Abstract

This essay examines, through the study of Gioia's and Pagano's constitutional proposals, the republican model dominant in the so called "Jacobin Triennium" (1796-99) that witnessed the creation of a certain number of republics in Italy following the Napoleonic invasion. These authors conceived the republic as the negation of monocratic government and as an emancipating tool from a feudal economic and social arrangement; accordingly, they saw the republic as the form of government suitable for achieving the independence of Italy from the foreign occupants and for unifying the nation.