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Finally, there is a widespread belief —or at least a hope—that the Christian Democrats may yet find hidden reserves of political resiliency. "I don't believe that this is a death agony," says Sociologist Franco Ferrarotti. He points out that the party has survived other crises, including, in 1960, a short-lived flirtation with an alliance with neo-Fascists and a brush with civil disorder after the police fired on a crowd of demonstrators. Says Ferrarotti: "These comebacks show that there is an underlying resiliency. With an uncanny ability to reconcile opposing and contrasting positions in its own ranks, the party not only survived but came out on top." Whether or not it can do so again is clearly the greatest test yet to face the party that until now has been virtually synonymous with government in Italy.