Francesco Crispi, ‘political education’ and the problem of Italian national consciousness, 1860–1896

Bibliographic Data

ID12547928
AuthorsChristopher Duggan (0000-0001-8083-8193, University of Reading, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume2
Issue2
Pages141-166
Publication date1997-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Modern Italian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-571X • E-ISSN: 1469-9583
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13545719708454945
OpenAlexW1993404014
LanguageEN
Citations received3

Francesco Crispi has often appeared a paradoxical figure. In the earlier part of his life he was a revolutionary republican and a friend of Mazzini. After 1860 he accepted the monarchy, but remained very much a man of the Left and in many ways a quintessential democrat. Yet he ended his career as an authoritarian Prime Minister, a vigorous opponent of the Far Left, and an imperialist, who prorogued parliament and contemplated dispensing with representative government altogether. This article contends that Crispi's career has more coherence than is commonly suggested; it focuses on an important but hitherto neglected aspect of his thinking, namely the problem of how to achieve a sense of national consciousness in Italy through ‘political education’. The article traces the development of the idea of national political education throughout Crispi's career and argues that his two terms as Prime Minister in 1887–91 and 1893–6 can only be fully understood in the context of his long‐standing concern with this problem

Authoritarianism · Consciousness · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Epistemology · Government (linguistics · Monarchy · National consciousness · Parliament · Political consciousness · Political science · Politics · Prime minister · Sociology · Central European national history · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy · Political theory and Gramsci

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