ABSTRACT
The 'territory', the 'people', the 'polity' of Naples and its region are often presented and represented by foreigners with mythical or quasi-mystical connotations. The Campania region is beset by a number of contradictions. Naples and the Campania region suffered greatly during and after the war, in particular from Allied carpet-bombing, German sabotage in September 1943 and military occupation in 1943-46. Campania has always been, agriculturally, the most productive region of Italy and yet in the 1950s its peasantry remained chronically poor because of the extreme fragmentation of the land and the high proportion of both landless labourers and tenant farmers, who were subjected to iniquitous lease arrangements while also often having to cope with the burden of large-family responsibilities. In 1992, new forms of politics were introduced both at national and local levels which were very different from the previous regime.
