Dallo stato di diritto allo stato sociale: Italia 1843-1903

The last decade of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are mainly characterized by the political end of Mazzini and by the unstoppable rise of liberalism. Liberalism is in fact the triumphant ideology even if between disorientation and reactionary pressures, such as the Sicilian Fasci, the riots of the Lunigiana miners and the riots over the high prices of Bava Beccaris in Milan, the appointment of General Pelloux as prime minister, who calls on Parliament for measures that undermine the freedom of the press, assembly and association, but are eventually defeated by the intransigence of the socialists, radical republicans and left liberals. Meanwhile, the Liberal Zanardelli is called to the Government to remedy Pelloux's failures, who appoints Giolitti as Minister of the Interior and insists on the urgency of social protection of the working class. In the meantime, a strange alliance is created between the bourgeoisie of the north and the agrarians of the south, aimed at favouring only the industries of the North, while in the south people are starving and the phenomenon of brigandage is dying rises. And the socialists? By now they have abandoned the Marxist ideology and married the positivistic one. Their impact on the birth of the welfare state is completely marginal, while it will be the ground where liberals will give their best.