Press, public opinion, constitutional transition. The thinking of the Italian liberal moderates (1814–1850)

This essay aims at offering a reconstruction of the main conceptual nodes at the center of the Italian liberal-moderates’ reflection on the role of public opinion and the media in the transition processes from the ancient regime to the constitutional state, with particular reference to the 1840s and to the caesura of 1848-49. It is a particularly stimulating perspective to focus on dynamics and problems regarding the relationship between media and politics, media and institutions, media and consensus building, media and mass mobilization, typical of today's world too. In the first place, I will analyze how the liberal-moderates reconstructed the role of the media, and the press in particular, in the delegitimization processes of the old regime institutions. Secondly, I will outline the consequences they drew from this with regard to the issues of both building political consensus and reshaping the forms of politics. Finally, I will explain how the events of 1848-49 made mature their fear about the risks that these transformations could unleash precisely on the stability of modern constitutional institutions.