Statesmen often exaggerate international constraints for party reasons rather than national ones

Evidence

International relations were certainly very important in determining the line of development of the Italian Risorgimento, but they were exaggerated by the Moderate Party, and by Cavour for party reasons. Cavour’s case is noteworthy in this connection. Before the Quarto 93 expedition and the crossing of the Straits, he feared Garibaldi’s initiative like the devil, because of the international complications which it might create. He was then himself impelled by the enthusiasm created by the Thousand in European opinion to the point where he saw as feasible an immediate new war against Austria. There existed in Cavour a certain professional diplomat’s distortion, which led him to see “too many” difficulties, and induced him into “conspiratorial” exaggerations, and into prodigies (which to a considerable extent were simply tightrope-walking) of subtlety and intrigue. In any case Cavour acted eminently as a party man. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 487

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Accusations of foreign rationalism may mask genuine national adherence — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 581
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Accusations of foreign rationalism may mask genuine national adherence — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 581