The evolution of Italian policies to solve “the South Problem” and their inspiration

(Abstract)

Nan Yang, Xiang Li and Chunhong Liu  

Uneven regional economic development is a problem that every country has to face and solve in the process of modernisation. Although Italy is a developed capitalist industrialized country in Europe, its “problem of the south” is the biggest in terms of regional balance among EU member states, which seriously hinders the overall economic and social development of the country. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Italian government launched the “2030 Plan for Southern Italy” to alleviate the new economic recession in the south. In fact, Italy succeeded in narrowing the gap between the north and the south from 1950s to 1970s, but the good trend did not last, and the subsequent governments did not see any improvement in the development of the south and never reproduced the development achievement in narrowing the gap. From the perspective of the function of the government, this paper systematically examines the policy measures taken by the government to solve the problem.