FEDERALISM As an ideology and a political force, federalism played
an important part in the revolution of 1848 in Italy. Indeed, the
revolutionary govern
ments of 1848-49, especially in Milan, Rome,
and Venice, were testing grounds for several different federalist
ideologies.
A strong federalist current existed among Italian intellectuals in
the eighteenth century. This became obvious in 1796 when several
federalist entries were submitted for competition on the theme
"Which form of government is best suited to the welfare of Italy."
In contrast to Giuseppe Mazzini, who advocated a unitary republic,
Vincenzo Gioberti favored a federation of
Italian states under the
aegis of the Pope. His fellow Piedmontese, Count Cesare Balbo,
preferred accommodation with the interests of the Habsburg Empire.
The failure of Gioberti's neo-Guelf federalism in the late 1840s
gave way to a new democratic and anticlerical formula of which the
Lombards Carlo Cattaneo and Giuseppe Ferrari were the leading
theorists. The former believed that the creation of small
republics on the Swiss model would make it easier for Italy's
democratic leaders to raise the
level of political sophistication
of the masses and to teach them self-government. Both were
convinced that Italy's traditions, especially the continued
vitality of ancient, once autonomous cities, were not conducive to
the growth of a centralized nation-state on the French or Spanish
model. When just this type of state was established in 1860,
democratic federalists shifted their strategies to a defense of
local autonomies via-à-vis the central government.
Cattaneo's disciples Gabriele R
osa and Arcangelo Ghisleri became
the chief theorists of this new version of federalism which became
the common intellectual heritage of post-unification republican,
radical, and socialist movements.
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.
edu/~chastain/dh/federalm.htm) on
October 14, 2004.
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.ohiou.edu
© 1997, 2004 James Chastain.
Clara M. Lovett