Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Map of Italy showing regional borders and capitals
- 1 The political context
- 2 The Christian Democrats: The indispensable center?
- 3 The Communists' struggle for legitimacy and acceptance
- 4 The ambiguous role of the Socialists
- 5 The small parties: The lay forces and the extremes
- 6 Parliament, prime minister, and president
- 7 Public administration and sottogoverno
- 8 The administration of justice
- 9 Dangers to the state: Plots, terrorism, and the mafia
- 10 Economic and social transformation
- 11 Regional devolution and the problem of the South
- 12 The changing relations between church and state
- 13 Foreign and security policy
- 14 “But it does move” – a summing up
- Appendixes
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - Regional devolution and the problem of the South
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Map of Italy showing regional borders and capitals
- 1 The political context
- 2 The Christian Democrats: The indispensable center?
- 3 The Communists' struggle for legitimacy and acceptance
- 4 The ambiguous role of the Socialists
- 5 The small parties: The lay forces and the extremes
- 6 Parliament, prime minister, and president
- 7 Public administration and sottogoverno
- 8 The administration of justice
- 9 Dangers to the state: Plots, terrorism, and the mafia
- 10 Economic and social transformation
- 11 Regional devolution and the problem of the South
- 12 The changing relations between church and state
- 13 Foreign and security policy
- 14 “But it does move” – a summing up
- Appendixes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The astonishing diversity of the country is one of the first impressions of any traveler to Italy. On a relatively small stretch of land – not much more than half the size of France – are a hundred different worlds. They range from the pastures of the Alps and Dolomites on whose slopes French, German, and a form of Latin are the first language to the olive and orange groves of the South where ancient Greek, Arab, and Norman influences are everywhere visible. Sardinia and even Sicily retain a sense of isolation that modern transport only slowly diminishes.
Behind these geographic contrasts are even deeper social and cultural differences. The individual Italian commonly characterizes himself first as a Piedmontese or Sicilian, as a Florentine or Neapolitan, and by this he means not an address but a historic, almost ethnic identification. Only gradually has unification broken down centuries-old regional identities and local pride. At the same time Milan and Turin with their modern industries are closer in appearance and outlook to Frankfurt and Brussels than to Naples and Palermo with their almost oriental color and turmoil. An intense provincialism is – logically perhaps – coupled with an exceptional lack of nationalistic feeling. Overcoming the country's divisions and diversity was the foremost aim of the nineteenth-century Piedmontese unifiers of the country. In the famous epigram of one of them, Massimo d'Azeglio, “We have made Italy, now we must make Italians.” The success has not been complete.
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- Information
- ItalyA Difficult Democracy: A Survey of Italian Politics, pp. 222 - 240Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986