The “vertical way” of the Nation Building Italy in 19th century Europe

there are two ways of grounding or boosting the nation building process, each based on an idealtype. They represent two different interpretations of the role of liberalism and the ruling class associated with it . One where, within a shared constitutional setting, the political identity of the citizens is moulded (or re-moulded) by open competition, re-establishing the interests and policies of the differing members of the community. This may be called “horizontal” in that competition heightens the political links among citizens of the same nation; it ensures that belonging to a certain community has a directly political meaning. Opposite to this is the “administrative” mode which prioritises the role of administration in the nation-building process: its goal is to control, rationalise and augment the organization of the public arena so as to remove impediments making it difficult or impossible for citizens within the community to access or integrate in it. This mode we call “vertical” since it sets up a hierarchical relationship among political priorities and implementation thereof, with the state machinery and administration at the top and the citizenry at the bottom.