Geografia e Storia dell’economia dell’Italia repubblicana: una riflessione di lungo periodo

Abstract

Geography and history of the economy in republican Italy. A long-term reflection

The evolution of the "Italian development model" since the 1950s displays changing territorial bases; an issue that has fueled, at least among economists, intense debates. A key feature of such evolution is the persisting dualism that, over time, has accompanied or conditioned economic development in the country. Other distinctive features of the model have gained centrality for limited periods (industrial districts, third Italy, etc.); they propose original analyses and solutions but not such as to avoid the country's descent into a more than twenty-year-long stagnation. And so, alongside the North-South gap, an external gap between the whole country (North and South together) and the rest of the European Union is rapidly widening; as a reaction, separate solutions are proposed, such as that of the Enhanced Fiscal Autonomy, which was blocked in 2018, but is now re-emerging in view of the post-pandemic period; or that of the “Recovery Fund”, in clear conflict with the strict conditionality required by the European Union from the "great sick man of Europe".