ABSTRACT
Romania and Italy are two states that entered into the Modern Age approximately at the same time, namely during the second half of the 19th century (Romania in 1859, Italy in 1861), driven by the same unifying vector, „the principle of nationalities”.
The similarities and differences between the process of the national awakening of Romania and the Italian risorgimento (unification) urge the researcher to take an in-depth look at the ideas that circulated at that time and that influenced or could have influenced the historical course of events. Such a study must start from the premise that, in the 19th century, the federalist projects did not make a clear-cut distinction between the idea of federation and that of confederation, more precisely between the federal state comprising autonomous regional entities with a horizontal division of competences and the confederation, that was made out of distinct states or nationalities, that were voluntarily associated. It is precisely this premise that sets apart the idea of federation in the two states: in the case of Italy, the federation should have been a form of administrative organization of the Italian state, whereas in the case of the Romanian Principalities, one must speak of confederalism, as the historical context seems to support rather the edification of a Danubian Confederation, and not a Romanian national state.