Statuto Albertino

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Statuto Albertino

Italian constitution

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Date:: March 4, 1848 - 1948

Key People:: Charles Albert

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Statuto Albertino, (March 4, 1848), constitution granted to his subjects by King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia; when Italy was unified under Piedmontese leadership (1861), it became the constitution of the Kingdom of Italy. Originally it was a rather conservative document that set up a strong constitutional monarchy; its spirit was subsequently altered, at first in a liberal way, to adapt it to the parliamentary government of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and then in an authoritarian direction under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime (1922–43).

The Statuto, which was granted by the king during the liberal Revolutions of 1848, was based on the French Charter of 1830. It ensured citizens equality before the law and gave them limited rights of free assembly and of free press but gave voting rights to less than 3 percent of the population. The Statuto established the three classic branches of government: the executive, which meant the king; the legislative, divided between the royally appointed Senate and an elected Chamber of Deputies; and a judiciary, also appointed by the king. Originally, it was the king who possessed the widest powers: he controlled foreign policy and had the prerogative of nominating and dismissing ministers of state.

In practice, the Statuto was modified to weaken the king’s power. The ministers of state became responsible to the parliament, and the office of prime minister, not provided for in the constitution, became prominent. The king, however, retained an important influence in foreign affairs, and in times of domestic crisis his role was pivotal. The social base of the constitution was gradually broadened so that by 1913 universal adult male suffrage was virtually achieved. Under the Fascist regime the Statuto was substantially modified to put control of the government in the hands of the Fascist Party. The Statuto was officially abolished when the constitution of the Italian republic went into effect in 1948.

Risorgimento

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Risorgimento

Italian history

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Last Updated: Jun 11, 2025 • Article History

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Date:: c. 1815 - 1870

Major Events:: Wars of Italian Independence; Expedition of the Thousand

Key People:: Camillo Benso, count di Cavour; Charles Albert; Francesco Crispi; Giuseppe Garibaldi; Giuseppe Mazzini

On the Web:: Academia - Introduction: the new history of Risorgimento nationalism (PDF) (June 11, 2025)

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Risorgimento, (Italian: “Rising Again”), 19th-century movement for Italian unification that culminated in the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. The Risorgimento was an ideological and literary movement that helped to arouse the national consciousness of the Italian people, and it led to a series of political events that freed the Italian states from foreign domination and united them politically. Although the Risorgimento has attained the status of a national myth, its essential meaning remains a controversial question. The classic interpretation (expressed in the writings of the philosopher Benedetto Croce) sees the Risorgimento as the triumph of liberalism, but more recent views criticize it as an aristocratic and bourgeois revolution that failed to include the masses.

The main impetus to the Risorgimento came from reforms introduced by the French when they dominated Italy during the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars (1796–1815). A number of Italian states were briefly consolidated, first as republics and then as satellite states of the French empire, and, even more importantly, the Italian middle class grew in numbers and was allowed to participate in government.

After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, the Italian states were restored to their former rulers. Under the domination of Austria, these states took on a conservative character. Secret societies such as the Carbonari opposed this development in the 1820s and ’30s. The first avowedly republican and national group was Young Italy, founded by Giuseppe Mazzini in 1831. This society, which represented the democratic aspect of the Risorgimento, hoped to educate the Italian people to a sense of their nationhood and to encourage the masses to rise against the existing reactionary regimes. Other groups, such as the Neo-Guelfs, envisioned an Italian confederation headed by the pope; still others favoured unification under the house of Savoy, monarchs of the liberal northern Italian state of Piedmont-Sardinia.