Costruire la sovranità popolare. Le commissioni municipali romane e le elezioni per la Costituente del 1849

Constructing Popular Sovereignty. Roman Municipal Commissions and the Elections for the Constituent Assembly of 1849. This article resumes one of the major moments of popular involvement in the Italian Risorgimento, that is, the elections for the Roman Constituent Assembly in 1849 on a male universal suffrage basis. Also using the wide and unpublished records of the municipal commissions that organized the vote, the Author reconstructs how the institutional vacuum following Pius IX's escape was filled by consulting popular will, including the formation of the electoral registers, propaganda, the conduction of the polls and their impact on society. Some tables in annex are devoted to the electoral results, which are analyzed both in terms of affluence to the polls, and regarding the distribution of votes.