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In this article Franco Bozzi discusses the case made by the supporters of Italian Risortgimento, who advocated a federal structure for the new Italian national state. Because in the course of events, Cavour's model of a unitary state under the House of Savoy was adopted, it is often overlooked that coherent arguments were advanced, to the effect that the whole historical-political tradition of political life in Italy had been federalist, built around the tradition of the autonomous City Commune. Thinkers such as Carlo Cattaneo, Enrico Cemuschi and outsiders, including Proudhon, suggested that a federal structure for the new state would be in line with the political tradition of Italy and would attract a much higher level of popular support and consent, whereas a unitary structure would have to be enforced from above on a reluctant people. In the light of their thinking, the unification after 1860 could be seen, and has been interpreted, as a potential popular revolution that failed or was stifled by Cavour and the centralizers.
