ABSTRACT
Risorgimento patriots of different political inclination had made of the alleged lack of economic development in Italy between 1815 and Unification one of the most important aspects of their critique of the old system. It is not surprising that after 1861 the liberals felt that the ultimate test of their success in the Risorgimento would be to ‘resurrect’ the Italian economy to European-power status. However, the various currents within Italian liberalism differed on how best to achieve this aim. While many in the Sinistra defended local self-government and advocated further political reform as the key to economic and social progress, the Destra insisted that the latter depended on French-style administrative centralization and Italy's full integration into the economic mechanisms of free-trade capitalism. After all, between 1853 and 1865 France under Napoleon III had grown faster than Britain or any other western power, despite having a conservative regime and a centralized state. Surely this was enough to show that further constitutional reform — let alone ‘democracy’ — would hardly be of benefit to Italy, or indeed any other country?
