ABSTRACT
The two bases of the regime were coercion and consent. The States institutions may be separated, for purposes of analysis, into two branches that of High Politics, revolving around the Crown and the army and that of Low Politics, revolving around parliament and local government. This chapter presents the Italian political system in the late nineteenth century. It quotes Domenico Farini's view of parliament's task: to legitimize government action. Yet in order to legitimize, parliament had to act illegitimately, and thus fall into disrepute. So Liberal statesmen might easily be tempted, or panicked, into authoritarianism. The chapter further presents how influential the traditional organs of High Politics were, and how small was Italy's ruling lite. State and society interacted constantly, each trying to influence the other. Political influence at the centre often rested on local power, especially after 1876. Furthermore, there was no centre from which the rest of Italy could be dominated.
