This book provides a meticulous examination of the ideology, structure, and functions of the papal police as they operated in the city and province of Bologna in the period before Italian unity, and in doing so offers an important new interpretation of the Risorgimento. The author argues that after the Restoration the new police soon found themselves incapable of dealing effectively with overwhelming problems of crime and public order. In allowing Bologna's elites to arm themselves in posse-style "citizen patrols" on two occasions, the papal government had opened the doors to reform and, eventually, revolution.

This 1994 book provides a meticulous examination of the ideology, structure, and functions of papal police as they operated in the city and province of Bologna in the period before Italian unity. In doing so, it also offers an important new perspective on the Risorgimento in the region. The author argues that after the Restoration the papal government maintained much of Napoleon's police apparatus in order to enhance its absolute power as an administrative monarchy; but the new police soon found themselves incapable of dealing effectively with the prevailing problems of the day, including political conspiracy, rampant unemployment, widespread poverty, and endemic crime in city and countryside alike. In 1828 and 1847 the papal government was forced to allow Bologna's elites to arm themselves in posse-style 'citizen patrols'. On each occasion the patrols became a rallying point of reform and, eventually, revolution.