A year after Mussolini’s main ally in Germany fell to the Allies, the reign of his Fasci party came to an end. As Italy was helping out Germans in Africa, internally they descended into infighting between Mussolini supporters and of the king. Mussolini had too little time to complete his overthrow, but the public mood had turned against the monarchy anyway. The figurehead king Victor Emmanuel III promised a popular referendum, with which the monarchy was completely abolished. In its stead, Italy drew up a democratic parliamentary system, complete with a new constitution.

On this day, January 1, in 1948, Italy’s parliament by an overwhelming majority adopted their new constitution.

Reflection the deep divisions of the country itself, the document’s 139 provisions run the gamut between conservative – the recognition of Catholicism as a favored religion – and more liberal – like granting women’s suffrage. Perhaps the most important of the articles is the last one, providing that the form of government itself, the republic, cannot be changed. To insure against the possibility of a future Mussolini.