Some of the characteristics of the Italian poverty regime date back to the process of Italian unification in the second half of the 19th century, and to the impact it had on pre-existing regional differences in economic development − particularly on the North/South divide (Amendola et al, 2011b). These characteristics were partly reinforced by the path taken during the reconstruction following the Second World War and also during the so-called ‘boom years’ of the early 1960s, when Italy changed from a mainly rural to a mostly urban and industrialised society.

A poor, mostly rural country

At the time of Italian unification, in 1861, the Italian population was not only one of the most numerous, but also one of the poorest in Europe. Over 40% of the population had a disposable income insufficient to satisfy even basic needs (Amendola et al, 2011a, b). Illiteracy and child labour were widespread (A’Hearn et al, 2011; Cinnirella et al, 2011); labour, goods and capital markets were comparatively underdeveloped (Toniolo et al, 2003); and transportation infrastructures were largely inadequate, particularly in the South (Cannari and Chiri, 2003). Before Fascism came to power and before the setback caused by the international economic crisis in 1929, the following 60 years brought huge improvements on all levels, albeit unevenly across sectors and across regions (Vecchi, 2011).

According to estimates based on different sources and calculation methods, this general improvement resulted in a substantial reduction of absolute poverty in Italy, down to about 26% in 1921 (Amendola et al, 2011a). According to the same estimates, absolute poverty began to increase again after the 1929 economic crisis and in the initial years of the Fascist regime. While the regime did develop a fairly modern system of social protection for public employees, albeit only partly confirming that developed in previous years for core industrial workers (Bartocci, 1999), it did not address the needs (and risks) of rural workers and the rural population, of the rural and urban poor, and of the long-term unemployed or underemployed. Furthermore, some of the policies the regime put forward caused an increase in poverty, both in the urban and in the rural population, such as the re-evaluation of the lira with regard to the English pound in 1926 (the so-called quota 90), implemented with a restriction of credit and devaluation of wages and of remittances.