Una necessaria categoria storiografica per la storia politica italiana ed europea: la delegittimazione

The article stems from a survey of literature dedicated to the concept of delegitimiza-tion. Recent scholarship shifts the issue of legitimization/delegitimization from a verti-cal power set-up to a horizontal frame of relationship and recognition among political leaders competing to govern a State. In this regard, it is appropriate to point out the in-vestigations conducted, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in Italy and in Europe, by Cammarano and Cavazza, on political conflict;; by Macry and Masella, on the construction of the enemy;; and from Orsina and Panvini, on enemies and political opponents