Silvio Spaventa, Champion of a unitary Italy, proponent of the
Hegelian state, and severe administrator, Spaventa played an
important role in the Neapolitan revolution of 1848 but an even
more central one in the post-unification period. Born in Bomba
(Chieti) on May 10, 1822, he shared early his brother Bertrando's
interest in philosophy and politics. In March 1848 he founded a
journal of republican tendencies, Il Nazionale,
which supported both the on going revolution in Naples and the
movement toward Italian unification. Elected to the Neapolitan
Chamber of Deputies in April, he soon lost faith in the Bourbon
kings's pledge of constitutional rule, particularly after
Ferdinand II brutally crushed the disturbances of May 15 and
ejected the deputies from their chamber. During the summer he
helped found with Luigi Settembrini a secret society, Unitá
italiana devoted to ousting the dynasty and promoting
unification. Later in the year he went to Turin to attend a
Gioberti-sponsored congress for an Italian confederation.
Following the collapse of the revolution in Naples, in March 1848
he was arrested and sentenced to death after a long trial
notorious for its irregularities. The sentence was commuted to
life imprisonment and in 1859 to banishment. He returned to
Naples in 1860 to support Cavour against both Bourbons and
Garibaldi.
After unification he held important public posts. True to his
conception of the state as guide to and guarantor of material and
moral progress, he favored public ownership of the country's
railways and equity in public administration. He died in Rome on
June 21, 1893.
Giulio Chiodi. La giustizia amministrativa nel pensiero
politico di Silvio Spaventa. Bari: Laterza, 1969.
Silvio Spaventa, La giustizia nell'amministrazione.
Milan: G. Einaudi, 1949.
Enzo Tagliacozzo, Il pensiero di Silvio Spaventa.
Milan: Dante Alighieri, 1932.
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/rz/spaven.htm) on October 26, 2004.
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to
chastain@www.ohiou.edu
© 1999, 2004 James Chastain.
Saladino Salvatore
Bibliography