Aux origines de la représentation élective dans l'Italie avant l'Unité: les députés du Parlement napolitain de 1820-'21

A few years after the return of the Bourbons to the Neapolitain throne (1815), profound dissatisfaction grew in a section of southern public opinion. Above all, the provincial bourgeoisie faced the continued blocking of their own aspirations to a greater share in the management of the res publica. Because of this rooted discontent, the secret sect of the Carboneria began to spread throughout the kingdom, instigating a popular uprising in 1820 and forcing Ferdinand I to concede the Constitution of Cadiz. For the first time in the history of the kingdom, all male citizens aged 21 (exept those in domestic service) were entitled to elect the national Parliament. This assembly was composed in large part of individuals whose careers displayed a prominent involvement in the most dangerous phase of the political and insititutionals crisis which had confronted the kingdom during the previous years.