State Building by Means of Constitution in the Italian Constitutional Monarchy

After having done some introductory and methodological remarks on anti-revolutionary function or role of constitutions (1.), the author analyses the anti-revolutionary function of the Albertine Statute on 1848 (2.) and then the role played by itself within the liberal-moderate plan for a centralized state integration in the unification period (1859-1861) (3.). While the political and social revolution was been the main aim of the first modern constitutions of the eighteenth century, when only the constitution might set a limit to the revolution, in the nineteenth century constitutions, as the Statuto albertino or the Prussian constitution of 1850, came to represent a means par excellence to reforming the system, but by maintaining the order within the monarchical state and at the same time by exorcising the impending political and social revolution. By the conclusive chapter (4.) the author try to draw conclusions: the final outcome of the reiterated functional exploitation of the Statuto was that the more over time increased its merely symbolic value (from the plebiscites on the Statuto was commonly identified with the constitutional monarchy of Victor Emmanuel II), the more decreased its potential of acting as a guide and a limit to practical policy. But the simple fact, that the Statute remained formal in force, did not allow anyone to put on the table the question of a new constitutional pact remaining on the ground of legality.