Where does a good government come from? Does it depend from wealth, or is it the other way round? Which role has culture in a society’s institutional and economic performance? This paper adresses such questions, as old as social science itself, by means of an analytical and empirical discussion of the recent work of Robert D. Putnam. First, it describes Putnam’s empirical work on Italian regions and, the evolution of his analysis and conceptual framework. Second, it tests empirically Putnam’s findings concerning the relation between civicness and economic performance with ecological data on Italian provinces. The conclusion is that Putnam over-interpreted his findings. While he proposes a cultural-historical explanation of the difference between Northern and Southern Italy, this empirical analysis shows that civicness and economic performance are two distinct phenomena, (strongly) related over longer time spans but relatively independent in the short run. The long-term effect of past civicness on present economic performance is not stronger than the effect of past economic performance on present civicness.

Que hace que la democracia funcione? Cultura, economía y diferencias teritoriales en la Italia contemporanea / G. Ballarino. - In: Administracion & cidadania. - 1:1(2006), pp. 7-28.

Que hace que la democracia funcione? Cultura, economía y diferencias teritoriales en la Italia contemporanea

G. Ballarino
Primo
2006

Abstract

Where does a good government come from? Does it depend from wealth, or is it the other way round? Which role has culture in a society’s institutional and economic performance? This paper adresses such questions, as old as social science itself, by means of an analytical and empirical discussion of the recent work of Robert D. Putnam. First, it describes Putnam’s empirical work on Italian regions and, the evolution of his analysis and conceptual framework. Second, it tests empirically Putnam’s findings concerning the relation between civicness and economic performance with ecological data on Italian provinces. The conclusion is that Putnam over-interpreted his findings. While he proposes a cultural-historical explanation of the difference between Northern and Southern Italy, this empirical analysis shows that civicness and economic performance are two distinct phenomena, (strongly) related over longer time spans but relatively independent in the short run. The long-term effect of past civicness on present economic performance is not stronger than the effect of past economic performance on present civicness.
Civicness; Social capital; Economic performance; Territorial development
Settore SPS/09 - Sociologia dei Processi economici e del Lavoro
2006
Article (author)
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/30936
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