Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2018
In questo articolo sosterrò, innanzitutto, che il clientelismo può anche promuovere lo sviluppo economico. Proporrò poi, ma non svilupperò appieno, la tesi che il clientelismo possa perfino portare al proprio superamento, ovvero a un modo di fare politica più conforme alla comune concezione di una democrazia moderna. Clientelismo e sviluppo economico possono, cioè, innescare processi reciprocamente «virtuosi» che, nel tempo, possono avere l'effetto di traghettare tanto l'economia verso lo sviluppo quanto il sistema politico verso la civicness.
This article argues that politics is an independent factor of economic development and does not merely act as an intervening variable between structural (economic, social and cultural) variables and development. Political representatives of developing areas have an interest in sustaining economic development if such a commitment promotes their political career. Even where political intermediation is clientelistic, it can be in the interest of political patrons to promote economic development – a contention which goes against the conventional wisdom of much of the literature on clientelism. Yet this article argues that a kind of «virtuous clientelism» – «virtuous» because it promotes economic development through the provision of public goods – can indeed exist. The evidence provided shows that this is why some regions of the Italian South have progressed economically while others have stagnated or regressed.