Abstract
The new crisis that struck the Liberal state in the final decade of the century seemed at first sight to bring round full cycle the threats of violent disorder with which this study opened almost exactly a century earlier. Widespread social unrest, combined with the first signs of the emergence of mass politics, led to an unprecedented experiment in authoritarian politics that threatened the future of parliamentary government in Italy. Although the signs of crisis were evident earlier, the new chapter in the politics of law and order opened in the first weeks of 1894, when Crispi responded to growing disorder in Sicily, Sardinia and the Lunigiana by declaring martial law. The summer saw the introduction of emergency legislation suspending political freedoms and banning all forms of political organisations or demonstrations that were hostile to the government.
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Notes
For detailed accounts of the crisis in English see: D. Mack Smith Italy: A Modern History (Ann Arbor, 1969);
C. Seton-Watson Italy from Liberalism to Fascism (London, 1967);
M. Clark Modern Italy 1871–1982 (London, 1984).
See also L. Cafagna ‘Italy 1830–1914’ in Fontana Economic History of Europe ed. C. Cipolla Vol. 4(1) 1973;
and on the new emigration J. D. Gould ‘European Inter-Continental Emigration 1815–1914’ JEEH 1979, 8(3), pp. 593–679; ibid., 1980, 9(1) pp. 41–112.
M. Clark (1984) Ch. 5; F. J. Coppa ‘The Italian Tariff and the Conflict between Agriculture and Industry’ JEcH 1970, p. xx;
V. Castronovo ‘Storia Economica’ in Storia d’Italia (Turin, Einaudi, 1973) Vol. 4, pp. 101–20;
L. De Rosa La Rivoluzione Industriale in Italia (Bari, 1980) pp. 17–36.
On the politics of protectionism see esp. R. Vivarelli Il Fallimento dello Stato Liberale (Bologna, 1981).
Quoted in G. Manacorda Crisi Economica e Lotta Politica in Italia 1892–98 (Turin, 1968) p. 106; on the emergency legislation see L. Violante ‘La Ripressione del Dissenso Politico nell’Italia Liberale: Stato d’Assedio e Giustizia Militare’ RSC, 1976, (5), pp. 520–1.
B. Croce A History of Italy 1871–1915 (Oxford, 1929) p. 166; G. Manacorda ‘Crispi e la Legge Agraria per la Sicilia’ ASSO, 1972, (9) pp. 9–95;
F. Renda I Fasci Siciliani 1882–9 (Turin, 1977) pp. 207–325.
See R. Romanelli L’Italia Liberale 1870–1900 (1979) pp. 344–9;
C. Pinzani La Crisi Politica di Fine Secolo in Toscana (Florence, 1963) pp. 15–25;
F. Fonzi Crispi e lo Stato di Milano (Milan, 1965).
U. Levra Il Colpo di Stato della Borghesia: La Crisi Politica della Fine del Secolo in Italia (1896–1900) (Milan, 1975).
Ibid., Part 2, Ch. 1; in English see L. Tilly ‘I Fatti di Maggio: the Working Class of Milan and the Rebellion of 1898’ in R. Bezucha Modern European Social History (Lexington, 1972) pp. 124–60
and L. Tilly The Working Class of Milan 1881–1911 (Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Toronto, 1974).
N. Colajanni L’Italia nel 1898. Tumulti e Reazioni (Milan, 1898) p. 21; P. Villari ‘I Tumulti di Milano, Maggio 1898’ in Scritti sulla Questione Sociale p. 199.
S. Sonnino ‘Torniamo allo Statuto’ Nuova Antologia Jan. 1987.
V. Pareto ‘The Parliamentary Regime in Italy’ Political Science Quarterly (1893), in V. Pareto The Ruling Class in Italy Before 1900 ed. S. F. Vanni (New York 1974) p. 12;
F. S. Merlino L’Italia Qual’è … ed. N. Tranfaglia (1975).
See esp. M. Sbriccoli ‘Il Diritto Penale Sociale 1883–1912’ in Quaderni Fiorentini per la Storia del Pensiero Giuridico Moderno (4) (1975) pp. 583–629.
Ibid.; see also R. Michels Storia Critica del Movimento Socialista Italiana (Florence, 1926) pp. 200–205;
on the Radicals, G. Spadolini I Radicali dell’Ottocento (Florence, 1982) pp. 82–101.
Quoted in P. Ungari L’Età del Codice Civile (1967) p. 176.
See G. Neppi Modena Scioperi, Potere Politico e Magistratura 1870–1922 (Bari, 1969) Vol. 1, p. 93ff; R. Vivarelli ‘L’Italia Liberale e Fascismo’ in Il Fallimento del Liberalismo;
N. Tranfaglia Dello Stato Liberale al Regime Fascista (Milan, 1973), esp. pp. 167–80.
For similar debates, with different contexts and periodisation, see also E. P. Thompson Whigs and Hunters. The Origin of the Black Act (London, 1975) Ch. 10 Part IV;
E. P. Thompson The Poverty of Theory (London, 1978);
Capitalism and the Rule of Law: From Deviancy Theory to Marxism eds B. Fine, R. Kinsey, R. Lea, S. Picciotto and J. Young (London, 1979).
See esp. S. Lanaro Nazione e Lavoro: Saggio sulla Cultura della Borghesia in Italia 1870–1925 (Venice, 1979) pp. 19–82;
F. Gaeta Il Nazionalismo Italiano (Bari, 1981); L. De Rosa ‘Economics and Nationalism in Italy (1861–1914)’ JEEH 1983 (3) pp. 537–74.
E.g. A. Niceforo L’Italia Barbara Contemporanea (Palermo, 1898);
A. Niceforo Lo Studio Scientifico delle Classi Povere (Trieste, 1907);
see also B. Farolfi ‘Antropmetria Militare e Antrologia della Devianza’ in Storia d’Italia Annali 7 (Turin, Einaudi, 1985) pp. 1210–19.
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© 1988 John A. Davis
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Davis, J.A. (1988). Epilogue: The Crisis of the 1890s — An Open Verdict. In: Conflict and Control: Law and Order in Nineteenth-Century Italy. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19277-9_14
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