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

Abstract

The evolution of the “Italian development model” since the 1950s displays changing territorial bases; an issue that has fueled, at least among econo-mists, intense debates. A key feature of such evolution is the persisting dualism that, over time, has accompanied or conditioned economic develop-ment 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».