Economie dal basso. Un itinerario nell'Italia locale

This book is the result of a long work of investigation conducted through hundreds of interviews with the people involved in local development policies. An attempt is made to draw up a balance sheet of a season of grassroots activism and provide an evaluation of the results both in terms of institutional quality, in particular the opening up of the democratic arena to new voices, but also in terms of economic effectiveness. From all this a conflicting picture emerges: the significant success achieved in widening the debate to include new participants and social capital has been somewhat offset by mixed results in the narrowly defined economic sphere. How can this impass be overcome? How can we ensure that good processes lead to good products? There is certainly a need to introduce at local level a greater sense of direction in decision-making to enhance innovation at the projection stage. Above all, we need to pursue the strategic, though elusive, goal according to which greater democracy goes hand in hand with better economic performance.