Abstract

Salvemini analyses the Risorgimento issue from a democratic perspective. The essay focuses the attention on his analysis. Salvemini opposes the laudatory readings about Cavourian liberal moderatism and criticises the bureaucratic centralization of the new State. He is federalist, but he acknowledges the inapplicability of Cattaneo’s federalism in the immediate post-Unification period. Although Salvemini later reassesses the historical role of Cavour and his heirs, he doesn’t change his opinion about the Risorgimento. He can’t consider it a democratic revolution. He’s convinced it was a «revolution of the rich».