La rottura con la società civile come causa del crollo borbonico

Autore: Francesco Benigno
In: Meridiana. 95, 2019
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Abstract

The revisionist Bourbon vulgate attributes the end of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to an international conspiracy, to foreign conquest, or to the betrayal of the army and naval officers. The essay, in reverse, claims that the main cause of the collapse was the gradually widening fracture between the dynasty and southern civil society. This growing distrust derived from the blind reactionary politics of the regime, based on confessionalism, and completely closed to any hypothesis of liberal reform or constitution. Moreover, it was inclined to rely on censorship, police control of the press and associations, the prohibition of any expression of free thought. This created amongst the Neapolitan élites a discomfort, which then turned into resistance and opposition. It is a very interesting case of loss of consent, something unparalleled in Europe at that time, with the possible exception of the little later disaffection of the Russian élite from the Tsarist regime.

Keywords: Bourbon Neapolitan regime; Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; Risorgimento; Censorship