Francesco Crispi. La personalizzazione della politica tra l'Italia e la Francia

This thesis concerns the construction of the political myth of Francis Crispi and its reception in the years 1876–1896. At the end of the 19th century, the economic crisis, politics and society in Italy brought about the birth of current antiparliamentary sentiment and the appeal to a strong man who can save the nation from danger. Francesco Crispi introduced himself as the man of providence and proposed a strong government that found its legitimacy in the image of its leader. As historians have already observed, Crispi was a man of the 19th century, appointed from the parliamentary left and a proponent of limited suffrage. He still embodies, therefore, the traditional political figure of the rich notable Italian. Despite this, he contributed to the inauguration of a new kind of politics, thanks to an extraordinary ability to fascinate that made him the object of a true national cult. The last chapter of this thesis is devoted to France of the fin-du-siècle, whose situation had many similarities to the Italian case, particularly the redefinition of the concept of leadership due to the fast political career of Georges Boulanger. Analysis of the experience of the French general, combined with the similar analysis of Crispi, enables a wider examination of the different phases of the construction of the myth of the strong man via the numerous points of contact between the two cases.