Fundamentally the rulers of Italy did very little to advance the cause of national unity in the years between 1820 and 1944, as it better served their interests not to. Although Italy after 1871 was seen as a single state as it "existed at last, as a set of unified institutions" I would argue that fundamental unity did not occur. This unity was merely nominal - the reality being that a great amount of apathy existed towards national …showed first 75 words of 1948 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1948 total…political regimes were inherently elitist and did not involve the masses for this reason it is seen that the rulers did not advance national unity. However, although this was on the whole the case I would argue that although 'real' and 'legal' Italy was never fully assimilated together, individually they were united, this can be seen by the 1871 unification for 'legal' Italy and by the cultural unity appearing in the Fascist regime for 'real' Italy.