Italy if the '46 referendum had gone the other way?

[mullauna]

How would Italy have developed if it had voted to retain the House of Savoy?

[futurist]

I expect that the Italian monarchy would gradually get its wings clipped in order for them to become figureheads. Basically, I think that the Italians are going to learn the right lesson from King Victor Emmanuel III's promotion of Mussolini to power.

Also, I expect the Italian laws of succession to eventually be changed to allow females and those descended from Italian monarchs in the female line to succeed to the Italian throne. I just don't think that Salic law/agnatic primogeniture is going to be very popular in Italy in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

[lukedalton]

From a pratical pow, little will change, basically they had given the power of the king (with some downgrade) to the President of the Republic. I expect a lot of attempt by the Savoia to regain the support of the population, sure they have won the referendum but still it was more due tradition/habit/loyalty to the institution than true love for them at the moment...and getting rid of the salic law will be at least a beginning.

For the future, well there will be a slightly increased stability in general with the figure of the King, even if italian political instability it was more surface than reality as the goverment may change but usually it's more due to internal struggle of the ruling coalition, the parlamentary majority that support it remain the same (usually) and this was the crucial thing, at least in the first republic.

Togliatti and co. will not be happy

[James G]

I can only expect that with a remaining monarchy, Italy's would be almost the same as those of other European nations: nice for the symbolism and tourists, but with no power at all.
The House of Savoy was so tied with Mussolini - in people's view, maybe not so much in reality as was later said - though that keeping them would be very difficult.

[kyng]

Yeah, I expect little would change in this timeline. Italy would just be similar to the UK, Spain, and other European constitutional monarchies whose monarchs are essentially just figureheads.

I suppose the only real change would be a bit more stability, because the monarch wouldn't meddle in Italian political affairs like presidents sometimes do. For example, Berlusconi spoke of a 'plot' by President Napolitano to remove him in 2011; I don't know whether this actually happened, but with a monarchy, it definitely wouldn't have happened.