Italian Public Policy and the Southern Question

This chapter focuses on attempts by postwar Italian governments to deal with the so-called ‘Southern Question’ (questione meridionale) via public policy intervention. ¹ Despite some forty years of concentrated government intervention specifically targeted at its economic development, the south of Italy, or Mezzogiorno, still lags far behind the rest of the nation. ² Although Italy now rates among the world’s seven most industrialized economies, with aggregate growth rates which match or exceed those of other European Union states (Padoa-Schioppa Kostoris 1993), the Mezzogiorno still has significantly lower levels of per capita gross domestic product (GDP), consumption and employment than the rest of Italy and the rest of Europe. ³ If we also consider criteria normally related to economic development, such as poverty, social exclusion and vulnerability to crime, the essential dualism of Italy’s economy and society between the Centre-North, on the one hand, and the South, on the other, is clearly apparent (Apicella 1996; EUROSTAT 1996a, 1996b; Leonardi 1995; Mingione and Morlicchio 1993; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 1996).