Especially when there is widespread instability, be it at national or international level, it is necessary to have leadership which holds firmly onto the power of political initiative. But this views the involvement of other political groups and other governments as actions of strength and not as unproductive power-sharing.
Cavour was active in a period of sudden destabilisation in Europe as a result of the 1848 revolutions that had overturned the balance of powers determined by the Congress of Vienna following the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. It was a period of turbulent transition, in which great opportunities, which came with great risk, were opening up for the main players in European politics.