Giuseppe Dozza (29 November 1901 – 28 December 1974) was an Italian politician, the first

Mayor of Bologna The Mayor of Bologna is an elected politician who, along with the Bologna’s City Council, is accountable for the strategic government of Bologna, the regional capital of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Overview According to the Italian Constitution, th ...

after the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Biography

The resistance

One of the founders of the

Communist Party of Italy The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

, Dozza was immediately persecuted by the

Fascist regime Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

and expatriated in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the 1920s. He returned to Italy only in 1943 to participate in the

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through ei ...

in his hometown

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

. The

National Liberation Committee The National Liberation Committee (, CLN) was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationist forces of the ...

already decided that once

has been freed, Dozza would have become its

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Member of the Constituent Assembly

In the 1946 general election, Dozza is elected at the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

, participating in the drafting of what would later become the

Italian Constitution The Constitution of the Italian Republic () was ratified on 22 December 1947 by the Constituent Assembly, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against, before coming into force on 1 January 1948, one century after the previous Constitution of the Ki ...

Mayor of Bologna

Once elected

, Dozza began immediately to instil confidence in citizens and encouraged them to participate in the reconstruction of the city. Dozza had committed himself to the autonomous battle of

, demanding more decentralized powers and claiming the financial autonomy of local authorities. Dozza brought solidarity to workers in crisis and equipped the first industrial areas that were the avant-gardes of the

economic boom An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with ...

. Dozza established the tax councils, which combined the need for self-government of

with the principle of "progressive taxation" and with the principle of control of citizens in finding economic resources. They worked at full speed with transparency and without inflicting too heavy tax burdens on the middle classes and saving the popular classes. In the early 1950s, Dozza's administration also provided a generous sum of money to the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

, gathering the consensus of the world of culture and that of the productive forces that liked Dozza's plan to fund research on the use of

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity *Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy, the pot ...

for peaceful purposes. Dozza saw the solidity of his electoral consent when he won the 1956 local elections against the

Christian Democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

leader of

Giuseppe Dossetti Giuseppe Dossetti (13 February 1913 – 15 December 1996) was an Italian professor, politician, and Catholic priest who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1948 to 1952. A prominent anti-fascist, Dossetti previously served as ...

. In the last ten years of his term, Dozza concentrated on more ambitious designs, such as the ring road, the fair district and the revival of cultural life. However, in 1962 Dozza became ill and was forced to resign four years later. During his final years of his service for the city, Umbro Lorenzini (1925-2000), who was an assessor at that time, helped him with different projects, such as Bologna's orbital road. He died on 28 December 1974, at the age of 73, and is buried in the Certosa di Bologna monastery.

References

External links

*Files about his parliamentary activities (in Italian)
Constituent Assembly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dozza, Giuseppe 1901 births 1974 deaths Italian Communist Party politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Mayors of Bologna Italian atheists