abstract

In a liberal adaptation of aspects of his Oxford D. Phil. Thesis (which was presented last year), Dr. Henry J. Frendo here summarizes some of his major conclusions with regard to the origins, formation and development of political parties in the Maltese Islands during the nationalist colonial era. He notes, in particular, both the social and the political aspects of the typical colonial setting, indicating a dialectic forming between what he calls "the Patriotic Mentality" (tradition-resistance-autonomy) and "the Colonial Dynamic" (domination-modernisation-assimilation) from which a new situation very slowly arises. Although it is made evident that partizan rivalry became entrenched as early as the 1880s, it was still possible to rally communal feeling in the patriotic cause when critical situations developed. Partly because of this process - in a society where class differences were not so accentuated as elsewhere - the parties influenced one another in what the author presents as a theory of alternating succession. Dr. Frendo's conclusion may be interpreted as an appeal to the citizen and politician of post-colonial Malta radically to change the traditionally partisan instransigence bred by past conditions into a broadening of political commitment throughout society in the light of a civic disposition. At the end of the article, the author sets out in brief the first reconstruction ever made of party alignments in Malta before the beginnings of parliamentary government.