I candidati cattolici siciliani alle elezioni del primo Parlamento unitario

Abstract

With the use of newspapers, manuscripts, letters and speeches, the article analyses the admission of Sicilian Catholic deputies in the first national Parliament, like Emerico Amari, Vito d’Ondes Reggio and Gregorio Ugdulena. It underlines their political programs, beliefs and the idea of political representation as an action that was in the best interest of the represented people. In the background there was a steady claim to Legazia Apostolica that could have continued to exist only in a system of regional autonomy. According to the Sicilian deputies, the national deputy’s mandate had to be based on administrative freedom and there was a need for institutional solutions to ensure the prosperity, civilization and security of Sicily, combining local and national interests. However, the choice made by the Government in Turin, which wanted a centralized and unitary system, prevailed on the political action of the Sicilian deputies, which were pro the autonomy. But this choice had deleterious consequences because the new system protected the interests of deputies, while distorting their real role and causing intrusions in the local administration and collusion between “legislators” and the professional bureaucracy.