Spiegare il Sud per capire l'Italia

The book by Emanuele Felice, Perché il Sud è rimasto indietro, is useful for understanding the serious problems of Italy today, but especially for sociologists, because it is based on sociological categories and its method makes use of indicators typical of sociology. The Author defines “passive modernization” as the one that characterized the South and explains it in institutional terms, using the concept of extractive institutions, following Acemoglu e Robinson (2006). Felice suggests two research directions to sociologists: one concerns the composition, origin and functions performed by the Southern ruling class; the other relates to the consequences of Southern emigration on local development. Sociologists have already something to say in these directions because some research has been made on the social composition of the Southern ruling class and on the consequences of emigration for the regions of origin. Updated empirical research is needed in both fields, because of the recent transformations in the political representation at national level and the revival of emigration after the crisis of 2008.