Lo stato napoleonico in Italia. Tra autonomia e influssi d'oltralpe

The essay deals with some sectors where a certain margin of autonomy from the French pattern appeared in the organization of the Napoleonic state in Italy between 1802 and 1814. If in a way, for instance, the 24th July 1802 act on local administrations instituted the prefects like in France, the censual criterion of access to town councils expressly referred to the old “model” of the Lombard commune, founded on estimated taxpayers, established by Empress Maria Teresa by the reform of 1755. From 1805, notwithstanding Napoleon's uniforming will, the adaptation to the French institutional pattern was not so immediate: for instance, in the matter of administrative cases the application of the “favor” principle towards the weaker party, that is of the private citizen claiming against public administration, was larger in Italy than recorded in France. A certain autonomy was still registered in the field of ecclesiastical policy under the leadership of Giovanni Bovara, minister of religion, formerly a reformer under the Habsburgs. The necessity of protecting the rights of the church together with positive considerations of practical character directed his policy, avoiding a rigid application of the French pattern : I am referring to the imperial catechism of 1806, to the reform of seminaries, to the marriage act, to the abolition of the beneficiary system.