Milizie civiche prima della Grande guerra. Violenza politica e crisi dello Stato in Italia e Spagna (1900-15).

The purpose of this article is to examine the historiographical debate on armed groups and political violence from the 1900s to the early 1920s. The article examines the cases of Italy and Spain and investigates how practices and forms of organised political violence before the First World War can be interpreted as signs of the crisis of liberal regimes and of the emergence of authoritarian political cultures. In recent years historians have paid much attention to paramilitary groups and political violence in the aftermath of the Great War, often considering the conflict itself as a trigger factor. The first section analyses this debate, with special attention to the controversial concept of «brutalization», while the second section focuses on the cases of Italy and Spain. Finally, the third section uses archival sources to study practices, political cultures and the relationship between state powers and the Catalan Somatén Armado, on the one hand, and the Citizens' Patrols in Bologna, on the other, in the pre-war period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]