The administrative ineffectiveness of the Italian Southern Regions: the Sicilian case

Abstract

This paper starts from the fact that Sicily, despite of the special autonomy (whereby it has a full legislative competence on key policy areas: regional transport and communication; public health and safety; healthcare; secondary and higher education; social affairs; agricultural taxes and policies; provision of public services; etc.), has always been characterised by a feeble economic system (the unemployment rate for the young is one of the highest in Europe and the region has relevant difficulties in spending the European Structural Funds allocated resources). According to several studies, the low economic performance of Sicily must be attributed to the low quality of the local administrative and political system. Given such assumption, the paper suggests the possible solutions for Sicily’s socio-economic renaissance, which can be also applied to the other Southern Regions.