Italian Identity Between Tradition and Modernity.

Abstract

The paper deals with the topic od tradition and modernity in Italy with respect to the division of the country to rich North and poor South. After decades this division is persistent more than it had been expected. There were many regimes (monarchy, republic, fascism) and political and development strategies trying to come to terms with it; however, it is working, causing crises and sometimes taking the forms of semi-separatism or open separatism movements aiming at the political and territorial dismemberment of the country. Even the fact that Italy is the firm part of the Euroepan Union has not released the tensions between developed and underdeveloped parts od the state. Hence the Italian identity is stigmatized by this situation since regional or local affiliation is sometimes much stronger than the national one and people in the North do not feel often to be of the same origin like their Southern countryfellows.

JEL classification:

Keywords: Italy, modernity, tradition, Risorgimento, identity