Regionalism as a failure of national integration: a case study of Italy

Abstract

This thesis analyzes Italian regionalism in a historical context. The evolution of regionalism as a result of the failure of national integration in Italy will be discussed in different time spans that are deemed critical in Italian political life. The thesis will elaborate on the historical and structural factors such as the localist culture, the presence of the Church, the North-South divide that acted as an obstacle on the way to a successful national integration. Finally, the interplay of these forces during the unification, the fascist and post-fascist periods will be analyzed with regard to the national integration process. The thesis will aim to address the following questions: (1) Given that neoregionalism in Italy is not a new phenomena, what are the reasons or the structural factors that had caused the persistence of regionalism in Italy despite the attempts to create a unified country? (2) How did the Italian state try to make the Italians? What kind of integration model was used to provide the integration and to what extent was it able to overcome the duality between the North and the South? (3) What is the nature of the neoregionalism in Italy, is it a result of the failure of 'making Italians?' and to what extent does it pose a threat to the national unity of the country? It is concluded that the rise of neo-regionalism in Italy can not be explained only by the old and more recent theories on regionalism without taking into consideration the sui generis historical background of the problem of regionalism in that country.